'My christmas breakfast is a chocolate orange'

Lorraine Kelly shares her Christmas traditions, explains why she recently lost and rediscovered her self-confidence, and talks age-defying beauty

- By Gemma Calvert

It's been a hectic 12 months for Lorraine Kelly, giving perfect cause for celebration as the year draws to a close.

On top of her daily ITV show, Lorraine, 62, is a Celebrity Gogglebox favourite, and her What If? podcast, which she hosts with her journalist daughter Rosie, 28, is going from strength to strength.

Her personal life is equally tickety-boo. In the summer, she and her cameraman husband Steve Smith, 62, celebrated their 30th anniversary with a romantic holiday in Spain, and the couple, who live in Buckinghamshire, are still savouring Rosie's return to the UK after four years living in Singapore.

Striding into our shoot after a morning of filming, Lorraine looks striking. After gaining 1/2st over lockdown, the Glasgow-born star has dropped two dress sizes and admits she feels back to her 'happy and healthy self'. Following a lunch of steamed gyoza, she radiates confidence in front of the camera, giggling and chatting with the team between shots.

Almost 40 years ago, Lorraine became a BBC Scotland researcher before joining TV-am as its Scotland correspondent then, later, earning a permanent spot in the ITV studio as a presenter.

Warm, with an unwavering journalistic tenacity and zero fear of causing offence, it's no surprise that Piers Morgan once described her as an 'iron fist in a velvet glove, and today Lorraine oozes both opinion and comforting affability as we chat work, Christmas plans and her dreams of becoming a grandmother.