Ulrika Johnsson has hinted she’s struggling to secure dates as people just want to meet up for sex and nothing else.
The 54-year-old TV legend has thrown herself back into the dating pool – and the spotlight – by signing up to E4’s madcap dating show, Celebs Go Dating.
But while the cameras have caught her involved in painfully awkward dates, she has explained that dating away from the guidance of show experts Anna Williamson and Paul C Brunson hasn’t been any more successful.
Ulrika – who is thrice divorced, has four children, and has seen her private life dragged into the media stage thanks to her high-profile affair with Sven-Göran Eriksson – has opened up about her experience of dating in her 50s.
Opening up about online dating in particular, she told Heat magazine: “People want to meet up for sex, that’s one thing. But I might not want that.”
Ulrika feels that her lack of experience might make her search for love more difficult.
She said: “Up until less than a year ago, I had never been on a date – ever. I live in the backchat of beyond. I go for dog walks, I don’t go out. But I’ve recently tried online dating.
“I was so green when I started – there are so many catfish, and my sister kept telling me, ‘That’s a fake profile!’ Now I am so much wiser.”
Ulrika’s chat with Heat chimes with a recent interview she gave to The Sun where she also bared all on love and featuring on Celebs Go Dating.
In a slightly more steamy confession, she said: "A good date is what? One that ends in sex? That is why people are hooking up. Let’s not pretend."
But back on her life, Ulrika said she was hoping to catch up on lost time in her 50s after dedicating her time to her family and career in her 20s and 30s.
She said: "Everyone was having fun in their 20s and 30s. I wasn’t.
"I had a career. I married at 23. Had first child at 27. For me life was about family and career.
“I am doing all the fun s*** now. For me, I guess it is the way life is meant to be. That’s the way it has unfolded."
And she added: "I will still do dating apps. I am going to be brutally f***ing honest. If you can’t take it mate, that’s it.”
Ulrika married her first husband, John Turnbull, in 1990 at the age of 23 and welcomed her first child when she was 27.
She divorced John in 1995 and went on to date footballer Stan Collymore, then later had a romance with German hotel manager Marcus Kempen – who she shares Bo with.
She embarked on a high-profile affair with former England football manager, and fellow Swede, Sven-Goran Eriksson in 2002 and that same year fell for a contestant named Lance Gerrard-Wright from the dating show Mr Right – who she married in 2003, divorced in 2006, and shares her daughter Martha.
She then married American advertising executive Brian Monet in 2008 but divorced in 2019 and together they share son Malcolm.
