Lorraine Kelly recalls being left in a 'state of shock' when she was told she had been replaced on GMTV while still on maternity leave

Lorraine Kelly has recalled being left in a 'state of shock' when she was told she had been replaced on GMTV while she was still on maternity leave.Talking to SAGA, Lorraine, 66, called that time in her life 'scary' because her family had a 'massive mortgage' at the time. The television presenter has been announced as the new host of Saga’s podcast Experience is Everything, in which she’ll interview household names who share their life lessons. Lorraine takes over from the late Dame Jenni Murray. To celebrate her new role, Lorraine sat down with Susie Dent, who has been hosting the podcast in the interim, to tell her own life story.Talking about how she was replaced at GMTV while on maternity leave, she said: 'I was working at GMTV at the time and back then, believe it or not, it was unusual to see somebody pregnant on television. Lorraine Kelly has recalled being left in a 'state of shock' when she was told she had been replaced on GMTV while still on maternity leave Talking to SAGA, Lorraine, 66, called that time in her life 'scary' because her family had a 'massive mortgage' at the time'Anne Diamond had been the pioneer because she had her boys and she was pregnant on air and she got a lot of stick for that. And I got a little bit of that, but because social media was not around it hardly registered, so you didn’t really know.'But Rosie came along in June and I was supposed to go back to work in September. Crazy. You would have two months off. Now it would be impossible. 'But I just got a phone call a couple of weeks before and they said, "Sorry, we’ve got someone else. Thanks a bunch, but we’ve got someone else. So, thanks for all your work. Bye bye." 'That was it. I was kind of in a state of shock really. It was scary because we had a massive mortgage.'She continued: 'We just moved south. It was hard and I wasn’t expecting it. So that’s why I think I’ve always never taken anything for granted because I don’t know what’s going to happen.'Lorraine said she made ends meet by doing a lot of writing, including writing a column for a parenting magazine. A few months later, GMTV got back in touch and said, ‘Look, we’ve got this mother and baby slot and the sponsors want you.’ She did it with Dr Hillary Jones and then got her own show off the back of it in the January because that had done so well. Lorraine also spoke about her family and said she and her husband Steve decided to shape up for their daughter Rosie's wedding this yearLorraine said the tragedy of Lockerbie got her noticed on television.'It was really hard to cover it [an unknown Lorriane was one of the first journalists on the scene after Pan Am flight 103 was blown up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988] but imagine living it.'Imagine what it’s like for the people. What it did teach me though was that kind of trust. You know, people trusted me with their stories back then and indeed now. 'That’s something that I’ve never taken for granted – I always think if people going through the worst experience of their lives come on the show to talk about that, they’ve got to go away feeling that they’ve done themselves proud. 'Or if they’re talking about somebody who’s died, that they’ve done that person proud. So, I never take for granted the fact that people do trust me with that, because that’s huge. 'But my job is then to make sure that they go away feeling that they’ve done themselves proud. I think that’s really, really important.'Lorraine said she was leading every news bulletin and on TV a lot and weirdly this gave her a big break. She said: 'The boss of TVAM at the time looked up at the screen and said, "Bring that wee girl down from Scotland and we’ll see how she’ll do in the news hour. Get her on to do 6 to 7." 'So, I came down for a week. I only had a week’s worth of underwear, frankly. And I never really went back. I mean, I went home every weekend, you know, I commuted for years, up and down, up and down.'I never went back to the job as correspondent, which I loved. And I had no desire, really, I’d never even thought about sitting on a pink sofa and I just sort of found myself there. 'And maybe that’s why I have lasted so long. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a great job, I’ve had an amazing time, it’s been over 40 years, it’s been wonderful, but at the end of the day it is just a job.'During the interview, Lorraine also addressed the cuts at ITV. She said: 'Last year we found out that there’s going to be a lot of cuts in daytime and every show has been affected, every single one, particularly my show, because instead of running all year round, it’s now 30 weeks a year and it’s obviously gone down from an hour to half an hour. 'So every morning we try to get a pint into a half pint pot, which is a challenge, but somehow we manage it.'The thing that was most difficult for me – it doesn’t matter whether my fat face is on the telly for an hour or half an hour, that really doesn’t matter – was saying cheerio to my team because obviously, there’s a lot of redundancies and that was really, really difficult because I know every single one of them. 'A lot of them have worked with me since they were kids. Now they’ve got kids of their own and that was really, really hard. It really was. So, coming back in January was difficult but then everything gets put into perspective because my dad died and he wasn’t in the best of health.'Lorraine also spoke about her family and said she and her husband Steve decided to shape up for their daughter Rosie's wedding this year. She said: 'In March/April time, my husband tried on his kilt and lo and behold, the buckle wouldn’t buckle. And I don’t weigh myself, I don’t have scales, but I was thinking to myself, "I should be a size 10 or 11. I’m kind of looking at being maybe a size 16."'So, we both decided that we would go to the gym twice a week to this class specifically for over 60s. And it’s fantastic. It’s all about building up muscle strength and balance.'My husband stopped giving me massive portions because he does all the cooking, but he gives me huge portions. Of course, I’m greedy, so I eat them. 'So we cut that back and we cut down a chocolate plate because every night watching the telly, we’d have a cup of tea. 'And it started off as maybe half a bar of chocolate or a biscuit. And I can’t open a packet of biscuits and just have one. Who can open a bag of sweeties and just have one? No, that’s not right. So we stopped that completely.'She also stopped drinking alcohol. Lorraine said: 'I stopped boozing. And I’m not a big boozer. But I just stopped. And don’t get me wrong, at the wedding, I had a glass of champagne, of course. Of course. 'But I just, I do look after myself a lot better. I take supplements. I go to the gym, I go swimming, I take the dog for a walk. It’s become more important.'