12-07-2025
Kelly Hoppen: ‘My grandson is the unexpected love affair of my life'
How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Kelly Hoppen
6am
I get up so early during the week that I'll still wake at six, but I'll clamber out of bed, go downstairs and make hot water and lemon and two coffees, then come back to bed, which is a wonderful feeling. I'll always try to wake my husband John [Gardiner, a retired businessman] and then we chat, watch silly things on TikTok and hang out in bed.
8am
In London, we do weights and stretches at the gym, but if we're in the country we walk and talk about everything for a good two hours, anywhere not too muddy without too many hills. We often walk around the Blenheim Estate [in Oxfordshire].
10am
I love to cook in the country and make a nice breakfast: poached eggs on what John calls 'not bread' – my seed bread, which he says is like cardboard. I came late to the table with cooking and I do enjoy it. Then I'll have another coffee, take my vitamins and Chinese herbs, have a shower and get dressed.
11am
We'll hang out at home, where I've got better at relaxing – it's only taken me 60 years. I try to see all my family [daughter Natasha and stepdaughters Savannah and Sienna Miller] but it's impossible to get everyone together in the same place, so it's normally different parts of the family at different times. I'm filled up with love, because I saw my grandson, who is eight, on Friday. I pick him up from school and hang out with him until he goes to bed. The kind of grandma I am is a 'spoil-y' one. He just melts my heart, it's the unexpected love affair of my life. I love my daughter with all my body and soul, and she's created a little mini version of her. It's just magic.
1pm
Lunch at the café at Quince and Clover [in the Cotswolds ], or Soho Farmhouse, where we'll meet up with friends and have a glass of wine. I love Persian food and order the chicken with yogurt and sweetcorn or, if we eat in the main barn, salmon and vegetables.
4pm
We can get through an entire box set from Saturday to Sunday. I'm known as the detective on Netflix; I always find something I know John will love, though I spend the entire time saying: 'Are you watching it? Put your phone down.' It's like having a teenager. I get scared of things, so I need to know he's watching it, as it makes me feel protected. We watched Landman, which was phenomenal, and Yellowstone. In fact, we've watched everything.
6pm
I'll do the prepping before having friends over for dinner. We have an old barn and we'll have drinks out in the courtyard. It takes me about 20 seconds to lay the table. I pick pretty flowers from the garden and arrange them down the centre. I love tableware. I use a combination of different plates and glasses, and light the candles. All the scented candles from my latest exclusive homeware collection for M&S are in my house. Cushions are the other thing I can never get enough of.
7pm
If the weather's nice, we'll eat outside. My favourite dish is baked salmon or sea bass, and I put all my vegetables into oven dishes, sprinkle them with olive oil and rock salt, and bake them very, very high so they get crispy. I'll do roast potatoes for the boys, not the girls – I'm careful, I try to eat healthily, though I'm about to go to Milan so that might just go out of the window. Then I will do a cheese platter, crumble or pavlova. John is in charge of the wine and the dishwasher. It's a marriage made in heaven.
10pm
I like to soak in the bath, and I listen to music all the time, so I'll put my playlist on. I like a bit of R'n'B.
10.30pm
I sleep really well, though there are days when I don't, but getting up at 5.45 most mornings to go to the gym helps. I tend not to exercise on Sundays and will go to watch my grandson at his horse-riding lessons instead.
