Lorraine Kelly has been a morning staple on ITV for more than four decades – but is she set to leave the channel next year after her current contract ends?
Lorraine Kelly’s next career move has been revealed following claims she is set to leave ITV after 43 years on the channel. The 66-year-old morning telly host’s contract is said to be expiring next year, and “she hasn’t signed a new one”.
It comes after her show was cut from an hour to just 30 minutes in January as more than 220 jobs were axed across ITV’s daytime shows like Lorraine, Good Morning Britain, This Morning and Loose Women.
Among those who lost their jobs were key members of Lorraine’s trusted team, whom she had worked with for years – something she is said to have been “appalled” by. And it’s claimed, “the show hasn’t been the same since”.
Now the TV veteran is reported to be “secretly planning her next big project away from ITV” for the first time in her four-decade-long career, with two new projects already said to be in the works.
The first is a new YouTube show – and it’s claimed Lorraine wants to emulate the success of her pal and former Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan’s series Uncensored, which has a global audience of millions.
And the second is a podcast with daughter Rosie, 31, who recently released a book called Mother to Mother following the birth of her first child, Billie, who will turn two in August.
It’s thought the podcast is already in “advanced planning stages” and would take the same name as Rosie’s book. She would host it alongside her famous mum and invite celebrity mum guests, according to reports.
A source told The Sun: “Lorraine is older now, but she’s far from retirement – she would just like more time to spend at home with daughter Rosie and granddaughter Billie without the pressure and commitment of travelling to London for just half an hour on screen.
“Secretly, she would like to take her format and turn it into an online interview format, whether that’s a video podcast or a YouTube series, where her fans can tune in whenever they like. One of the other ideas they have, that one of Lorraine’s former team is helping with, is that Lorraine joins Rosie for a new podcast called Mother To Mother, after the success of Rosie’s book.
“She would have more viewers if she took her show online and turned it into a podcast – and more money from sponsorship and brand deals. Lorraine’s social following is huge, so the audience is already there, too. Anything she does like this will be a huge success. There’s no doubt about it.”
The source claims Lorraine has been getting advice from old pal Piers and hopes to bring her old team back on board, who she remains “extremely close” to. The Scotland-based star is also said to love the idea of being her own boss and filming the show herself at home in her own time.
The Mirror has approached Lorraine for comment on this story. Though a rep reportedly insisted she was happy on her current show at ITV. They told The Sun: “Lorraine has no plans to move away from her show, and any podcast activities would be part of a portfolio, as we see with so many other top broadcasters – complementary to her show, which remains her absolute priority.”
Lorraine has been on TV screens since the 80s after being snapped up by ITV. After working as a news anchor and becoming one of the launch presenters of GMTV in 1993, she was given her own show.
But she spoke out after being sacked a year later for taking time off to have her daughter, Rosie, in 1994. She said at the time: “It really was frightening. I had this really tiny baby, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.”
She went on: “Luckily there was a mum and baby company who wanted to do a mum and baby slot. They wouldn’t do it unless I did it, so that was a way back, if you like, and it was so successful that they ended up giving me my own show.”
Lorraine’s flagship show has been running since the Nineties and has survived various formats of ITV’s breakfast show. Now known as a national treasure and one of the UK’s top TV presenters, she is said to earn £13,000 a week and has amassed an estimated net worth of £4 million.
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