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CHRISTINE Lampard is pondering the question of whether women can ever truly “have it all”.
Can working mothers juggle several priorities all at once and have a high-flying career while balancing family life? Or is it a damaging myth that puts women under too much pressure to achieve the impossible?
“I suppose it depends on what ‘all’ means,” she says. “For me, it’s doing what I’m doing at the minute, having a nice home life and a happy, healthy child. That’s my goal.
“That might not be someone else’s ‘all’. That could be a boring ‘all’ to someone else. Other people might want to be the best in their job or take on American television or whatever, but for me that’s it.
"It might be simple, but I’m really happy with it and so I honestly think I have got it all.”
Surprisingly, given her high-profile TV career, Christine says she’s never been particularly ambitious. She harbours no desire to host a show on a regular basis, especially since becoming a mum to Patricia, who turns one next month.
She’s more than happy hosting Loose Women and filling in on ITV’s Lorraine – currently enjoying its highest ratings in the last nine years – during holiday seasons without the commitment of being there all year round.
“I actually don’t want to conquer the world. I have lots of friends who are very successful people – men and women – but my drive isn’t quite like that.
“I’m really grateful that I have this lovely stint on Lorraine and then in September I can take my foot off the pedal and be at home more. That suits me.
“I don’t want to have to be ‘on’ every day. I love what I do and I love having time at home and being able to go back to Northern Ireland when I want to.
"Those things are as important to me as any job and, touch wood, at the minute I’ve got that balance and I can’t really ask for much more than that.”
It is rare to find a celebrity as universally liked by everyone who comes across them as Christine. She’s just so nice, with a natural, engaging warmth and a kindness which makes her genuinely lovely to be around.
Colleagues at ITV say she’s a dream to work with and has no ego or “side” to her whatsoever, dispelling the myth that you have to be ruthless to get ahead in what can be a cut-throat industry.
“I would like to think I prove that’s not the case,” she says. “I came up through the ranks, I started making tea and did all of the crappy jobs and so I have a real appreciation for what everybody does.
"Loving what I do is also a massive part of it, so I go into work feeling really lucky. I do know that some people aren’t so fortunate.
"I’ve been on the other side of it when I worked behind the scenes with celebs who came through the doors and were horrible to me because I was a mere runner, and then they’d go on to the main show and be so terribly nice. And I’d think: ‘Oh my goodness, if only people really knew what you were like.’”
Does she still see that now? “Occasionally, yes. I hear whispers of people being horrible to the runner but nice to me. I will judge them by how they were with the runner – that is the measure of someone to me.”
Motherhood has clearly brought her huge joy and Christine, 40, beams when asked how the first year with Patricia has gone.
“Ach, it’s been brilliant,” she says. “It’s just the usual madness of getting the hang of surviving on less sleep than you thought you’d ever be able to, but she’s great, I have to say.
"She’s desperately trying to walk, she pulls herself up and is doing that crawling around the edge of the sofa thing. She’s very determined.
“But we’ve quickly realised how un-babyproof the house is. I’m going to buy her knee pads and a helmet and she’ll just have to wear it until she’s about 22 so I don’t have to stress every two seconds!”
The sleeplessness and fog of those early months of parenting can test even the strongest of relationships, but Christine pooh-poohs any suggestion that she and husband Frank ever felt the strain.
“No, not at all. We’re not 18. We knew what we were getting into. And she’s just brilliant.
"Utterly the spitting image of her father, although there’s a tiny little curl starting to grow at the back of her hair, so that’s the one little bit of me that seems to have come through the DNA. Everything else is 100 per cent Daddy.”
Christine exclusively breastfed for the first six months and is currently phasing the boob out as Patricia – who husband Frank, 41, affectionately calls Patsy – approaches her first birthday.
She says she’s always been a “pretty good sleeper”, which Christine puts down in part to her healthy appetite.
“I think it’s a lot to do with a full belly. She likes her food and I think that’s always been a big help. When I was breastfeeding exclusively she just couldn’t get enough, and I thought: ‘Well, this is a good trait!’
“She doesn’t wake up looking for feeds or any of that business any more, but she has a bit of moan in the middle of the night and I think it’s just to check I’m still there. She still sleeps beside me at night so I just stick my hand in and everything is good. Then she’ll go back to sleep.”
Christine has a close relationship with Frank’s daughters Luna, who turns 14 this week, and Isla, 12, from his previous relationship with Elen Rivas, and they both dote on Patricia.
“They adore her, I mean completely and utterly adore her, even more than I imagined they would. They’re at that perfect stage where I can ask them to keep an eye on her while I have a quick shower. They’re both very helpful, trustworthy and so brilliant with her.”
Before Christine announced her pregnancy, she’d faced years of speculation and questions about if and when she and Frank were going to start a family. Did it ever bother her how over-invested other people were in such a personal story?
“I didn’t give a s**t,” she says. “I just never got why it was a question. Whose business is it? And what difference does it make to anybody other than me?
Book you read?
Milkman by Anna Burns. I haven’t finished it yet, but I will have by the time this is printed.
Movie you watched?
I had to interview Idris Elba so I watched the new The Fast And The Furious. I’m not into that kind of stuff, but it was good.
Box set?
Chernobyl, and I still haven’t finished Line Of Duty. Frank takes pictures of me asleep midway through. By 9pm I can feel my eyes going!
Time you cried?
I got emotional when Patricia said “Mama” for the first time a week ago. Happy tears.
