Strictly’s Claudia Winkleman says ‘horrendous’ farewell prompted ‘weird revelation’

Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman turned 50 back in January. She has now revealed that reaching the milestone age, coupled with a “horrendous” farewell to her eldest son, caused her to reassess her professional life. As a result, she says that she had a “weird revelation”.

Claudia explained: “I’ve basically felt 50 years old since I was 25.

“I love being able to stay in with no guilt, playing bridge and reading, and I love being asleep by 9pm.

“I did have a weird work revelation though.  

“I’ve always been pretty risk averse. I thought it was better to keep my head down and just do a little bit

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“But now I feel like doing more,” she added in a new interview with Radio Times.

Her new Channel 4 game show, One Question, airs next week and she is currently filming a new BBC competition series called The Traitors.

And on top of this, she hints that she is also “doing something new next year”.

As she takes on more commitments, the mum-of-three continued: “I apologise for all of it in advance.

Speaking on the Postcards From Midlife Podcast in March, Claudia confessed: “I handle it very badly. [Jake] is at university and I felt heartbroken.

“But it’s not fair on him for me to just keep him here with me all the time… He doesn’t want to do that. He wants to be with his friends. Roots and wings and all that, you have to give them both.”

Discussing the day that she dropped her son off, Claudia says she “fell apart”.

She continued: “I remember my mum dropping me off at university and she could not stop crying.

“I said to myself, ‘I won’t do that and I’ll be brave.’ Of course, I fell apart because they’re my life.”

Claudia’s new show, One Question, will air on Channel 4 next Friday.

The series offers a £100,000 prize if contestants can find the one correct answer out of a possible 20.

Watch One Question on Channel 4 on June 24 at 8pm.