Latest news with #CarolKirkwood
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
BBC Breakfast's Carol Kirkwood reflects on 'exhausting' project 'couldn't do it'
Weather presenter Carol Kirkwood has detailed her time on another popular TV show on the BBC. Back in 2015, BBC Breakfast fans were delighted to witness Carol Kirkwood join the cast for Strictly Come Dancing. The 63-year-old partnered with professional dancer Pasha Kovalev, with the pair departing the contest in week seven. Now, a decade following her stint on Strictly, the BBC presenter has reflected on her time on the dance floor during a chat with Gary Davies on Radio Two. When questioned if she maintains contact with the other celebrities who participated the same year she competed, Carol disclosed she does, particularly with Jeremy Vine. She added: "I remember Jeremy and I were standing in what was called Claudia's Tower looking down, and Helen George, who was also in that year, was doing the most beautiful, elegant Waltz. "I turned to him and said, 'Jeremy, we might as well just enjoy the short time we're going to have on this show,' and we did!" Nevertheless, the BBC presenter admitted it was challenging balancing dancing on Strictly whilst continuing weather forecasts for Breakfast each morning, reports the Express. She continued: "When you look back on it, you think, 'I can't believe I did that'. It was joyous, it was really hard work because I was working Monday to Friday, doing Breakfast at the time. "So I was exhausted doing it, but Pasha Kovalev, my partner, is a gent as well and a really, really nice man." Carol disclosed that during rehearsals, she'd confuse her left and right legs with Pasha, making light of the circumstances. The 63-year-old shared: "He'd make me laugh, sometimes I'd say, 'Pasha, I can't do this, I haven't got this' and he'd say, 'Oh don't worry, you'll get it tomorrow'. Just chilled!" When questioned about her dancing prowess, Carol quickly dismissed the notion, jesting that she was akin to a 'cart horse'. At present, Strictly enthusiasts are on tenterhooks, keen to discover which celebs will be gracing the dance floor this year. Whilst the official lineup is still under wraps, speculation is rife online, with Dani Dyer, Stacey Solomon, Ashley Cain, and Paul Brunson being touted as potential contestants. However, fans will need to exercise a bit more patience for the official line-up, anticipated to be unveiled in the upcoming weeks. Strictly Come Dancing is set to return this Autumn on BBC One, with BBC Breakfast available for viewing on BBC iPlayer.
Daily Mail
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Weather presenter Carol Kirkwood says she hopes to retire in two years to travel Europe with her husband
She has long been a familiar face on TV channels, bringing news of the weather to homes across the country. However, presenter Carol Kirkwood has revealed she hopes to retire in as little as two years so she can drive off into the sunset with her policeman husband. The 63-year-old has been a fixture at the BBC for 27 years but has said she is planning a change of scene for her and partner Steve Randall, 49, when she turns 65. Discussing her retirement hopes, Ms Kirkwood, who is also a published author, said: 'We fell in love with Majorca, which is where we went so I could research my fifth novel, Meet Me at Sunset, about a woman running away from a shattered love affair. 'Steve and I plan to escape and travel for some time when we retire, perhaps in a year or two. 'We'll travel in a camper van or get in the car, cross over to France and then just drive.' Ms Kirkwood, from Morar, Lochaber, was married to property developer Jimmy Kirkwood but the pair split in 2008 after 18 years of marriage, with the divorce finalised in 2012. She recently made a cheeky comment when asked about her second marriage, telling one newspaper: 'Love is lovelier the second time around. No disrespect to my first husband, but this is better.' Ms Kirkwood, who was on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015, began her career at the BBC as a secretary before cross training with the Met Office and joining BBC News in 1998. She appears regularly across all of BBC Weather's output on both radio and TV and is the main weather presenter on BBC Breakfast. The TV star, who is 14 years older than her husband, also spoke about the age gap in her relationship, stating it makes no difference to her. She told Saga Magazine: 'Steve is 50 this year. Other people's opinions about an age gap don't matter - I don't feel he is younger than me.' She also said she believes that meeting him was fate. She said: 'We were at a function neither of us wanted to go to. It was a Sliding Doors moment - if I hadn't gone, we would never have met.' Discussing her relationship in another interview, Ms Kirkwood had said: 'Love is lovelier the second time around. 'The wedding was the most perfect day. Storm Gerrit was raging outside and we didn't even notice. 'It was about us getting married rather than having a big, fancy wedding. We had no guests and wrote our own vows. 'When you are older, you know more what you want.'
