Tess Daly and her best friend and business partner Gayle Lawton talk sisterhood, wellbeing and the power of mixing business and pleasure
WORDS | Laura Coppock
celeb interview
Tess Daly is a girl after our own hearts: she’s passionate about empowering women to feel their best. The fab-u-lous Strictly TV presenter and mum of two champions female camaraderie in every aspect of life. The same is true of Tess’s best friend Gayle Lawton, and the two women have truly been there to support each other over the years – not least when they became business partners and launched their swimwear brand, Naia Beach, together at a time when Covid-related lockdowns and travel restrictions were rife. Both mums (Gayle has a 14-year-old son and Tess has two teenage daughters), the friends navigated the challenges of juggling family life and launching a business successfully thanks to hard work, good humour and having each other as a sounding board to keep themselves sane! H&W’s Laura Coppock sat down with the pair for a chat to find out more about Naia Beach and how they balance work, rest and play...
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FRIENDS FOR?
TESS: “12 years now. We met at a mutual friend’s dinner party and we just bonded and have been best friends ever since.”
GAYLE: “We were the only Northerners on the table and they sat us together and we got on like a house on fire straight away. Then our friendship evolved really quickly.”
T: “We’re similar ages and we had loads in common. Gayle’s just the best. She’s almost like sister because my sister lives in New Zealand so I sort of adopted Gayle!”
G: “Yes! My sister lives up North so I don’t see her often but it’s lovely as [Tess and I] have basically adopted each other’s families too; we’re really close.”
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO LAUNCH NAIA BEACH TOGETHER?
G: “We were on holiday – we holiday together quite a lot – and were both struggling to find the swimwear we wanted. Nothing felt right and we thought a lot of women probably felt the same way. After an honest conversation about what we felt like we needed, we thought if we can’t find it, why don’t we create it to help other people too?”
T: “We were trying to shop for swimwear in one of the world’s top holiday destinations, Saint-Tropez, and just couldn’t find anything that we could wear confidently on the beach. Too little coverage or too much coverage – there was nothing in between. So we did a lot of research and couldn’t find anything that we got excited about wearing, and would wear with confidence. We thought, surely other women
