Anne Robinson‘s weakest link was going on television straight after a facelift, she has revealed.
The stern presenter got a taste of her own acerbic medicine when she was mocked for having had work done while fronting BBC ’s hit The Weakest Link.
Now 78, the gameshow host confessed she should have waited after going under the knife before debuting her new look on TV.
Anne, who was nearing 60 at the time, said: “When you have cosmetic surgery it is a bit like taking a leg of lamb out of the oven. You have to let it rest for a bit.
“I went on television quite quickly afterwards and it was a famous headline which said ‘This face is the Weakest Link’ as it was quite blown up.”
The presenter said she was glad she had been honest in admitting she had work done in 2004.
She said: “I think you are only as sick as your secrets. It is very hard to be pretending you have not had a facelift.
“When I was first on television there were quite a few presenters who were the same age as me and now they are all younger. It seems easier to just be open about it.” The former Mirror columnist hosted The Weakest Link from 2000 to 2012.
Last year she took the helm at Channel 4 ’s Countdown but quit this July.
She told Angela Scanlon’s Ask Me Anything on Irish TV: “I tried to be nice on Countdown. I loved it but nothing was ever going to be as wonderful as The Weakest Link or being a newspaper journalist.
"I probably made a mistake thinking I could replicate it on another game show.
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“[Countdown] is a brilliant show but it does not really require a smart-arse presenter.”
Anne also said the workload was gruelling.
She added: “Viewers see one show a day but I used to do five Countdowns a day. That is quite a lot to get through.”
Her vitriolic put-downs were a highlight of The Weakest Link – but Anne believes times have changed.
The gran-of-two added: “If you were quite obese, I would say ‘What do you do when you are not eating?’. But you can’t do that anymore.”
Romesh Ranganathan has replaced Anne Robinson on the BBC show.
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