From Traitors to embarrassing mum: Claudia Winkleman jokes she likes to lick her son’s elbow
She said it’s her job to be an embarassing mum
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She might be one of Britain’s most in-demand presenters, but Claudia Winkleman is just as happy playing the embarrassing mother as she is making unmissable TV.
The Traitors presenter, 52, has revealed she once licked her son’s eyebrow while fussing over him in front of his friends.
Winkleman made the revelation about her youngest son, Arthur, 12, who she shares with her husband, Kris Thykier, 52.
She said that when it comes to parenting, it’s her “job to be embarrassing” – a far cry from the foreboding persona she sports on The Traitors.
“I’ve kissed [my youngest son] and tried to lick his eyebrows in front of his friends – which by the way is not what one should do but it’s my job to be embarrassing,” Winkleman recently told the Radio Times.
“Then I put my headphones on and listen to music very loud. I want Missy Elliott, I want Dr Dre and rap and – BOOM! – it wakes me up.”
In the interview, she also opened up about her iconic, thick fringe and admitted that the look she’s famous for fell into place after she got it.
She said: “[The hairdresser] gave me a wispy fringe and I said, ‘I think I need an unapologetic fringe.’ And once I had that, everything else followed.
“I think I had that already [the black eyeliner] because I was doing telly.
“They said, ‘Let’s make you up like this’ and I was like, ‘OK,’ but I was always a bit emo.”
While Winkleman – who also has two older children, Jake, 20, Matilda, 17 – admits she is an embarrassing mum, she does keep her children largely out of the limelight and only shares occasional pictures of them on social media.
News of her parenting antics comes after it was recently revealed that The Traitors could be getting a celebrity spin-off.
As reported by Deadline last week, the studio that creates the psychological suspense show, Studio Lambert, has come to an agreement with the BBC about a celebrity version.
Given how popular The Traitors has been with the general public, this potential new series could attract some seriously big names – with the likes of Dawn French already appearing in a Comic Relief spin-off.
According to sources, the foreboding-presenter-turned-embarrassing mum, Winkleman, is in line to present the celebrity incarnation too.
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