TV and radio personality Kelly Brook says after years of feeling torn over whether to have children, her maternal grandmother gave her some brutally honest advice which gave her a new perspective
Kelly Brook is absolutely loving her bustling life in London with hubby Jeremy Parisi. After some sage advice from her grandmother, she’s determined to live a life free of regrets – and that includes being at peace with her decision not to have children. The presenter, who celebrated her 45th birthday in November, has returned to North London after selling her 15th-century Kent country house that she purchased in her twenties. Now settled (but still incredibly busy working six days a week on Heart Radio), Kelly radiates contentment.
As she shares, it’s partly due to some brutally honest words from a special family member. “When I asked my grandma if she had any regrets in life, because that’s what you ask octogenarians, she said – very honestly – that her biggest regret was having children,” she reveals during an exclusive chat with OK!.
“I wasn’t expecting it, but she definitely said it! I think she felt that having children had taken up a lot of her life. I thought, ‘What an absolutely honest, incredible answer,’ and I think I needed to hear it. I was about 36 at the time and thinking, ‘God, am I ever going to have children? If so, maybe I should just get on with it now? ‘ Then I thought, ‘Actually, I don’t think I want them,’ and hearing that somebody had regrets, and that I might not regret not having children, made me feel really happy about my choice.”
Her grandmother’s straight talk allowed her to realise that life without kids isn’t synonymous with a bundle of regrets; in fact, it can be quite the contrary. “You can change most things in life, can’t you? You can change where you live, you can change your relationships, you can get divorced, you can move on, things can change a lot. What doesn’t change is having children, because that’s the one constant thing – once you have children, you can’t change that.
“Once you’re a mother, you’re a mother for life. I’m a dog mum, but I’m going to be a dog mum for 15 years, so it’s not the same. As someone who’s probably not going to have children, it’s hard to think about regrets now, because what am I going to regret? That I sold my house in LA to move to the UK? Well, there’s nothing stopping me from moving back to LA. If I regret something, I’ll just go back and change it! ” Throughout her nearly three-decade-long journey in the limelight as a model, presenter, and actress, Kelly has consistently delighted and inspired women with her candour and wisdom.
Famously transparent about her body image and the effort she puts into maintaining a health-conscious figure, Kelly is a relatable public figure. Since donning the mantle of SlimFast ambassador in 2018, she’s remained loyal to their shakes and snacks as her go-to strategy for staying “on track”.
“I’m not trying to be anything other than I am,” she shares. “I’m very outward looking and I’m not really that self-obsessed and narcissistic that I care a lot about how I look every day, I’ve never been like that. I love my garden, I love going out walking, I’m not forever taking selfies and looking in the mirror, or out shopping for clothes. But obviously I want to be fit and healthy, and I’m aware that I need to be healthy in order to function and do the job I do.”
After returning to the UK from Los Angeles, her lifestyle changes led her to go from a size 12 to a size 16, which is when she first introduced SlimFast into her routine. Any extra weight lands on her boobs, she says, which is the last thing she needs as she trains for this year’s London Marathon. “I went on a 6km run yesterday and I have to wear these incredible sports bras and lube everything up so there’s no chafing! ” she laughs.
“So I’m just not comfortable being heavier, I’m too much of an active person. And also with hormones and getting older, your metabolism slows down, so you just have to be a bit more aware of what you’re eating and how you live.”
Kelly reveals that until a few years ago, she lived a virtually “reclusive” life in her Kent home, with the restored medieval farmhouse serving as her sanctuary. However, after meeting her now husband Jeremy back in 2014, when she was still living in LA, she realised it was no longer needed.
The expansive garden, which Kelly nurtured herself (with a little help from a handyman and a heavy-duty lawn mower), served as her sanctuary, a place of respite from the pressures and occasional turmoil of her modelling career. She also found solace in gardening, using it as a form of therapy during tough times.
“In stressful times or, you know, if I was going through a relationship break up or people would write bad things about me, I would just go out and prune the roses, build some vegetable beds, or sprinkle some wildflower seeds.”
“Every part of that garden is probably related to some trauma in my life and how I coped with it! One day I went out and bought loads of water lilies and thought, ‘Do you know what? Today would be a great day to make my pond look like Giverny [the home of artist Claude Monet],’ because it was such a s**t day – and somehow I managed it.
“That’s how I would process things and deal with things, it was so healing. But when I met my husband, he became my sanctuary, along with my dog, and I’d never had that before.”
Kelly and Jeremy, 39, began their romance in 2015 and, upon returning home, she once again found comfort in her timber-framed Wealden farmhouse, which she’d painstakingly and lavishly renovated herself. However, as much as she adored the countryside, now that Jeremy was by her side, she felt ready to immerse herself back into the hustle and bustle of London.
“It was time to move on, and we were excited to move to London, I was excited to work on the radio and just be a bit more connected to people. When I first moved in, I thought I was living on Coronation Street because all of a sudden people were knocking on my door and I’d see people when I was out for the dog walk. It was really refreshing to be around people rather than just walking around not seeing a soul! I lived a bit like a recluse for years.”
Highlighting just how much that chapter was closing, Kelly didn’t just sell the home, she sold everything in it, too. The knock-on effect, she tells us, is a rather sparse and mismatched collection of furniture in their new home.
But it has a garden, so she’s happy. “We have nothing now,” she says, laughing. “Well, we have bits and pieces but nothing matches. I’ve got three chairs around the table, not even four or six. Everything is jumbled. We’re definitely at the start of a new chapter and we’re trying to figure out what that is.”
“But in terms of the garden, I have actually done some work. We’ve just thrown down loads of spring bulbs, so that will be really colourful, and we’ve got some lovely camellias. I want it to have a bit of a Cotswolds, modern-country vibe, so we’ve got some bay trees, some lavender and lots of lovely roses, which hadn’t been pruned so I’ve cut them back very hard and I’m not sure if I’ve done it too much, but we’ll see! “.
The public gained insight into Italian model Jeremy’s life through his travels with Kelly across South America on Celebrity Race Across The World last summer. In November, the couple gave This Morning viewers a glimpse into their life together in a three-part miniseries, Kelly And Jeremy: La Vita Italiana, filmed during a trip to Jeremy’s family farm in Southern Italy.
The pair immersed themselves in daily life on the olive farm, harvesting olives from the 7,000-odd trees and feeding the chickens, while exploring a possible relocation to Arpino, where they got married in 2022. Although a move isn’t currently planned, Kelly expressed her interest in introducing the family’s produce to the UK market and didn’t rule out tackling a bigger project, such as a house renovation.
“We do love the lifestyle, and the food and the people, so we’d love to spend more time there. And it was lovely to introduce Jeremy to the British audience on the show, because not many people know much about him. I’m not sure we’d be able to pull off an Italian version of Clarkson’s Farm, but maybe renovating one of the farm buildings, that could be quite a fun TV opportunity.”