Before launching her glistening television career Claudia Winkleman worked as a personal assistant at a fashion magazine, and was once reportedly even caught sleeping on the job
Claudia Winkleman’s former boss says their time together was a total disaster. While Claudia is now a popular TV presenter, hosting shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and The Traitors, she was once a PA at a glossy magazine.
Journalist Kate Reardon says she was just 21 when she became the “clothes-obsessed” fashion editor at Tatler magazine. There she shared a fashion cupboard with Claudia, who was her assistant at the time.
Kate however says Claudia, who has appeared on TV screens for over three decades, was “spectacularly bad” at her job. On one occasion Kate even claims Claudia was caught “sleeping on a sunbed” while on a fashion shoot on a yacht, after colleagues became concerned she might have fallen overboard.
Writing in The Times, Kate said: “At one point Claudia Winkleman was my PA. She was spectacularly bad at the job. Once we were doing a fashion shoot on a yacht in Thailand and the whole crew was beavering away in the oppressive heat and humidity. “Where’s Claudia?” Nope, no sign of her.
“I began to feel nauseous, convinced she had fallen overboard and drowned and we hadn’t noticed because we were all too focused on the model’s hair.
“The search party finally converged on the top deck where we found her sleeping peacefully, stretched out on a sunbed. It seems absurd now, but she was so adorable that we all tiptoed away quietly and got on with the shoot.”
Claudia, who studied art history at the University of Cambridge, launched her broadcasting career in 1992 when she began appearing in BBC Two’s Holiday. The series culminated in a special where she spent 34 days, reporting from Japan, India, Costa Rica and Dubai.
She also appeared on shows such as This Morning as a dating connoisseur. However she landed her first major role a decade later, presenting on Central Weekend before going on to work on BBC Three.
In 2004 she joined Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, later acting as a relief presenter on the main show when Sir Bruce Forsythe was unavailable. She subsequently stood in for the results shows alongside Tess Daly before taking on the role permanently in 2014.
Since 2022 she has fronted the hugely popular murder-mystery series The Traitors, which will return for its fourth series in January. Claudia and Tess recently confirmed the current series of Strictly however will be their last, with the BBC now hunting for their replacements.
In a joint statement on Instagram, the duo said: “We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream. We were always going to leave together and now feels like the right time.
“We will have the greatest rest of this amazing series and we just want to say an enormous thank you to the BBC and to every single person who works on the show.”
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