A love of 8.30 bedtimes, pickles and Titian’s Assunta - these were just some of the confessions of Jewish mega-TV star Claudia Winkleman, who gave one of her most candid ever interviews to a live audience last night.
The host of hit TV show Traitors and former co-host of Strictly Come Dancing also shared how Jews and Danes – her husband is Danish – both have a love of family, that (of course) she only uses Head & Shoulders on her famous fringe, and if she had to choose someone to play her in a biopic, it would have to be rock star Alice Cooper.
Winkleman, 54, was in conversation with producer Ben Winston in front of around 800 people at St John’s Wood Shul to raise funds for the Lira Winston Fellowships. These were created in memory of Winston’s late mother to nurture future educational leaders, in partnership with PaJeS, where she had been assistant director.
Giving whip-smart responses, Winkleman brought her trademark humour to the interview, sharing witty anecdotes from her schooldays to her life in front of the camera.
Claudia Winkleman and Ben Winston (Photo: Gaby Ekaireb/@gabsek)[Missing Credit]
Asked about the moment when she was invited by former head of BBC Danny Cohen to co-present Strictly, Winkleman recalled he wasn’t happy about her fringe. “He said: ‘Your fringe is too long. We all wanted to be a Goth, right? But we were like 18, 19, and we all grew out of it.’ So, I did the first show with a side parting, wearing a pink dress. And the worst of it was that the makeup was all natural. Awful.”
Looking back on 21 years on the programme, including six presenting the sister show, It Takes Two, Winkleman said: “If somebody asked me to describe it, I’d say it's like this snow globe, or like going through the wardrobe [in the lion The Witch and the Wardrobe]. …You go in there, and it's all the sparkly lights, and the dancers...so, I think it's a little hypnotic…and having an amazing teacher, which is what tonight is all about, will change your life.”
Announcing her departure along with co-presenter Tess Daly in December 2025, Winkleman said that they had agreed it would never be a case of just one of them leaving. She recalled: “We did the last live show, and I thought: ‘I’m fine, fine. We're fine.’ And then [afterwards] I couldn't stop crying. It was because it had been my entire life.”
Part of the appeal of Strictly was the chance to do live TV, something Winkleman thrives on. “I love live. I can't do pre-recorded anything. I can't do fake anything. Live is exciting. I sort of like being tested. I used to like exams.”
But, she said, at the same time, “I get incredibly nervous. But that makes you do your best because it sort of wakes you up.”
She said to help calm her nerves, she would sometimes squeeze Daly’s arm to the point of leaving marks. “So, Tess would have to wear this upper arm cuff in the shape of a pearl because I had squeezed on it so much.”
Now presenting Traitors – for which she is frequently credited for its huge popularity – Winkleman shared how it took some persuading to convince her to stay in Scotland filming for three weeks a year, away from her husband, film producer Kris Thykier, and her three children. “I was like, no, but thanks for asking - because I never leave my bed. I’m always asleep by nine. And I have children, who are not interested [in me], but I just follow them around, trying to lick their eyebrows.”
Claudia Winkleman and Ben Winston at the Lira Winston Fellowships' Lessons in Leadership event (Photo: Gaby Ekaireb/@gabsek)[Missing Credit]
But after being sent the original Dutch version, she was hooked. “It was really compelling. It’s a really interesting idea because, ultimately, it's a game of deception, where you're testing people to lie. But then there's also real humanity at the end of it, when traitors win and share their money, or [in Celebrity Traitors] they give money to charity.”
She never anticipated its incredible popularity. After filming for the first series wrapped, “I remember calling my husband, and he said: ‘How is it?’ And I said: ‘Well, I think it's over, and I've had a good run. Never mind. Put the kettle on, and let's never mention it again.”
But the last show of the fourth series was watched by 9.6m people, with Celebrity Traitors peaking at nearly 15 million viewers for its finale.
The programme and its presenter - with her iconic black cape and dress-code of Scottish Highlands chic - have, like with Strictly, garnered a clutch of BAFTAs. However, Winkleman remains coy about her success, putting a lot of it down to luck and the team around her.
But her parents – Eve Pollard, one of the first female editors of a national newspaper (the Sunday Mirror and later, the Sunday Express), and Barry Winkleman, an author and publisher – instilled in her a strong work ethic. “They said: ‘Always make the tea - it doesn’t matter where you work - be early and be the last one to leave.’”
Claudia Winkleman and Ben Winston (Photo: Gaby Ekaireb/@gabsek)[Missing Credit]
They divorced when she was three, but Winkleman had a very happy childhood, saying: “I am so lucky to have incredible, loving, wonderful parents, who never wanted me to be anything other than who I am and always gave me the independence to make my own decisions and do what I wanted to do.”
Her mother, who was in the audience, was, said Winkleman, “a brilliant feminist. I once asked for a Barbie, and she replied: ‘Don't be ridiculous. That's not what you're supposed to look like.’”
Another valuable kernel of advice from Pollard was: “’Be interested. Don’t worry about being interesting. Ask questions.’”
It was her father who first introduced Winkleman to art history, taking her every other weekend to the National Gallery, “where the only rule would be that we could only look at one painting. On the way out, I’d be like: ‘I want to look at that horse,’ and he would say: ‘We’ll look at it next time.’”
But the regular visits paid off, with Winkleman deciding to take art history A-level while at City of London Girls School – though admitting this was partly based on her and her friends thinking it would be an opportunity “to wear fishnets, smoke fags and hang out with the boys”.
But the course – and the teacher who taught it, Mrs Dale – were life-changing, said Winkleman, recalling a particularly impactful trip to Venice, where she saw Titian’s huge oil painting Assumption of the Virgin (also known as the Assunta) in the Frari Church. “Mrs Dale said: ‘This is going to change your life.’ Seeing the painting was like being punched in the stomach, but in a good way. All of us went on to study history of art.”
Saying that her visit to St John’s Wood Synagogue was the first time she had been in a shul in 40 years, Winkleman said that while she wasn’t religious, she was “proud of being Jewish”.
The granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, many of whose relatives were murdered by the Nazis, she recalled her mother keeping a suitcase in her hallway in case they had to make a quick escape. “I can’t even imagine what that was like for her or my grandpa or grandma.”
Asked by an audience member about “antisemitism in your industry”, Winkleman said: “The industry doesn’t feel antisemitic to me. I’m just giving you what I have experienced, but the growing antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism that we see everywhere is really, really terrifying…That’s why it’s important that people are there for each other and for other people from other communities.”
While her husband is from a Danish background, and she is from a Jewish one, Winkleman delights in the similarities between the two cultures. “[Danes] love family; they love multi-generational family and all being together. [They also have] an admiration for pickles.”
Claudia Winkleman and Ben Winston hug at the end of the conversation (Photo: Gaby Ekaireb/@gabsek)[Missing Credit]
Returning to the theme of the night – leadership in education – Winkleman was asked what she had learnt from her children. “I have learnt everything from my kids. [Kids] aren’t for everyone, but for me, in my life beforehand, they were just waiting for me.”
Speaking after the evening, which saw the first cohort of Lira Winston Fellows graduate, Ben Winston said: "I loved tonight. It was an honour to talk to such an amazing leader and trailblazer in the entertainment industry, but who still puts her family and others first. Claudia Winkleman is truly an incredible person and inspired us all.
“To see so many – nearly 800 – people come out and support the Lira Winston Fellowships was deeply moving to me. There has never been a more important time to invest in Jewish education and our community, so I’m so grateful to all those who came tonight.”
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