Lorraine Kelly ‘felt absolutely terrible’ when she got fired from GMTV while on maternity leave in 1994.
The television host – who co-hosted with Eamonn Holmes – was taking three months of maternity leave but was suddenly fired and replaced by golden girl Anthea Turner two weeks before she was due to return.
‘I cried,’ Lorraine told You Magazine this weekend. ‘I felt absolutely terrible. I’d just had a baby. We had an enormous mortgage, I was the main earner but both myself and my husband are freelancers [her husband Steve Smith is a cameraman] and this job that I loved had gone.
‘It was an awful time.’
Not only did the 59-year-old have to deal with sleepless nights with her newborn, Rosie, she had to deal with the huge pressure finding a new job to support her family.
‘I remember going to meet people in TV, trying to get a job,’ she continued. ‘It was back in the days when there were no places for breastfeeding so I’d be sitting in a loo feeding Rosie, looking exhausted, breasts leaking, still carrying my baby weight and feeling just awful.’
However, Lorraine powered through like the strong woman she is and GMTV ended up asking for her back.
They asked her to return a month later only after winning a large sponsorship deal with a baby-food manufacturing company and needed a mother-and-baby slot.
We bet they regretted firing the new mum immediately.
Lorraine did find it strange seeing Anthea sitting in her seat on GMTV, but what could she have done?
‘It wasn’t her fault,’ the presenter said. ‘These decisions are made by the men upstairs.
‘I remember walking in on my first day and seeing her. I gave her a hug and told her it was a great job and to enjoy it.
‘Of course that felt weird, but I was never going to cry; I was never going to scream and rage. Career-wise I had nothing, so the most I could do was keep my dignity and do the best I could with my new little job.’
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