"It’s a three-letter word and it starts with S": Carol Vorderman reveals saucy secret behind her great figure

"It’s a three-letter word and it starts with S": Carol Vorderman reveals saucy secret behind her great figure

She is an inspiration to women over 50 with a daredevil pilot for a toyboy and a figure to die for.

And now Carol Vorderman has admitted her secret â€" one is a direct result of the other.

Revealing how she stays in such great shape at 52, the presenter giggles: “I’m not allowed to say because I will get into trouble but it’s a three-letter word and it starts with S.”

With a relationship she describes as “very nice” with 37-year-old Graham Duff, a former Red Arrow and RAF pilot, it’s no wonder she has embraced a sexy solution to staying fit.

She does admit, though, it isn’t easy to keep the weight off â€" especially now she’s hosting Simon Cowell’s new ITV show Food Glorious Food.

Aiming to find the most magnificent recipe brought in by a member of the public, it’s ITV’s answer to the BBC hits Masterchef and The Great British Bake Off.

But Carol fou nd she couldn’t stop picking at the delicacies on display â€" not least the pork pies.

“I was eating the equivalent of seven or eight meals a day. I couldn’t stop,” she says.

In the end she was forced to go on a strict detox to shift a few extra pounds.

“I did it for a couple of weeks after, I just had to,” she confesses. “There’s no point not eating with a show like that.”

Carol rates herself an “average to good” cook but reports, with pride, that her daughter Katie is far better.

Miles high: Carol with pilot Graham

The former Countdown star does take some of the credit for this.

Katie is now 20, but when she was little they baked cakes together regularly.

However, none of their culinary skill was handed down from Carol’s mother, Jean, who is an “incredible” mum, but no chef.

“Oh god, my mother didn’t teach me to cook, she’s rubbish,” Carol laughs.

“She gave up entirely when she heard the ping of the first microwave in 1985.

"That was it for her. Literally. I think she uses her hob to fry an egg about once a month.”

The new show has trawled the country, attracting all sorts of people to the regional heats â€" from 90-year-olds to a girl of 12 or 13 who came with her dad.

“He wanted to have time with her, so they started baking every day,” says Carol.

Which is precisely how her own daughter Katie, now studying physics at Cambridge University, got into cooking.

“From when she was about 18 months old, we’d ma ke little fairy cakes,” Carol says.

“And there was method in my madness because she’s now a brilliant baker.

“She makes proper (puts on French accent) macarons. You know, the things that people charge a fortune for.

"They’re very difficult to get right, but she does them and gives them as presents. She really is a superb cook.”

My girl: Katie is a brainy beauty too

Carol says her busy career means she hasn’t spent all that much time in the kitchen in the past decade, but when her children were younger â€" her son Cameron is nearly 16 â€" it was a different story.

She learned how to cook while still at primary school, helped and guided by her Italian stepfather Gabriel.

Carol never knew her own father, who had an affair with a 16-year-old girl while her mother was pregnant with her, the youngest of three siblings.

Unsurprisingly, her parents split up and Carol was brought up in North Wales by her mother, who struggled to make ends meet but never complained.

Jean married Gabriel a decade after Carol was born.

“I had to do the cooking from the age of 10 because, back in the day, Mum was working and my stepfather, who I call dad, was a builder and he’d come in from work at ten to six every day and expect his tea on the table,” Carol remembers.

“I was first back from school so I’d cook durin g the week. It was basic stuff, stew with the leftovers from the Sunday roast on a Monday, that kind of thing.

“But on Friday we’d cook together. Back in 70s Britain, olive oil was something you bought from the chemist to get wax out of your ears and Parmesan cheese didn’t exist, except dried in a tube.

“Cooking with him was very different. I learned a lot on those Fridays, that’s where I got my love of food.”

To counter that, there’s no denying Carol puts a lot of effort into staying trim â€" allowing herself a bowl of porridge in the morning and just one meal later in the day.

What's cooking: Mum Jean isn't an enthusiastic cook

She explains: “I have one big meal a day either in a restaurant or at home.

"I like to eat at about 3pm, after Loose Women, then nothing later. You can eat what the hell you like then.”

And she shops carefully to avoid temptation. “There are certain things that I only eat when I’m out. If I’ve got stuff like bread in the house, I would eat it.”

The series kicks off on ITV1 next Wednesday and Carol is sure it will prove a hit.

“It’s one of the loveliest things I’ve done,” she says. “My role was a bit like Pride of Britain, it’s all about the people. I chat and eat all their food.”

The winning recipe â€" as judged by Loyd Grossman, Tom Parker Bowles, Stacey Stewart and Anne Harrison â€" will be turned into a dish for Marks Spencer.

Delicacies on display will include Cornish pasties, curries, Italian food, variations on shepherd’s pie and lots of dess erts, including a rum-soaked bread and butter pudding (from a sailor).

Carol is at pains to stress that the show is different from its rivals.

“The others might get six people to cook the same thing to see who does it best.

"We’re, ‘Oh, that’s a nice bit of food â€" and here’s a story that goes with it’.”

“For me, it’s about the stories and the people.

"I’m a very huggy person, so often I’ll just be sitting having a cuddle with someone for half an hour, particularly in the Northern shows.

"There was a very happy atmosphere.”

Tempting: Wares served up by Food Glorious Food contestants

It all sounds a far cry from Cowell’s cut-throat X Factor.

“It should come across as a very jolly watch,” explains Carol. “A bit like Antiques Roadshow with people standing watching.

"It’s about normal people, not those at the Big Brother end of the table who are desperate to be on TV.

"It’s people who think it will be a nice day out.

"We’ve seen lots of characters, not extreme characters, just nice people with interesting stories. It’s quite old-fashioned really.”

Away from the camera Carol’s life sounds a little less warm and cosy â€" she hopes to get her pilot’s licence by the end of April.

“I love it. It’s very relaxing,” she enthuses. “I’ve got a bit of a weird brain, it never stops, so it has to have something that occupies it.

“Flying takes up my whole brain and I can’t think about anything else.

"You have to really concentrate which is exhausting.”

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