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Gloria Hunniford bravely opens up about her grief 20 years after losing daughter Caron
Gloria Hunniford is not embellishing when she says she’s been in showbusiness a long time. The broadcaster, 84, has enjoyed a vivacious career since the age of seven, but you would be mistaken if you thought years of hard graft have increased the appeal of slowing down. Speaking exclusively to Bella, Gloria shares, “I appreciate and admire that people can’t wait to retire, but it’s not for me. I want to keep my brain ticking over.”
When we chat to the Northern Irish presenter – whose warm nature has become a staple on shows such as Loose Women and Rip Off Britain – it is ahead of a poignant anniversary: 20 years since her beloved daughter Caron Keating died of breast cancer on 13 April 2004. Gloria’s signature wisdom is laced in our conversations about grief, her role as a grandmother, and her involvement in a new NHS blood pressure campaign, which struck a chord as both her late father and her husband, Stephen Way, have been affected by the “silent killer”.
You’re known to be a very stoic person – do you live by any mottos or mantras?
In Northern Ireland, you’re brought up with a very strong work ethic, and that has stayed with me all my life. Even to this day, I want to work. I never want to give it up. In 1969, at the BBC in Belfast where I was given the [broadcasting] job, there were no women. A producer took me to the newsroom and said, “What do you see?” And I went, “A lot of men pounding at typewriters.” He said, “Well remember, as a woman, you’re not coming in here to do recipes and knitting and so-called women things. Remember,” – and this is the phrase that I’ve never forgotten – “you’re as good as any bloke in this room.” I’ve never ever been bothered by sexism – I’ve always thought I’m as good as any bloke. Another thing is attitude – my daughter Caron was dealing with cancer, and attitude is everything. It allowed her to live seven years when she was only given a year and a half.
How have you managed your grief over the years?
You manage it all your life, it never goes away. But what you have to do in the end is learn to live with it. To lose a child is the worst thing, in my opinion, that can ever happen to you. I was completely and utterly devastated and there was a point that I thought, “This could take me out as well.” A letter that I received really changed my healing. This woman wrote to me, saying, “I had to tell you how sorry I am that Caron died.” And then she said something so profound that led to the setting up of the Caron Keating Foundation: “You now have to find a way of carrying Caron’s
