Lorraine Kelly's retirement plans will see her move back to Scotland as ITV makes cuts

Daily Record

3 days ago

Lorraine Kelly previously said she will "end up" coming back to Scotland but this may be coming a lot sooner than expected due to widespread speculation she will quit her show in response to the ITV cuts.
Lorraine Kelly has confirmed her retirement plans involve a move back home to Scotland but it seems this may now be happening a lot sooner than originally planned due to the announcement of the ITV cuts which will see Lorraine's show being halved in air time from January 2026. Born in Glasgow, the 65-year-old started out her TV career in 1984 and previously presented Good Morning Britain and GMTV before launching her own Lorraine show in 2010.
However, after 15 years on screens, ITV announced earlier this month that the Lorraine show would face significant cuts, with the programme being reduced from one hour to 30 minutes and will now only air 30 weeks a year. It comes amid figures that show the Scots presenter missed almost half of her show last year, presenting only 152 out of 256 episodes of the Lorraine show in 2024.
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Lorraine's absence has continued into this year after she took time off earlier this month while undergoing emergency surgery to remove her fallopian tubes and ovaries. The mum-of-one reportedly learned of the ITV bloodbath cuts upon her return and is said to be willing to take 'extreme measures' to fight for the future of her long term show.
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Despite this, Lorraine reportedly turned down an offer from ITV to combine her daytime programme with Good Morning Britain which would have seen the Scots presenter take over the last half hour of the morning news talk show.
The BAFTA Award winner, who was last year praised for her outstanding contribution to the small screen, is said to have been "insulted" by this proposition and made it clear to ITV bosses that it wasn't on the cards.
Many are now speculating that Lorraine may walk away from her daytime show for good with online bookmaker Betway putting the odds of Lorraine quitting at just 2/1 .
Lorraine previously revealed that she has discussed leaving England behind and making a return to her home country of Scotland.
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Recalling a conversation she had with her daughter, the presenter previously told The People's Friend Special: "Rosie and I were talking about it the other day and we think we'll eventually all end up coming back to Scotland. I miss Dundee a lot. Rosie loved it there and still does.
Lorraine has also acknowledged her large amount of absences in the past year, with an X account titled Where Is Lorraine? tracking whether or not she has presented the programme every day, revealing this week she only hosted 59.4% of episodes last year.
Lorraine previously addressed the existence of this account on Woman's Hour saying: "The amount of space I occupy in people's heads is quite bizarre.
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"It's fine, I don't mind, I don't care. You should never comment on things like that if you don't know what's going on in people's lives, but I am having to take quite a few Fridays off because my mum is really not well.
"So, I can go home now and spend some more time with her and help her more than I've been able to. So that's happening now but that will change. I've been doing five days a week for 40 years so I'm just taking a wee bit of time off."
Lorraine Kelly's mother, Anne 81, lives in East Kilbride which could be another reason why the presenter is keen to head back to Scotland.
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Until 2017, Lorraine lived in Dundee with her husband Steve but the couple now live in a riverside property in Buckinghamshire.
Speaking of the future of her show, she previously told The Yorkshire Post: "I'd like to keep on doing my show for as long as people want to watch.
"I didn't expect to still be here (on television) at 65, but I am so happy to be doing the job I love after 40 years."
However, as it turns out the Lorraine show figures appear to have actually peaked during her on and off absence with an insider saying: 'February, March and April celebrated the highest viewing figures for three years. The show reaches 1.1 million every day and 2.7 million every week.'