Lorraine Kelly 'worried about existing' after being sacked from GMTV
Lorraine Kelly admitted she "worried about existing" after GMTV sacked her months after the star gave birth to her daughter Rosie in June 1994, and left her family in a temporary unstable financial state.
Lorraine Kelly "worried about existing" after she was sacked by GMTV whilst on maternity leave with her daughter Rosie.
The star took three months of maternity leave to have her and husband Steve Smith's only child in June 1994, but two weeks before a planned September return, ITV bosses called Lorraine and dropped the bombshell that she had been replaced by Anthea Turner as Eamonn Holmes' co-host.
Appearing on the latest episode of Pete Wicks' Man Made podcast, Lorraine, 66, recalled the intense pressure she was under to find a new job to get her family out of an unstable financial state.
Lorraine said: "The kind of job that I do, I'm a freelancer, I'm a taxi for hire, and I don't take anything for granted, I certainly don't.
"After I had my daughter, that was a really bad time; just after having a baby you're all over the place, and I got sacked, or didn't get my contract renewed - virtually the same thing - and that was a very dark time, that was a really, really dark time because everything's just taken away from you, and you think, 'What the hell am I gonna do?'"
At the time, Steve was a freelance cameraman, and their lack of income caused panic about paying a big mortgage on their home in the south.
Lorraine added: "I basically lived from contract to contract. You might get a year's contract, or you might get two years if you're lucky.
"But if somebody had told me back then, it would have been really nice if somebody had said, 'Actually, in 40 years, you're still gonna be doing it,' because every single time that contract was up, you get the washing machine stomach, you get the dead, you get the fear, you get all the worry.
"Especially after I'd had my daughter, and you're worried about just existing, and that was always a worry. So I always had that, so you could never quite relax or take it for granted, which I never do."
Luckily, Lorraine rejoined GMTV a month after her planned September 1994 return because a baby-food manufacturing company wanted to sponsor a mum-and-baby slot hosted by the broadcaster.
Fast-forward 32 years, and the journalist faces more uncertainty with her eponymous ITV morning magazine show.
The network's brutal budget cuts have forced the programme's on-air time to be slashed from an hour to 30 minutes, and it is only being broadcast on a 30-week "seasonal basis".
But since the star and Steve became grandparents, following the birth of Billie, Rosie, 31, and her fiance Steve White’s daughter, in August 2024, Lorraine has remained positive.
Lorraine said: "Even now, I don't know what's gonna happen, nobody does. But certainly, I think since I've become a granny, I absolutely have been able to live in the now because [Billie] does.
"I will take 15 minutes to look at a puddle, and it's fantastic. And I will blow bubbles for hours, and the first bubble is exciting for her and for me, as is the last, the 109th bubble.
"But this baby has taught me so much, because I now can appreciate so much more. All the things that I wanted to do with my own daughter, with Rosie, when she was little, I couldn't really because I was working so hard."
