Gregory Robinson
Claudia Winkleman admitted a hilarious lie she told her son for the first 12 years of his life. Watch below:
The TV presenter, 51, was a guest on an episode of The Graham Norton Show in December where she was joined by Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, George Takei and Jamie Oliver on the iconic red sofa.
The conversation soon turned to lying after Norton suggested that chefs ‘must lie all the time’ while looking directly at the Jamie’s School Dinners star.
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The Strictly Come Dancing presenter – who shares three children with her husband Kris Thykier - then admitted she ‘lies to her kids all the time’. She’s mum to Jake, 20, Matilda, 16 and Arthur, 11.
One of Winkelman’s lies has to do with a very familiar chocolate spread.
“’Mummy, have you found Nutella?’” her son would ask. “I was like, ‘Do you know what? I am keeping my eyes peeled and the minute I find it I’m going to get a jar.’ He was like, ‘Fingers crossed’.”
Well that’s one way to nip your child’s sweet tooth in the bud.
The lies didn’t end there either, as Winkelman also lied about a particular Apple product children absolutely love.
"They still believe that iPads don’t work in residential properties,” she revealed as the audience erupted in roars of laughter.
"I don’t know why – it’s a malfunction because if they did work at home of course we would have them, they only work at the dentist.
"And the little one was like, ‘It’s so elusive of the iPad that it doesn’t work.'”
Later in the interview, the national TV treasure said her eldest daughter Matilda seemingly followed in her footsteps by creating her own elaborate lie.
The 16-year-old apparently lied to her teachers about the family’s WiFi situation throughout her GCSEs and the funny fib came to light during parent’s evening.
Winkleman said: "So our daughter, she's 16, in lockdown, she was revising for her GCSE's and we had a parent-teacher meeting.
"It was eight months in, the poor teachers were working so incredibly hard.
"And the head of year said: 'I know we shouldn't bring this up because Tilda says you guys are really embarrassed by it, but we just have to say we are so sorry about your lack of WiFi…'"
The Radio 2 presenter was clearly confused after her teacher sympathetically asked about their WiFi situation.
"I was like: 'Come again' - also, by the way, I do my Radio 2 show live from the airing cupboard, we've got full WiFi if nothing else! - and I just looked at her and said: 'I'm sorry'
"For eight months I was like: 'Good luck in double maths' and she [Matilda] was like: 'Uh huh,' and doing TikToks and hadn't done anything!
"And also wrote quite cleverly in the email [to her teacher about their WiFi problems]: 'Please don't mention it to my parents as they are slightly embarrassed, their WiFi is really dodgy and I don't want to tell them because they're homeschooling three of us and I just want to be supportive."
Jamie Oliver jumped in and asked: "So did you go along with it - did you back her up?"
To which Claudia replied: "Absolutely not, I'm not that good a liar. I said, 'We have WiFi, we're ok!’”