Gail Porter’s daughter is “more like a mother” to her because she is so sensible.
Gail Porter’s daughter is “more like a mother” to her.
The 54-year-old presenter – who has 22-year-old Honey with ex-husband Dan Hipgrave – is always open with her child about the ups and downs she’s experienced in her life and while she can behave like a “big child”, her offspring keeps her on the right path.
Gail exclusively told BANG Showbiz: “I share everything with Honey. There are no secrets at all. And she is a bit more like a mother to me.
“I’ll go, ‘Yay. Let’s go do this.’ She went, ‘I don’t think so, Mum.’ You go, ‘Oh, right, OK, sorry.’
“So she still thinks I’m a big child at heart. We’ve talked about everything, and I think that’s really important. I just like her to know that I’m there, I’m not going to judge her. She’s super great.”
Although Gail and Honey have a “lovely relationship”, the former Top of the Pops host admitted her daughter likes to have some space and doesn’t enjoy staying with her.
She said: “Honey’s 22 now, working, has a lovely boyfriend, and comes to stay at my house whenever she feels like it.
“She said, ‘It’s quite annoying staying with you.’ And I was like, ‘Well, hang on a minute. You’re not paying any rent. That’s really good, isn’t it? No.’ I’m not cool enough!
“But no, it’s great. We’ve got a lovely relationship. She’s a friend, and I’m very fortunate because I do miss my mom. I lost my mom when she was 60, so it was a long time ago.
And Gail is grateful her daughter is much more “level-headed” than she ever was.
She said: “She’s pretty level-headed. I see shiny things and I’m off. I’m like, ‘Oh, let’s do this. Let’s do that.’ She’s very sensible with no, pros and cons – it’s a bit Ab Fab. I’m like Edina going, ‘Woo hoo!’
“I get very excited about nothing.”
Gail makes light of her experiences of depression and being sectioned in her stand-up comedy and she’s found it has made people more “comfortable” talking to her about her difficulties.
She said: “When you go through things like being sectioned, I had no one to talk to about it, and no one had gone through it – well, I didn’t think anybody had gone through it.
“And then when I started making jokes about it, it made people more comfortable talking to me about it, going, ‘Oh, actually, what was it like?’
“And then when I brought it up in my stand-up, I started off going, ‘Hands up, who’s been sectioned?’
“Usually people go, ‘What?’ But then this one woman went, ‘Me!’ And I went, ‘Oh, excellent.’ She went, ‘Seven times.’ It’s the number of people who actually get a conversation out of it.”
Gail Porter’s daughter is ‘like a mother’ to her
