NATASHA KAPLINSKY OBE Was the Youngest Woman to Front the Ten O

EXCLUSIVE NATASHA KAPLINSKY OBE was the youngest woman to front the Ten O’Clock News, acquiring a GLITTERING TV CAREER and Strictly Come Dancing crown along the way, until she gave it up to be a mum. Now returning to the PUBLIC EYE with a new parenting venture, she talks exclusively to Smallish Editor Sophie Tweedale about her UNSEEN STRUGGLES and the big chapter ahead en years ago, Natasha Kaplinsky’s life could not have looked more different. The immaculate TV star was the poster girl of generation ‘career woman’, trailblazing a path as a flagship news presenter by the age of 30. awful. It got to a point where living in London started to Barely a day went by without her beaming feel very stressful. Add to that the press outside the door into our living rooms or splashed over the newspapers. 24/7, and it all just felt too much. TShe walked away from the limelight as anchorwoman for “I felt Justin [Bower] and I were being selfish living in Five News in 2010, in a media storm (now unimaginable), London – it was for us, not for them.” having spent most of the two years at the channel on The lifestyle leap for Kaplinsky was as huge as they come. Photographs: Adam Hinton/Save the Children, Felix Clay/Save the Children, PA Photos, Les Wilson, Ian DerryWilson, Les Photos, PA the Children, Clay/Save Felix the Children, Hinton/Save Adam Photographs: maternity leave. Gone are the West London chic boutiques and blow-dry Waving goodbye to her hectic, glamorous London life, bars. In are goats, ducks, chickens and their herd of alpacas. she upped sticks and moved to a “I have even found myself in alpaca birthing “field in the middle of nowhere”, classes,” she confides. “It’s not an easy process, you as she puts it, to raise her two know! And I do really have to check myself for a children, Arlo and Angelica. second. Having had a very slick London life, So just what did Natasha do I wonder how I ended next? Usually fiercely private, we up birthing a farmyard are chatting today about the animal!” The animal new chapter in her life – as a adopting shows no signs parenting entrepreneur. of abating either; the Kaplinsky is a powerhouse of a family recently went to woman. One of life’s doers. As we an agricultural show speak, she multitasks like a pro, to buy wellies but ended chopping carrots for her herd of up finding a Highland alpacas at her farmhouse in Sussex cow with a “for sale” sign ABOVE whilst answering emails. A braying chorus of the AND RIGHT: around its neck. An hour 47 animals she now shares a home with can be Kaplinsky and later, it had moved in. her family own heard in the background. 47 animals The domestic empire “The day we moved here I did think: ‘Oh no, Kaplinsky has created Anchored what have we done?’ It’s so remote!” she muses. “When you matches the ambition she showed rising to the top of leave London it can be quite a shock, and it’s an incredibly her game in TV. Famously described as “the most old farmhouse, so some days I am literally hanging out ambitious woman in television”, she is nothing if not the the window to get a signal. But I wouldn’t change it for the queen of reinvention. world – the past four years have been a wonderful adventure. Enter her brand-new parenting venture, Mum & You. “I knew something had to change. The thought of Created with a co-founder buddy from her Oxford woman bringing up kids dodging dog poo every day in the park University days, the website is designed for mums by mums, whilst swinging them 10 times to try to get them some fresh at its core the principle that everything they sell, from air with 10 people backed up behind us was just too eco nappies to changing bags, goes back towards helping other mums in the UK and around the world. As an ambassador for Save the Children for the past 10 years, her charity work has taken her to projects and refugee camps all over the world. It is these experiences that have 36 SMALLISHMAGAZINE.COM SMALLISHMAGAZINE.COM 37 EXCLUSIVE ABOVE: Getting her OBE RIGHT: Amid the rubbish at Susan’s Bay BELOW LEFT With community health volunteer Jestina Pemaghi and a mother LEFT: WIth a mother and three of her kids in Sierra Leone RIGHT AND TOP RIGHT: Kaplinsky visits Za’atari Camp and meets the children there TV, but the truth is, I lost my confidence when I was a mother. change. Mine certainly did. I had this realisation that being a mother she meant was she was allergic to Mummy being away, I found going back into the workplace a hard experience. was one of the most important things I could do with my life. working in news. But it’s become quite the running joke “I want to encourage other mums. No matter how high “I thought: ‘God, I could have missed all of that, so easily.’ I feel in our family,” she says. profile you are, becoming a mother changes your life it’s the most important job that I have out of everything now. It Even her Strictly appearance (she won the first ever series in 2004) completely. Your priorities change, but also then having to doesn’t mean I am not still ambitious as a career woman,” she has become a family affair these days. It’s hard not to adore the go back to work and the guilt you feel leaving your baby, it’s quickly asserts. “But I think it slightly changes things for everyone.” image she paints of their regular Saturday night, where the tradition overwhelming…” she trails off. Just four months ago, Kaplinsky was awarded an OBE, after a is to watch Strictly together all curled up, with her trophy “balancing given her the impetus to throw her hat into the parenting ring, and Despite living what seems like an idyllic life, Kaplinsky twins it gruelling 18 months interviewing 112 Holocaust survivors as part on a bookcase” in the background. she is clearly very passionate about it. with a busy schedule of broadcasting as well as Mum & You. of an education project, soon to be aired on TV and used to create So has she hung up her dancing shoes for good, I wonder? “So many children fall through the cracks both abroad and in Is the eternal juggle something she struggles with, I wonder? a learning centre in London. “Whenever we go to an event now, people look in my direction the UK. We still have huge deprivation here that goes unseen. Perhaps expecting her steely Wonder Woman public persona to The mixture of emotions is tangible. “The experience expecting me to break into some kind of amazing dance routine, I wanted to create a company where supporting mothers drives extend to motherhood. nearly gave me a breakdown because it was so traumatic, but I’m but believe me, dancing with a drunk husband is a very different everything we do,” she says. “Oh, my word, yes, I still feel guilty!” she exclaims. “Every time extraordinarily proud of it, and of As well as selling parenting products with a conscience, the site I leave the house to go to work. I try to be at home one day a week, course, recieving the OBE,” she says. donates nappies to the Trussell Trust and works closely with but I often don’t see the kids before bedtime. I’m wrenched with The mood lightens as she describes “When I had my children, my world changed companies helping mums get back into the workplace by giving guilt about it, but that’s the life of a working mum.” her children’s reactions to the ceremony them skills to set up their own businesses. Despite the tabloid-spun tough-woman image, Kaplinsky is at Buckingham Palace. completely, having been so utterly focused on my “I am really proud to be helping create a brand that can make a effortlessly nice, and I mean really, really nice. We chat for over an Her son, Arlo, nine, asked if she career. But having children, for me, wasn’t easy” difference to mums and, in turn, children who don’t have the hour, swapping funny stories and kid-related disasters we’ve had, could write to the Queen for a different opportunities some of us may have.” with a refreshing level of honesty. day so he could avoid a lesson, and In an easily hashtag-able world, where anyone can jump on a But as we chat, it transpires her journey to domestic bliss has not her daughter, Angelica, seven, insisted on taking her pyjamas as the experience to doing it with a world-class dancer!” she says. bandwagon, Kaplinsky is genuine about wanting to still help smash been an easy one. Clearly reflective, she describes her own crushing Palace was so big it must be a sleepover. This year, Mother’s Day will be spent chez Kaplinsky with three the glass ceiling for women. difficulties in having children. The number of plates Kaplinsky seems to keep spinning is generations together. “The most special thing for me is having She says: “When we were interviewing for a member of staff “When I had my own children my world changed completely, enough to make anyone dizzy, so how does she wind down? everyone together.

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