Lorraine Kelly has laughed off jokes about her being an actress after finally breaking her silence on her infamous tax ruling.
The ITV presenter made headlines earlier this year when a judge ruled that she had an on-air persona and all parts of her ITV show were “a performance”, in a £1.2 million tax battle with HMRC,.
The decision to class her as an entertainment personality rather than a direct employee of ITV meant that she won the case and payments to her agent were allowed as a tax-deductible expense.
While the internet had a field day with jokes about Lorraine’s performance as chatty breakfast show host “Lorraine Kelly” on her morning show Lorraine, she has remained quiet on the matter – until now.
And in line with her cheery persona, she’s not letting it get her down, telling BBC News: “I know people had a good old laugh about that, and that’s fine!
“But we all do that to a certain degree in our work. I mean, there are days that I go into work and I don’t feel 100% but I’m not going to sit there and go ‘poor me, poor me’.”
She continued: “I’ve got the best job in the world, but, like every single human being on earth, you don’t feel great all the time. But, you go in, and it doesn’t matter what job you do, driving a bus or whatever it is, we’ve all got that kind of persona.
“You go home to your loved one and you go, ‘Oh God I’ve had a terrible day!’ But you don’t do that while you’re in your work, you’re professional and you have to be.”
Lorraine was handed a bill made up of almost £900,000 in income tax and more than £300,000 in national insurance contributions in 2016
In her ruling, the judge said her “act” was “to perform the role of a friendly, chatty and fun personality”, stating: “We did not accept that Ms Kelly simply appeared as herself – we were satisfied that Ms Kelly presents a persona of herself, she presents herself as a brand and that is the brand ITV sought when engaging her.”
The judge added: “We should make clear we do not doubt that Ms Kelly is an entertaining lady but the point is that for the time Ms Kelly is contracted to perform live on air she is public ‘Lorraine Kelly’.
“She may not like the guest she interviews, she may not like the food she eats, she may not like the film she viewed but that is where the performance lies.”
The story was the subject of jokes once again when Lorraine made a recent appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.