Time you were drunk?
I was merry on Frank’s birthday in June. That was merriment.
DM you received?
Keith Lemon – or Leigh Francis, really. He was on the show. He did a little sketch of me and sent it, so I replied thanking him.
“I think it’s always an awful question to ask a woman because no one knows what’s going on behind closed doors. Unless you’re within a really close circle, it’s nobody’s business.
“So many of my friends are struggling or have struggled and their work colleagues wouldn’t know it. And men suffer with it as well. It can be a terrible strain.”
Mention of Frank’s new job as the Chelsea boss prompts a sharp intake of breath followed by a grimace. Christine admits she’s nervous for him.
With just one year of managerial experience at Derby County under his belt, it’s a massive jump, but marks a return to the club where he spent 13 years as a player, so Frank more than anyone knows the pressures that lie ahead.
“It’s an absolute dream job but a very pressurised one. You’re suddenly very much in the spotlight – it’s Chelsea, so the whole world will be watching. But he knows what it is.
“I’m always nervous. Oh my god, I used to be beside myself when he was playing. It’s a huge job, but the sort of job you can’t say no to. We had a brilliant year in Derby, we rented a little place up there and I met some of the best people in football.
"So it was always going to take a big job to leave that, and it could really only have been Chelsea.
“He’s relishing it. It’s an all-consuming job. Right down to deciding what people have for their lunch, everything goes through the gaffer.
"But he’s just ready for it and I think he was built to do it. And he’ll be in London, which is lovely. We just do our best to constantly work our lives together and enjoy having time together, too. We are still best mates.”
This October will mark 10 years since Christine and Frank first met at the Pride of Britain Awards, where Piers Morgan claims to have set them up. They married four years ago, and she says she knew right from the start it was going to be something special.
“Yeah, and Frank did as well. We just had fun straight away. I remember us properly laughing with each other and thinking: ‘This is what I want and need.’ We just clicked on all levels.
“We both talk about when we moved in together because neither of us can remember it happening. It was a case of all of a sudden, all of our stuff was in the one place. Everything has always been very natural.
“You know when you can read someone else’s mind? While I think the term ‘soulmate’ is a bit bleugh, I guess that’s sort of what it is. When you meet someone and you don’t have to work at it. That’s what you want, isn’t it?
“I miss him terribly when he’s away. I couldn’t wait to get him back from [pre-season in] Japan and I just feel very lucky. Especially because neither of us were actually meant to be at Pride of Britain that night.”
So did fate have a part to play?
“Yeah, a little bit. And then Piers. Kevin Pietersen was with Frank and they were at a table with Piers and it all came about because of that. So it’s true that Piers was sort of there at the beginning. He was slightly involved – I can’t entirely take that away from him!”
Christine studied politics at uni and still takes a keen interest in the subject – growing up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles meant it was unavoidable. But a career as a political journalist was never on the cards.
“Not really. Standing outside Number 10 for most of the day is not quite for me. But I was always fascinated because growing up in Northern Ireland, you’re involved in politics whether you want to be or not.
“You had to be because it dictated whether or not your car got blown up. I remember many times being evacuated out of buildings, out of our house, shopping centres. And I did politics wanting to know more and thinking maybe I could change something.
“I find the whole political platform at the minute so crazy. And because it’s so intense I wonder if a lot of people just back off and go: ‘Oh, I don’t want to hear the word Brexit any more,’ and disengage.’”
Is she a feminist?
“I think I am. If I’m sitting on a sofa with someone on the telly doing the exact same job, we should be paid the same. A woman shouldn’t have to ever feel intimidated going into a workplace because she is the only woman.
“I do think things are getting better, certainly within my industry they are. There’s an open dialogue now and I don’t think people are scared to speak up like they were in the past.
“Years ago, when I was training as a floor manager, there weren’t that many females within the technical world of telly. And that’s changed massively in my time, which I think is great.
A woman shouldn’t have to ever feel intimidated going into a workplace because she is the only woman.
"We have loads of female camera operators now and in the sound department it’s pretty much 50/50. That’s a brilliant shift as far as I am concerned.”
Frank has been looking after Patricia while Christine is here at the shoot – childcare is “a constant juggling act” and they have managed so far without a nanny.
Dressed down in skinny jeans, heels, a shirt and a black blazer, she looks effortlessly chic, although she says she “doesn’t necessarily feel it most of the time”.
She points out that she’s a stone heavier than she was pre-pregnancy but, refreshingly, has little inclination to do anything about it.
“I’m wider all round here,” she says motioning towards her waist and hips.
“And I’ve gone up a shoe size since I had her! I could do more to try to trim myself back in, but I don’t care. I’m enjoying her and I enjoy a glass of rosé. I mean come on, it’s the summer! I can’t say no to any of it.”
The best piece of advice, she says, came from her own mother Mina.
“She said something really quite crucial after I’d had the baby – that there will be days when you think: ‘Right, I’m going to go out and do this and do that today or tackle the ironing which is the height of the ceiling...’ But maybe Patricia will have a temperature.
"So there will always be days when everything goes out the window, and that’s fine. You’ve got to maybe do things at a slower pace. And that helped me. I have taken a step back and felt OK saying: ‘I can’t do that today.’”
It all comes back, really, to lowering expectations of ourselves.
“Absolutely. We can’t do everything. No one can, so don’t beat yourself up. When she was first born I thought I would never be able to leave the house again! But, you do. You do.”
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