The Herald Scotland
22-07-2025
- Climate
- The Herald Scotland
I am a Scottish weather presenter - no wonder I love escape fantasies
Does anyone in Scotland really get through a day without mentioning the weather? 'I find all weather exciting, but you have to watch your language, because not everybody likes heat,' says BBC weather presenter Carol Kirkwood, who adores sunshine but understands why 30C can send us into a hot, bothered and tremendously sticky spin. For the vulnerable and elderly, heatwaves can even prove fatal. 'Don't be like, 'Oh, it's going to be a fabulous day,' just state the fact: 'It's going to be sunny and dry today. It's also going to be hot, temperatures getting up to 32 or 33 degree celsius…' Her tone at this point, so familiar to those that have watched her almost every day for the best part of 28 years, makes speaking to a weather presenter about the weather feel rather meta. Kirkwood has a new romance novel coming out (Image: free) Scottish meteorologist Kirkwood, 63, is not only on the frontline, reporting on increasingly volatile weather systems and climate change ('When I was growing up, there were four seasons, you had a definite winter, spring, summer and autumn. Now a lot of them tend to merge,'), she is also an ambassador for sheer escapism from such topics. '[Escapism is] always valuable because it takes you into another world, and you can leave your problems behind for as long as you're reading the book,' she says. 'There's so many things going on in the world, it's nice just to stick your nose in a book and forget about it for a time.' Hence her fifth novel, Meet Me at Sunset, a dramatic romance about a fashion designer called Camille Fontaine, who is 'running away from a shattered love affair' and whose secret-filled past is on the brink of overflowing into her present. More than your classic boy-meets-girl romp, Kirkwood says: 'I really hope you think at the end of it, 'I didn't see that coming'.' Her heroine is inspired by a woman Kirkwood spotted in a restaurant while on holiday in Majorca. 'She was a very elegant lady, she was French, sat upright, her back wasn't touching the seat. She had elegant outfits on. Her hair was in a chignon and she always had the same thing: a salad and a glass of white wine in one of these very delicate, fragile wine glasses. A puff of wind would knock it over and it would break,' she remembers reverently. 'She always looked out to sea and ate alone. I thought, 'Golly, why is somebody like this on her own? She's beautiful.'' The book is both an imagining of that woman's life and a chance for Kirkwood to run literary riot with some of her favourite topics: glamour, fashion and, of course, romance. One of eight children, Kirkwood's parents were hoteliers, and her adoration for glitz and glamour comes from watching Cary Grant, Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn films growing up. 'These are the movies my mum would watch and enjoy, and they were always so glamorous – and then you'd see Marilyn Monroe,' she says with an awed sigh. 'My idea of what Hollywood glamour is, and probably the reality of it, are two different things. But some of my characters live in amazing houses with swimming pools, they're in the sunshine and get into their open-top cars and off they go. Life isn't quite like that,' she accepts. 'I just think, to go into any store and be able to buy whatever you want, gosh, wouldn't that be nice?' Read more Most would agree that Kirkwood oozes glamour herself – and certainly did on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015 – but she's more self-deprecating. 'You might not think it to look at me on a daily basis, but I do love fashion,' she says with a light laugh, noting she can be hampered outfit-wise depending on what studio she's filming in. 'If I've got the green screen on and I wear a green dress with short sleeves, you would see the end of my arms, my hands and my head.' It can all end up a bit Andy Serkis/Gollum while you're eating your cornflakes if she's not careful. But you get the sense that Kirkwood is careful and sensible, while still finding the joy and pleasure in life. So she does 'try to look my best and stay healthy' but not because she's on the telly, 'but because I want to stay healthy. I got married not that long ago and I want to have a long life with my gorgeous husband, for as long as I can.' Kirkwood married Steve Randall, a police officer, in 2021. 'I am very happy and so lucky to have Steve. I wasn't looking for romance. He came into my life. We were friends before we became romantically involved, and that was nice. I got to know him as a friend, and he's so kind,' she says. So she's upped her protein intake and walks miles, often with Steve on the weekends, when they'll discuss books. This year she also decided to stop snacking. 'I don't know what it is, you sit down with a cup of tea and you think, 'I'll have a Twix'. Or in the evening, with a glass of wine, you think, 'I want some Pringles'. And now, I don't do that. If I have a cup of tea, I just have a cup of tea. And if we're having a glass of wine, I'll toast some pitta or chop up some carrots or red pepper and put out hummus and it's delish. What I have been missing all this time, stuffing my face with Pringles!' Meet Me at Sunset by Carol Kirkwood (Image: free) Steve (people like to make a fuss about the fact he's 14 years younger than her), she says, is 'very romantic and very generous. He's just a lovely man. I pinch myself. I'm punching, I'm really punching.' I tell her no way! And she says, clearly smiling on the end of the phone, 'He says he's punching!' Kirkwood's attitude towards romance is refreshingly cynicism-free, and yet, at the same time, thoroughly realistic. She is wonderfully invested in the whole concept, even though it comes with no guarantees. 'I love hearing about how people meet. I feel sad when relationships break down. I was married before (to property developer Jimmy Kirkwood, they split in 2008), and we got divorced, and it's always sad when that happens,' she muses. 'But of course, there isn't such a thing – I don't think – as a perfect romance, where you're never going to fall out or have cross words. Of course you are, that's life.' Despite all the heartache and the risk though, she is firm: 'We all need a bit of romance in our lives. I know it may not be the genre that's trendy at the moment, but it will always come back. I think there'll always be room in the world for romance.' Meet Me at Sunset by Carol Kirkwood is published in hardback by HarperCollins, priced £16.99 (ebook £8.99). Available now.
