Christine Lampard talks about standing in for Lorraine
Daytime telly favourite Christine Lampard is taking the reins of the Lorraine show starting today, Monday, July 20.
The seasoned Loose Women panel member who is married to Chelsea football club manage Frank Lampard, will host the show in Lorraine Kelly’s absence from today until August 7, and again later in the summer. Speaking ahead of her first show today, Christine said, “I still pinch myself when I’m doing Lorraine’s show. It’s Lorraine Kelly! She has worked on the telly my whole life. She’s a complete stalwart of television, she’s the ‘Boss Lady’.”
In this fabulous Q&A Christine opens up about taking the baton to such an institution of morning telly, coronavirus life lessons, and raising her young daughter in a pandemic.
Are you looking forward to being back on Lorraine this summer?
I am looking forward to it. Everything has been up in the air, I didn’t know what studio we would be in or anything like that. So, I was sort of on standby for anything. I’ve been quite relaxed about it because the Lorraine family are all very friendly and close. I know they’ve done a brilliant job of making it feel as normal as possible and I can’t wait to see them all.
You have to give Lorraine full credit, because she has found a way of dealing with everything and motored on as she always does. She has been fantastic over the past months. She hasn’t had a day off, so this holiday is very well deserved. I’m sure she’ll be enjoying herself.
How have you found lockdown?
I’m seeing my family for the first time at the moment. That’s been the hardest thing for me. I’m lucky that’s all I’m finding difficult, because so many people have lost loved ones at this horrendous time and experienced some real hardships. Not being able to see your family for me has certainly been the worst aspect of it. I normally like to try and get home once a month or they come over to see me. But obviously that’s not possible and so many families are in the same situation.
When I finally got to see my family, it was emotional, which I’m sure everyone across the country has been finding. We have been in touch constantly throughout, but when you have a little one, you really appreciate the relationship they have with their grandparents and I don’t like them not being part of that and missing out on all the tiny things they do day-to-day.
My mum has been very stoic and realistic. You have to think of everyone else that is suffering way more than we are. I can’t get it out of my head how families have coped with their loved ones in hospital with this disease and not being able to be there for them.
Christine married Frank Lampard in December 2015 and had daughter Patricia in September 2018. Photo by David Fisher/Shutterstock
Has lockdown had an effect on Patricia, do you worry it’s made her more clingy?
I am 100% her world because I’ve been with her 24 hours a day. Frank actually being at home for a big chunk at the beginning of lockdown was fantastic, as much as it was for the awful reasons we were there. It was just lovely. Patricia is like, ‘I’ve got mummy, and mummy is not talking to you, she just deals with me’. That’s what her little life is at the minute. But funnily enough when we finally got to see my family this week, she went crazy for them.
How are you going to find being back to work in the studio every day?
Frank has been back weeks now and I’ve been doing Loose Women as well. It’s strange when you have work, you feel a little bit normal.
I don’t think Patricia will worry about me doing Lorraine every day. The timings mean I will only really miss her breakfast, which Frank will do, but I will be back early and I’ll still be able to put her down for her nap and spend the rest of the day with her and put her to bed in the night time. I don’t think she will miss me that much, thankfully. She’s at that age when it’s still very manageable as there’s no having to drop her off at school.
The studio is very, very different. On Loose Women we don’t have an audience, we miss them terribly as it’s a bit like having a fifth woman on the panel. And we are all very close. The fact that the social aspect has gone has really changed the show behind-the-scenes. You wouldn’t really know on screen, but being in a studio where we all have to sit two metres apart with hand sanitizer everywhere, is very different. But at the end of the day, it’s very workable and we are just very lucky that we can still carry on doing what we love to do.
Christine has continued to host Loose Women during the pandemic. Photo by ITV/Shutterstock
What’s the biggest life lesson you’ll take from this time?
I guess like many, it sounds a cliche now, but just appreciating the little things. Just being able to go out for a drink with your friends or being able to see your family. All I wanted was to sit down and have a cup of tea with my mum and the fact that I couldn’t do that absolutely broke my heart. Like so many of us, I struggled with not being able to see my parents.
Thankfully we’ve not been ill but some really good friends of ours have been. A good friend lost a father-in-law and one of my sister’s best friends lost her grandmother and her mother had it too and fortunately survived. We all know people who have been affected. I’ve been in touch with Kate Garraway through this. I mean, what a year she’s had. She started off in the jungle, which was a remarkable experience, with Derek being so much involved and her children being in the middle of it and then to hear she is going through this nightmare along with so many thousands of families, it’s just awful. We all love Kate. She’s one of my favourite people in telly. It’s been so dreadful but so wonderful to have her back on the telly and hopefully for her too to have a little bit of normality.
You’ve been in TV a long time now, what would you consider your career highlight?
I still pinch myself when I’m doing Lorraine’s show. It’s Lorraine Kelly! She has worked on the telly my whole life. She’s a complete stalwart of television, she’s the ‘Boss Lady’. To think she, hopefully, feels like I’m in any way up to scratch to keep things ticking along until she comes back again, means a great deal to me. I admire her greatly. I never get bored of it. I never say, ‘I’m going into work today’, I say, ‘I’m doing Lorraine today or Loose Women’. I can’t quite get the word ‘work’ out and that’s a real blessing if you find something in your life you enjoy, you never have to work a day again.
Just getting to talk to people, lots of real-life stories that pull on the heart strings. When would you get the chance to do that in your life, really? To take a moment to experience someone else’s life and to help put their voice across. I think they are really special moments and I never get bored of that at all. It still excites me.
- Lorraine, ITV, weekdays from 9am.
