Anne Robinson claims she gets paid a cheeky bonus one hundred pounds every time she winks while filming Countdown.
The 77-year-old TV star claims that she made the art of briefly blinking one eye lid an art form and that it became her ‘signature move’ when she used to host hit gameshow The Weakest Link.
Anne traditionally ended each show on The Weakest Link with a knowing smile and a cheeky wink while wishing viewers ‘Goodbye’.
And now she says she managed to convince the bosses of Channel 4’s Countdown that she would only do the same on their show if they agreed to pay her £100 a pop.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Anne claims she had the agreement written into her contract, saying:“I told them I get paid £100 per wink.
“I said, ‘It's going to cost you £100 a show’. 'We film five shows a day, so that's 15 shows a week, and an extra £1,500.”
Last year, drama rocked the Countdown studios amid reports that Anne and co-star Rachel Riley had endured an epic behind-the-scenes fallout.
It was suggested that Anne turned off 36-year-old Rachel’s microphone after becoming irritated that the maths whizz would chat to contestants between filming.
Rachel herself broke her silence on the rumours last November, telling Lorraine: "I mean, no, she's not the cuddliest person in the world but it's just a different flavour on the show now.
“She's making it her own and she's getting some stuff out of the contestants and sometimes it's barbed, sometimes it's funny, it's got a different flavour.”
While Anne herself broke her own silence to praise her younger co-star.
Speaking last November, Anne said of Rachel and their fellow star Susie Dent: “They're brilliant - both of them actually.
"Every time I'm astonished how she [Rachel] does that adding up and subtracting - just seconds, absolutely seconds, amazing.
“I hope I'm always described as difficult, awkward, tricky, impatient, menopausal, any sort of pejorative, grumpy” and adding she is: “hard to please.”
Earlier this year, Dictionary Corner star Susie, 57, said while on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch: “Every host brings something different to the show, and I was thinking about this. One thing I’m really noticing with her kind of, under her reign, is we get these mini-interviews that we didn’t have before.”
Rachel and Anne did, at least, have a reprieve from each other after Rachel welcomed her second child near the end of last year.
The maths whizz welcomed a daughter named Noa last November – who she shares with Strictly Come Dancing star husband Pasha Kovalev.
Rachel returned to Countdown earlier this month – with the star welcoming her youngest and her husband onto the show.
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