With a busier work schedule than ever and a milestone birthday coming this autumn, 2026 is a big year for Cat Deeley. There’s a certain amount of shock at the idea of turning 50 (‘I’ve been doing TV for 30 years! Oh my god, I’m like a dinosaur, tiny arms, roaming the earth!’ she exclaims) but zero wobbles about actually entering a new decade. Despite the best efforts of the team at This Morning.
‘They played back an old clip of me on TFI Friday, and I looked like a baby. I’ve got a bob and these big, choochy cheeks,’ Cat says, smiling at the memory. ‘But I actually prefer the way I look now. I think there are things that have come to me with age, which are confidence and being comfortable in my own skin. I know what suits me a little bit more. I follow fashion a little bit less, probably. I found a hair colour and hairstyle that suits me. And I’ve controlled my fake tan usage,’ she adds cheerfully.
Her biggest and most meaningful shift has come in another way, though. ‘I look after myself a little bit more, not just physically, but mentally. I have more clarity, and I think that’s something to embrace as we get older,’ she says. ‘I never look back and go, “Oh, I wish I was that little girl again.” I look back at her very fondly, and I wouldn’t change anything, but I don’t want to be her anymore. I’m very good with where I am right now. Turning 50 doesn’t faze me in the slightest.’
It probably helps that Cat is looking phenomenal – and brimming with confidence without being remotely conceited. ‘I like to be the best version of me I can be, but I don’t want to look like anybody else,’ she says. ‘I feel like your body and face changes, but quite often not in a detrimental way. Those choochy cheeks have stood me in good stead!’
Her natural good looks have been aided with the occasional professional touch, something that Cat is refreshingly open about. ‘I have some Botox done, and I’ve had hyaluronic [Skinvive boosters] injected before. I don’t mind a little bit of help here and there, but I don’t want everything to be perfectly aligned. I still want to look like me. I quite like my quirks. My nose bends a certain way, my Dad used to tease me about it, but it doesn’t bother me.’
So we’re safe to assume her 14-year stint living in LA, hosting So You Think You Can Dance, hasn’t left her with a secret yearning for a deep plane face lift? ‘No! But I mean, ask me again in 20 years’ time. Maybe!’ she says.
Having won over the UK’s daytime audience with her sunny, relatable personality, Cat is now lending her likeability to L’Oréal Paris, joining the likes of Helen Mirren, Eva Longoria and Gillian Anderson in its roster of glamorous spokesmodels. How did she feel about joining this glossy posse?
‘Oh I love that name!’ she exclaims. ‘I feel like we need satin bomber coats with that on the back. Can we arrange that? It is a bit like joining the Pink Ladies. I was so excited when I called my mum to tell her. And then I told my biggest boy, Milo, who’s 10, and his phrase du jour is already “I’m worth it”!’
Her new L’Oréal Paris gig is dovetailing beautifully with her day job, which involves plenty of early starts. ‘The Revitalift Laser serum is brilliant at night, but it’s really, really great first thing in the morning. So at 5am, I jump in the shower, use the serum first of all and then I use the Revitalift cream. And it just smooths out any fine lines, and hydrates and plumps my skin as well, so all of that is working as I’m in the car. Then I jump into the makeup chair at This Morning and my makeup all just goes on perfectly.’
The new skincare stash also adds a glow that helps compensate for her lack of sleep, something she’s always struggled with since her youth. ‘I find it difficult to turn my brain off at night. I end up spiralling into this abyss of nothingness where I’m going, “Oh my god, how are we going to solve Third World debt and the environmental crisis?” But now I think I’ve just learned not to stress about sleep too much. I know in the back of my head that if I don’t sleep, I’ll be fine tomorrow. I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again.’
Finding this calm and happy place is down to something Cat describes as ‘flying hours’, earned from years of grafting and balancing work with being a mother of two boys (she also shares James, 7, with her ex-husband Patrick Kielty). ‘To use the analogy of a pilot, if you’ve got the flying hours, you feel “I’ve got this and I can cope with it”. Things that would have upset me or thrown me for six before wouldn’t even touch the sides now because I’ve realised it’s actually fine.’
So she’s at her cruising altitude era, then? ‘Yeah! That’s how I feel. And I’m just appreciating everything around me – good health and friends and family, and all of those things. I’m not good at big birthday celebrations for myself, but turning 50 on a gorgeous holiday, taking all the people I care about and love the most, is what I fancy most.’
Cat Deeley is the new L’Oréal Paris Ambassador
