Kirstie Allsopp says not to believe the famous parents who claim to do it all themselves
My great fear is that Kirstie Allsopp will turn out to be one of those smug celebrity mothers the sort who manages a pilates session and a spot of pureing parsnips before heading off to work via the (private) school run.
She is, after all, one of the highest-paid women in television, a woman who runs her own production company while being a mother to two young sons and stepmum to two more and yet she is giving this interview to promote her new TV show, which has her espousing the virtues of home baking and needlework, and the accompanying book, which is being serialised over two weeks in Weekend.
Helping hand: Kirstie Allsopp with her partner Ben and sons Bay and Oscar
I watch a preview of Kirsties Handmade Britain before meeting her, only to learn that the woman who was once asked to join David Camerons Government as an adviser spent seven weeks appliquing foxes on a cushion to enter in a country fair and truly believes that we can all do the same. Initial impressions arent good. Ten minutes into our interview she is brandishing, on her phone, a picture of neatly folded laundry.
I took it at 1am, when Id been up fluffing and folding. Then she starts talking about juggling playdates, jujitsu classes and two homes, while charging around the country filming.
Im organised. You have to be, otherwise it all falls apart. T
wo homes. Blimey. How does that work?
Two of everything, especially bras, she says. Theres nothing worse than putting on an outfit in Devon and realising the bra that goes with it is in London.
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Just as Im mentally putting Kirstie in the same box as Kate Winslet and Gwyneth Paltrow i.e. women who think they are ordinary, but are clearly deluded she admits the real reason she seems to have it all: she pays for it.
Yes, I have help, and lots of it, she says. It makes me mad when I read interviews with celebrities who suggest that they do it all themselves. No they dont. It isnt possible, and to say it is is a betrayal of other women.
My nanny Heather comes at 8am, and she goes at 6.30pm, but if I am away filming, she will babysit after that. I have a housekeeper to run the house.
Kirstie in her London home
'And there is someone to help out in Devon, too. I could gloss over all that. I keep the mornings sacrosanct for the kids, then, at 8am, I scramble upstairs and throw my clothes on. But I havent ironed the stuff in my wardrobe. I make the bed when I can but some days I cant and some days I cant think about the childrens tea, but it would be silly to lie.
It is rare to find a woman in the public eye so ready to tell it as it is. At 40, she does live the knitted tea-cosy life. Her London home may be on one of the best streets in Notting Hill, but it is not the pristine palace you may expect. It boasts a leather sofa that has been copiously patched, for a start.
We could get a new one, bu! t why? I love things that have history, meaning.
She says she hates extravagance. I put my money into houses, and help. Thats it. What about handbags? I like a good handbag, but the most Ive spent on one is 800. Good ones can be over a grand now. That is nuts.
Still, balking at paying 1,000 for a handbag does not a frugal soul make. Kirstie is frightfully posh and rich. Her father is a baron who is friends with Prince Charles, and she hobnobs with the Camerons. I tease her that she has never been remotely near the breadline.
Ive never been on the breadline, no, but its not true to say that Ive always had money. When I was 21, I had my own flat the interest rate was 16 per cent and I was earning just 9,000 a year. I could not buy anything at all. I actually pawned something once so that I could pay the bills.
Pardon? The Honourable Kirstie Allsopp yes, she could actually use the title if she wanted has been in a pawn shop?
Absolutely. I cant tell you what I pawned because it would cause a terrible row, but I did. I think my mother may suspect she later admits it was a piece of family jewellery.
I know me saying I know what it is to be poor sounds ridiculous but my parents didnt have disposable income. We lived in a bigger house than most of my friends but my parents were often thinking they would have to sell it.
So what do her parents make of her career now? Presumably, people like her rich, connected, seemingly cushioned dont aspire to be on primetime TV, faffing about with appliqud foxes? She laughs.
Mum is very proud of me, and completely loyal, but Ive always wondered if there is a part of her that wonders whether it is a good idea to be on the telly.
Her dad, meanwhile, is the source of her showman streak. He once revealed to a Sunday supplement, (Kirsties) mother is as thin as a pin. She wanted! childre n you have to fish out of the swimming pool because their lips have gone blue. Instead she got whopping great porpoises. Eek! Was it true? Dad denies saying it, but nonetheless, my mother almost removed his head with an axe when that came out.
Her mother is as thin as a pin, though. Kirstie isnt. Shes normal-sized 12 on top; 14 down below and, as such, is something of a rarity in TV land.
I met the Coronation Street cast they are all mini-people! I know the commitment you need to make to be very slim and I know that it is more than I can manage. Although, if someone offered me a cameo role in Casualty or Holby City, I would think, I can act and say yes, even though I cant act my way through a photoshoot. Then Id be on a set with all these mini-people and I would panic, and I wouldnt eat for the rest of my life.
Property developer Ben Andersen, the father of her two children, wanders in to say, Hi, and promptly disappears again. Kirstie once said she wanted a husband who was like her father. Is Ben?
Absolutely. Hes a man who does man stuff wielding a chainsaw, banging nails, doing zipwires, skiing, shooting. But then he will walk into a room and plump up the cushions and say, Do you think that green works?
He is the Holy Grail of husband material then? Hes very rare. And even rarer if you are on the telly and you are quite bossy and you are not blonde. One of the advantages to having a sensitive alpha male around, she confesses, is she can take a break from making all the decisions.
In this job I am decision-making constantly what clothes will I wear? What time can filming start? Even getting that cushion done was all up to me it may sound daft, but without it there wasnt going to be a show. Its nice, at the weekends, to be free of that. I dont think its being anti-feminist. Its just being honest.
While we are being honest, Kirstie seven weeks to make a cushion? Seriously? She laughs.
Once you factor in the breaks for w! ork and the kids, it only took about seven hours. In 15 years time, I will struggle less with making cushions. That much I have learned.
Kirsties Handmade Britain, Channel 4, from Wednesday 19 October, 8pm.
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