Claudia Winkleman reveals the best piece of marriage advice she got from her mum
She has been happily married to her husband for more than two decades – and now Claudia Winkleman has revealed the unlikely secret behind their happy relationship.
The Strictly Come Dancing star, 49, opened up about her two-decade marriage to film producer Kris Thykier, also 49, in an interview in which she recounted the best piece of marriage advice she got from her mother.
Speaking to The Telegraph’s Stella magazine, the presenter – who is the daughter of journalist and former editor Eve Pollard – said: “When it came to marriage I got my best piece of advice from my mum, who told me early on: ‘Don’t do everything well.’”
Winkleman recalled one time her other half asked his mother-in-law to iron his shirt, explaining how her mum “put the iron on it and just left it there. He never asked her to do it again, so that ‘Don’t be good at everything’ is very strategic.”
Winkleman – who wed Thykier in 2000 – also shared how she was raised by her “staunch feminist” mum to understand that equality in marriage is key.
The mother-of-three explained: “She always taught us all that it wasn’t either a woman’s job to cook or not a woman’s job.
“So in our house the view has always been: given we have to feed ourselves as a family, what’s the best way to do that?
“In 22 years, my husband has never once asked me, ‘What’s for supper?’ So it might be, ‘I thought we could have this,’ or, ‘I love your chilli con carne, could we have it for the weekend?’”
The new host of BBC Radio 2’s Saturday morning slot said that her mum – who split from her father, former publisher Barry Winkleman, when she was three years old – didn’t let her play with Barbies and encouraged her interest in football, while her half-brother Oliver Lloyd was sent to ballet.
Winkleman, who is also currently fronting TV series Celebrity Best Home Cook alongside Dame Mary Berry, is now one of the BBC’s highest-paid female stars.
She recently admitted that she only wrote her book Quite, published late last year, because she was “so bad” at home-schooling during the first lockdown.
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, she said: “Six minutes into lessons I would be shouting at the children.
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“I always thought I was patient but I was terrible so I went upstairs and thought I would write something important.
“Instead, I wrote about melted cheese, why I wear black and how a fringe has given me a career!”
When finished, Winkleman sent the book to her publisher with note in capitals: “DO NOT PUBLISH BUT THANK YOU ANYWAY.”
She added: “But they did it and no one is more surprised than me!”
Watch: Long-lasting celebrity couples
