Claudia Winkleman says the secret to her happy marriage is never having to cook her husband’s dinner
AS one half of Saturday night’s first all-female prime-time duo – and one of the BBC’s highest-paid stars – Claudia Winkleman has always been about doing it for the girls.
Off screen, she also credits feminism — or “never sewing a button on to his shirt” — for the success of her 20-year marriage to movie producer Kris Thykier.
The 49-year-old Strictly Come Dancing presenter, who makes her Radio 2 show debut today, says she has never subscribed to any of the traditional boy/girl roles of previous generations, and thanks her Scandinavian partner for his modern take on marriage.
“How did we survive lockdown?” muses the mum of three. “Kris is very Danish in his ways.
“So it’s not up to me to make dinner, it’s not up to me to make lunch, and it’s not up to him to take the kids outside to play catch.
“In 20 years of marriage he has not once asked me what’s for dinner. I married a feminist, my mum wouldn’t have let me not.
“He makes the bed better than me. He is tidier when it comes to the kids’ bath time.
“He gets them to school on time and makes a magnificent chicken. I have never, ever sewn on one of his buttons, he’s just better at it.
“I have no idea why or how we’re still together.
"I just think he has never expected me to do the house stuff and the kids stuff while he waltzes into the office. My dad is the same.
“It’s extremely helpful in a marriage when it’s 50:50.”
Like some sort of weird Stepford Wife devotee, I later ask, over WhatsApp, if she ever, “Irons his underpants”.
Within nanoseconds she replies with a green vomit-face emoji, followed by an: “Er, can’t go to underpants, who irons underpants?” Quite.
Wrinkled Calvin Kleins or otherwise, she and Kris, 49 — who were set up by mutual friends in the late 90s — married secretly in London in 2000 and have appeared blissfully happy ever since.
Claudia tells how they celebrated their anniversary last summer with a, “Walk in a park, wearing masks . . . so that was romantic”.
Predictably, lockdown has seen them binge endless hours of TV — “Narcos Mexico, The Queen’s Gambit and It’s A Sin were all extraordinarily brilliant” — and bake.
The couple and their children, Jake, 17, Matilda, 14, and Arthur, nine, live in central London.
Like millions of frustrated Brits, their house does not have a garden or any outdoor space, meaning they can not get a dog — much to Claudia’s despair.
But while a recent poll found many of us have been boozing more than ever in lockdown, Claudia has not.
In fact, she has all but given up alcohol, she says, because she reacts badly to it or just falls asleep.
Thankfully though, she has not started Joe Wicks-ing or dieting.
Claudia, who replaced Bruce Forsyth as Tess Daly’s Strictly co-host in 2014 after six years presenting spin-off show It Takes Two, is genuinely one of the least vain stars on TV.
While she has previously claimed not to keep a single mirror in her house — as a red carpet appearance at the 2013 GQ awards would testify, when she rocked up with eyeliner virtually down to her chin — today she insists she does not own any scales, something virtually unheard of in the body-obsessed world of female celebrity.
She also refuses to use the camera function on Zoom because she has no desire to see “Alice Cooper’s dad staring back”.
With the laugh of someone genuinely not giving a toss, Claudia adds: “I have definitely put on weight because I can no longer put on anything with a button or a zip.
“Any stiff closure is not going to work for me right now.
“But I don’t weigh myself and I don’t care.
“I just know that the jeans I was wearing in November would now no longer get on my arm. I am very relaxed about it, I genuinely am.
“I don’t have an exercise ‘regime’, but I do like walking and do about 5,000 steps a day.
“I don’t drink water — I have honestly never, ever drunk a single glass of water — I eat chocolate and am a bit of a sugar addict.
“But I don’t really drink any more. I had a glass of Bailey’s, with lots of ice, on New Year’s Eve, but half a glass of wine makes me want to go to sleep. I’m just not a very good drinker.
“We like eating a lot as a family and we have the two teenagers cooking, taking on different meals.
“And when a little person says, ‘Mum, I’ve made a jacket potato and cheese and beans, and then I’ve made a chocolate mousse’, I’m not going to stand there and say ‘actually, I’m just going to have some lettuce’.
“Of course I’m going to get stuck in — and I’m going to eat it all. I really don’t care, and simply turn off the camera for all Zoom calls.”
Indeed, our chat is carried out via plain old telephone. Probably a blessed relief to us both.
Speaking from her London townhouse — until an alarm goes to remind her she has double science to teach — her base is unquestionably larger than the average family pad.
But lockdown, and home-schooling, has not been seamless.
Again, like mums across the country, her children’s return to school next month cannot come soon enough.
According to one recent interviewer, if self-deprecation were an Olympic sport, Claudia — daughter of fearsome former journalist Eve Pollard — would be gold medal standard.
True to form, she states: “I am the worst teacher in the world.
“I can’t wait for the kids to go back to school, but not as much as they can’t wait to get away from me.
"I find maths especially bad, and am always telling them, ‘Ask your dad’.
“This morning we’ve done angles. I’m 49 and haven’t held a protractor for 40 years, but here we are.
“The little one has found home-schooling really hard because he doesn’t have a mobile phone, so he can’t communicate with his mates like the older two can.
“He’s desperate to see his friends.
"Kris and I try to act like nine-year-old boys, and will build dens and rubbish teepees, but then I’ll be worrying about crumbs and things, and it just ruins the experience.
“It’s hard with mobiles, knowing what age to let kids have them. And I think with my eldest I left it a little bit too late.
“He was 13 and I was like, ‘Why do you need a phone when you’ve got Mummy? Let’s play Scrabble!’.
"Obviously he thought I was insane. I think 12 is probably about the right age.”
On the subject of age, Claudia turns 50 next January yet, arguably, has never looked or felt better.
She remains one of TV and radio’s most in-demand stars and today makes her debut on Radio 2, replacing Graham Norton following his move to Virgin.
She will be joined by guests including Tom Jones, David Walliams and Ant & Dec.
The new gig, she says, is causing her sleepless nights — “I’m getting about four minutes a night” — but reinforces her status as one of Britain’s most popular broadcasters.
Last year it emerged the Cambridge graduate had become the latest BBC star to earn more than £1million a year.
As the face of Strictly and BBC1’s Best Home Cook — and now her Saturday morning Radio 2 show — she worked throughout lockdown, ensuring the corporation got its pound of flesh.
And once normality returns, Claudia is unlikely to be seen stumbling out of any private members’ clubs.
As someone “who asked for a crochet set for her 21st”, she has taken up bridge and now enjoys weekly sessions via Zoom.
She still has the Breville toastie machine she used at uni and is in bed with a book every night at 9pm.
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She adds: “My perfect night would not be out, it would not be in a high heel, it wouldn’t be Brad Pitt.
"It would be at home with a chicken pie, my friends and a pack of cards.
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“Let’s not pretend otherwise, this is who I am.”
- Claudia will be on Radio 2 from 10am to 1pm today
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