Carol Vorderman has lifted the lid on her love life – as she revealed she dates multiple men at the same time.
The 61-year-old former Countdown star was praised for her “free” attitude to relationships when she appeared on Loose Women this week.
And she shared her decision to stay unattached stems from her upbringing, as her mum was a single parent in the 1960s.
She explained: “What it is, when you’re growing up as a young girl, you’re told that you should have one partner, and for the vast majority of people that suits.
“But then as we all have women friends, girlfriends if you like who are older, a lot of people who are married go, ‘I wouldn’t mind living in a separate house actually’.”
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Admitting she feels “free” living on her own, Carol said she is so used to her own space now she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I do feel free. Having a single parent in the Sixties, my mum remarried my wonderful stepfather - and she kept leaving him.
“So we were there one night in a lovely house, then we were in the circus. It was an anxious way to live.”
But she says the experience made her a stronger person, adding: ‘I think what it gave me is, ‘I can survive.’
“I saw my mum go through quite a lot – not by my stepfather by the way – but others putting her down because she was a single parent.
“So now it’s a little bit of, ‘If I bother you, I don’t care.’”
Carol has been married twice before – but says she will never walk down the aisle again and is happy to be single forever.
Her first husband was Royal Navy officer and former rugby player Christopher Mather, who she tied the knot with in 1985 at the age of 24. They divorced a year later.
She was then married to second husband, management consultant Patrick King from 1990 to 2000. The couple share two children, Katie, 31, and 25-year-old Cameron.
Her last relationship was with journalist Des Kelly, who she split from in 2007.
But she says the thought of sharing her life with someone else again makes her feel “positively sick”.
However, that hasn't stopped her from dating people – and Carol has confessed to having multiple "special friends."
The TV icon said: "I'm very happy, I have no complaints. I am not dating anyone, I have special friends. Special friends. Plural."
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