{"id":376377,"date":"2026-01-18T04:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T04:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376377\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T04:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T04:47:12","slug":"carol-vorderman-65-insists-i-wont-apologise-and-teases-toyboy-boyfriend-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376377\/","title":{"rendered":"Carol Vorderman, 65, insists ‘I won’t apologise’ and teases ‘toyboy boyfriend, 45’"},"content":{"rendered":"

EXCLUSIVE: Carol Vorderman, 65, has never shied away from discussing her dating life and in an exclusive chat tells us she’s happy living life on her own terms<\/p>\n

19:00, 17 Jan 2026Updated 19:16, 17 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

\"Carol<\/p>\n

Carol is opening up on her love life, being 65 and dating(Image: )<\/p>\n

With her winning combination of brains and beauty, Carol Vorderman<\/a> became a household name during her 26-year stint on Channel 4<\/a> game show Countdown . Since then the 65-year-old, who has a degree in engineering from the University of Cambridge, has been a Loose Women panellist, braved the I\u2019m A Celebrity jungle and even been a contestant on The Masked Singer . And she\u2019s now fronting fashion brand JD Williams\u2019 latest campaign, fittingly titled Midlife Is Living Fearlessly.<\/a><\/p>\n

When it comes to her dating life, Carol has never been one to shy away from the somewhat taboo topic of sex and has famously talked about having \u201cspecial friends\u201d. In our exclusive chat, she tells us she isn\u2019t interested in ticking boxes and is happy to live life on her own terms.<\/a> \u201cI have no desire to settle down right now,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe when I\u2019m 82 \u2014 with a 45-year-old!\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘I’m a beauty writer and Boots beauty boxes save money on skincare, makeup and more’<\/a>\"Carol<\/p>\n

Carol is 65 and loving life being single(Image: )<\/p>\n

Carol\u2019s life off screen has long been a fascination to fans. She was married to businessman Patrick King for 10 years before their divorce in 2000 and they have two children, Katie and Cameron. She later had a five-year relationship with journalist Des Kelly.<\/a> But Carol now has a unique and refreshing philosophy towards relationships and sees partnership as optional, not essential, to happiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this idea that women need a man to travel, to live, to enjoy themselves,\u201d she says. \u201cYou really, really don\u2019t. That\u2019s not anti-men \u2014 it\u2019s pro-women. There\u2019s a whole world<\/a> out there and women are reaching for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only Carol\u2019s approach to relationships that has evolved as she\u2019s moved<\/a> through the decades. She\u2019s grown in confidence and has got to really know herself \u2013 and doesn\u2019t fear being alone. She smiles as she recalls what defined each chapter of her life \u2013 her twenties were about fun and freedom, her thirties were about building stability, and her forties and fifties ended up being about upheaval and reinvention. It was when she reached her sixties that everything finally clicked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou lose the fear. You genuinely think, \u2018I don\u2019t have to apologise any more.\u2019 And that\u2019s a wonderful place to be,\u201d she says. Something she certainly isn\u2019t afraid of is showing off her curves.<\/a> She is often seen in figure-hugging outfits with cinched-in waistbands. But while cruel trolls have attacked her fashion choices, accusing her of dressing \u201ctoo boldly\u201d or \u201ctoo young\u201d for her age, she\u2019s not listening to any of it.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The JD Williams campaign that Carol is fronting features six real midlife women in lingerie(Image: )<\/p>\n

\u201cI dress for my body,\u201d she says simply. \u201cI\u2019ve got a big bust so I like clothes that come in at the waist. Otherwise, it makes you look bigger than you are. That\u2019s just practical. But if I want to wear a short knitted dress with boots and tights, I will \u2014 because I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol recalls the time she was labelled<\/a> \u201cmutton dressed as lamb\u201d in her late thirties \u2014 a phrase that dominated headlines simply because she dared to wear a dress that was above the knee. \u201cI was 39,\u201d she says, still incredulous at the memory. \u201cThere were front pages about whether a woman of that age should wear a short dress. The BBC<\/a> literally did a show about it. You think, \u2018Who is even asking that question?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s those very moments that Carol believes shaped the way a generation of women felt about their bodies and ageing<\/a>. The concept of \u201cgrowing old gracefully\u201d is patronising and absurd to Carol. \u201cWhat does that even mean?\u201d she asks. \u201cGrey hair, elasticated waistbands and disappearing? Define it. Because for me, growing older means being more visible, more confident and more myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol tells us that despite the many challenges that come with menopause,<\/a> it eventually brought her clarity. She\u2019s spoken openly about suffering severe hormonal depression during perimenopause, but says the period that followed was a huge turning point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come out the other side, it\u2019s like a phoenix moment,\u201d she explains. \u201cYou think, \u2018No, no, I\u2019m not putting up with that any more.\u2019 You\u2019ve been as low as you\u2019re ever going to be, and from there, you rise.\u201d For the first time in her life, Carol feels actively supported by younger generations of women. She says, \u201cI\u2019ve now got two or three generations beneath me who support what I want to do. When I was younger and pushing boundaries, you were torn down for it. Now, younger women champion older women living boldly and that\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside navigating life under the spotlight, Carol prioritises time with her kids \u2013 and she says the way people look at parent-child relationships has changed since her children were little. She explains that it\u2019s now normal for adult daughters to holiday with their mothers, to socialise together and to see each other as equals.<\/p>\n

\"Carol\"<\/p>\n

Carol grown in confidence and has got to really know herself \u2013 and doesn\u2019t fear being alone(Image: )<\/p>\n

\u201cThat never happened before,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the liberation of women.\u201d Carol will be back as a team captain on Channel 5 quiz show Celebrity Puzzling this year, but she clearly knows the importance of balancing the good things in life with her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be addicted to work, but now my social life is non-negotiable,\u201d she admits. \u201cI literally colour-code it in my calendar. I need at least three proper social plans a week \u2014 not just a coffee. Time with people matters.\u201d But there are some projects that are too good to miss and her fashion campaign with inclusive brand JD Williams was one of them. It aims to redefine what the word \u201cMILF\u201d means to women today.<\/p>\n

It launches this month and Carol appears to be the ideal match for the campaign. She explains, \u201cIt\u2019s a message I\u2019ve been trying to put across all my life. Pay as little attention as possible to what society says about you. This is about owning who you are \u2014 at any age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol Vorderman has teamed up with JD Williams to ignite a bold, research-led debate around the word \u201cMILF\u201d, reframing it as \u201cMidlife Is Living Fearlessly\u201d. At its core is the desire for independence \u2013 identified by 55% as the biggest driver of confidence, ahead of attention, dating or being seen as attractive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Carol Vorderman, 65, has never shied away from discussing her dating life and in an exclusive chat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[243,77597,6491,13776,44972,1633,3909,13442,96,6692,657,1906,56,54,55,550],"class_list":["post-376377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-bbc","tag-carol-vorderman","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity-hairstyles","tag-celebrity-love-lives","tag-channel-4","tag-countdown","tag-dating","tag-entertainment","tag-loose-women","tag-menopause","tag-mental-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-university-of-cambridge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}