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Kelly Holmes: ‘I need therapy about turning 40’
Mirror Celebs on Sunday
Interview by Francine Cohen, 28/02/2010
The athlete and multi gold medallist, 39, on being ever the optimist, how she’s not such a tough cookie any more, and her chocolate problem. But whatever you do, don’t ask her about turning the big four-oh…
Do people have to call you ‘Dame Kelly’?
Dame Kelly Holmes: No, they don’t have to, but they do. It’s such a high accolade and an amazing honour, so I love people calling me it. Someone said, ‘Isn’t “Dame” a bit old?’ I said, ‘I’m going to grow into it very soon, aren’t I?
Well, you’re 40 in April this year… How do you feel about it?
DKH: Don’t even go there. I don’t want to talk about it! Forty seems to be a number that’s haunting me. Even a parking space I was in the other day was number 40. I’ve got a big issue about that age. Everyone who knows me knows it’s a big deal, but they still keep asking me what I’m going to do. The thought of saying I’m 40 is horrendous. At least at 39 I’m still in my 30s. I’ve told everyone, ‘Don’t get me balloons or cards with 40 on, put 39 again!’ I am phobic, I reckon I need therapy.
When did you last cry?
DKH: Watching the film Invictus last week. It’s very emotional. Actually, I have got more emotional as I’ve got older. I’ve always been quite hard and able to take stuff, but now I’m hiding my face because I get a bit teary and I don’t want people to think I’m soft. Quite a lot sets me off, especially when you see things about how people have struggled to survive or overcome great tragedy. I may cry when I am 40!
Have you ever been starstruck?
DKH: I was starstruck by Tom Cruise when I went on Parkinson in 2004. I was an athlete and blinkered in that world. He said something to me and I remember just looking at him thinking, ‘He’s speaking to me, Tom Cruise is speaking to me’. More recently, though, I was at the same event as Kelly Hoppen, the designer. I love design and I’ve got all her books. I couldn’t speak. I was like a baby. How weird is that? It’s because I love interior design so much and she’s such a heroine of mine.
Who would you like to escort you to a premiere now?
DKH: I tell you who I really love – Morgan Freeman, so him. The Shawshank Redemption is my favourite film of all time. I’ve seen it about 25 times. I did see him when I won the Laureus World Sports Woman Of The Year Award in 2005. I managed to say hello to him, but I couldn’t say anything else.
What’s the silliest thing you’ve ever done drunk?
DKH: I can’t say I’m a drinker. I’m quite a cheap date really, because I’m quite tiddly after just a couple of glasses. I have been drunk, usually on my birthday. When I was in the army, I was once taken back to the barracks in a police car because I’d fallen down in the road drunk. You’re not allowed to enter barracks drunk, so I spent an hour in the cells. I was the Training Instructor, so supposed to be the fit one. The rest of the squad wound me up, telling me I’d been sick in the police car and I was going to have to pay for it to be cleaned. They all knew I would be mortified because I never got in trouble.
You drove a lorry in the army. What sort of driver are you now?
DKH: I hate traffic. I eff and blind. If I have friends in the car it’s like ‘beep beep’ because I’m swearing so much. I’m impatient and just want to get somewhere. In the army I drove an HGV and you feel like you rule the roost in one of those. Also, back then no one knew me, so it didn’t matter if I swore my head off. I can’t be explicit with my language or actions in the car these days in case I’m recognised.
Have you ever cheated death?
DKH: When I was in the army we were up in the Welsh mountains on an expedition and the weather came in, as it can do up there, really horrendously. We got drenched and it was freezing cold. We pitched our tents, but the storm got even worse and everything just got soaked through. I was shrivelled up I was so wet and cold, I did think I was going to die. I had to be taken down by stretcher and they told me if they hadn’t got me down when they did, I could have died from hypothermia. But I survived.