Daily Record
22-07-2025
- Climate
- Daily Record
Carol Kirkwood says 'they're my own mistakes' as she talks misconception on BBC Breakfast
Meteorologist Carol Kirkwood addressed a common misconception about her appearance on BBC Breakfast, following a discussion about potentially stepping back from her duties BBC Breakfast 's weather presenter Carol Kirkwood has revealed she has no help with her on-screen wardrobe choices, contrary to what viewers might assume. The 63-year-old was seemingly taken aback by the assumption of her having a stylist, and humorously described her fashion decisions as her "own mistakes". During an appearance on BBC Radio 2 's Tracks Of My Years, host Gary Davies said: "You just look like summer has arrived, every single morning, you do and that's why I think we all love you." Curious about her outfit choices, he then asked: "How do you decide what to wear every day, is this all you or do you have a team?". Carol responded with a chuckle: "You're having a laugh, a team to sort out my outfits? "No, it's all me and often it's what's ironed, what's washed and what's clean, 'Lovely, that'll do', because it's not a fashion show for me. "I don't want to be what you talk about rather than the weather, because my job is the weather and it's an important message, so, nobody helps me, they're all my own mistakes." Carol also expressed her affection for her role and colleagues, both on and off-camera, adding: "We've known each other for donkeys years, so it's real friendship that you're witnessing." Since joining the BBC Breakfast crew in 1997, Carol has become the programme's longest-standing current presenter. Her expertise in meteorology has been recognised with multiple accolades, including a TRIC award for best TV Weather Presenter in 2003, 2008, 2009, and consecutively from 2012 to 2017. The meteorologist has also received Royal recognition from Princess Anne. In November 2015, she was reportedly honoured with an Honorary Fellowship by the Princess Royal for her "contributions to broadcasting" at Inverness College. That same year, viewers got to see a different side to her when she competed on Strictly Come Dancing, with former show professional Pasha Kovalev. During the competition, she was praised for efforts, though finished in 10th place. Meanwhile, Carol recently made it clear that she has no intention of retiring any time soon. When asked about the possibility of stepping back, she told Radio Times Magazine: "Don't say that; you'll get me sacked! And I love my job; I can't imagine not doing it. "There will be a day, obviously, when that happens, but for now I still love the weather. Each day is different, you know? "We're an island, and the weather changes all the time, so it's always interesting." BBC Breakfast airs daily from 6am on BBC One.
Daily Mirror
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
BBC's Carol Kirkwood opens up on 'severe' accident that left her off air for weeks
BBC Breakfast presenter Carol Kirkwood was rushed to hospital after being knocked off her bike in a horror accident during the pandemic. Carol Kirkwood has opened up about a terrifying accident that left her hospitalised and unable to work on BBC Breakfast for three weeks. The 63-year-old weather presenter was knocked off her bike during the pandemic, resulting in a severe knee injury. In a recent interview with Saga magazine, she revealed how the incident has affected her love for cycling. Carol shared: "During the pandemic, I was on my bike and someone drove into me, knocking me off. I was taken to hospital with a severe injury to one of my knees and was off work for three weeks." She went on to explain how the accident has instilled a fear of cycling on roads, addig: "The accident stopped me cycling and gave me a fear of riding on roads. "I've been back out on my bike with Steve but when a car overtakes, I get nervous and feel I'm going to fall off. So I don't tend to cycle any more, which is a shame because I loved it." At the time of the incident, Carol took to Twitter to share that she had been "injured" and was taken to hospital in Slough. She expressed her gratitude towards the police and ambulance crew who assisted her, saying: "Biggest thanks ever to the police (Chris and Faye), the ambulance crew (Miranda and Stewart) who tended to me and took me to hospital." After three weeks away, Carol returned to BBC Breakfast, informing viewers that her leg had been hurt. "I still have a nasty injury on my knee but I'm still here," she told concerned viewers at the time. In the same interview, Carol candidly discussed her 13-year age difference with her husband Steve. She revealed: "Steve is 50 this year. Other people's opinions about an age gap don't matter - I don't feel he is younger than is so romantic. On the days I work, he gets up at 2.45am to make me a cup of tea and packs my breakfast." The Breakfast host has been keeping herself busy, having recently published her third novel Meet Me at Sunset earlier this year, reports the Express. Carol Kirkwood's full interview can be found in the August issue of Saga magazine. BBC Breakfast is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
