Ulrika Jonsson hits back at people 'offended by ageing face'

BBC News

21-07-2025

Ulrika Jonsson has told people who criticised how she looked in a recent podcast interview not to "constantly judge women's appearance".The TV star, 57, appeared on Spencer Matthews' Untapped last week, on which she opened up about her past alcohol problems.On Sunday, she wrote on Instagram that she doesn't normally get many "nasty" comments on social media, and received lots of positive responses to what she said on the show. "But a considerable amount about my tanned appearance. AND how OLD I look."She added: "I understand that an over-tanned, imperfect and AGEING face offends you. But try to listen to the words rather than constantly judge women's appearance. You might learn something."
'Not a fan of make-up'
Jonsson shot to fame at the end of the 1980s as a weather presenter, then appeared on shows including Gladiators and Shooting Stars, and won Celebrity Big Brother.She didn't wear make-up during the interview with Matthews, "partly because I kinda forgot that a project for the ears is nowadays also a feast for the eyes", she explained."But as someone who has had to wear heavy make-up on screen from 5am for years, I'm not a fan."Most crucially though, since childhood I've suffered from eczema. On my body - the creases of my arms and legs - on my face - eyes and lips. Make-up has always been the enemy because it's been agony to wear."She told followers she would "never look like the fresh 21-year-old that used to greet you first thing in the morning by the weather board".
Jonsson said she was "not ashamed to say that I am a sun worshipper and will no doubt pay the price for that", and that ultraviolet lamps, salt baths, astringent skin solutions and creams had been "a feature of my life since I was a small child"."I have uneven pigmentation doubtlessly not helped by ageing. I sometimes use filters in my pics because it's easier than foundation and less painful."I work tirelessly in my garden year round and often in the sun. I rarely sunbathe any more. Haven't had a sunbed for 6 months - which I do occasionally in winter months. Not ashamed."I have not had a holiday - of any kind - since 2018. That's 7 yrs."So, I understand that an over-tanned, imperfect and AGEING face offends you. But try to listen to the words rather than constantly judge women's appearance."She added: "And making people feel [bad] doesn't make you a hero."The NHS says there is no healthy way to get a tan.The Swedish-born presenter appeared on the podcast after writing a recent article saying she was an alcoholic, but had been sober for just over a year.The drinking was an attempt to deal with "punishing anxiety" and another issue in her personal life, she told Matthews.
'I thought I'd be dead by now'
She said she used to tell herself she didn't have a problem with alcohol, but then "the drinking started earlier in the day, and I found myself kneeling into the cupboard under the stairs where I kept my rum and just necking the rum from the bottle".But she stopped with the help of a support group and by regularly attending meetings, and said it had been a "miraculous" change."I never, ever in a million years thought that I would be capable of making a big shift and a big change - not just dropping the alcohol, but [in] mindset and approach to life."She added: "My mindset, my approach, has just completely changed. At nearly 58, I just didn't even think that that would be possible."I thought I wasn't very good at life, I wasn't cut out for it, and I was just a pretty rubbish-to-average person. And then this whole world kind of opened up to me."Jonsson also said she always assumed she would die relatively early like her father, who suffered a fatal brain haemorrhage at the age of 53."I did sort of think I would be dead by now - not from the drinking, but because my dad died young, I just had it in my head that I'd also have a brain haemorrhage really early, and I'd be gone, and so old age wasn't really something I needed to worry about."But here I am, and now sort of wanting to catch up on the years of negative thinking that I lost."