Sara Cox is one of radio’s most popular voices and has become a mainstay of many people’s daily routines as they listen to her on the airwaves. But long before radio came along, Sara got her big break on TV - and it wasn't all as rosy as one might imagine. In an exclusive interview with Good Housekeeping, Sara has opened up about "being thrown to the lions" and an experience that still makes her shiver.
It all started with a serendipitous moment after being sent back home to Bolton for “bad behaviour” having been modelling abroad (she’d put on weight and missed a shoot due to being hungover). Sara's modelling agency set up a casting call for a new Channel 4 series in Manchester - and thankfully, her mum gave her the £3 she needed to get her there.
Sara recalls being the last to audition, saying: “Maybe I instinctively knew it was good to go last and be remembered – or maybe I was just terribly nervous. Either way, I took a hairbrush out to use as a mic and performed for a woman holding a little camcorder. It came really naturally to me to be cheeky to camera as I answered her questions about dating and boys. I was “sassy” – a word I hate now.”
Several weeks later, she found out she’d got her first presenting job on The Girlie Show, the post-pub Channel 4 show that had four women presenters. “I was living in a scruffy little flat in London," she remembers of the time.
"I was such a baby. I really was thrown to the lions. I’d never done any TV and suddenly I was in The Groucho Club with a Sun journalist – some seedy guy who was probably in his 50s but who seemed so old to me then, asking questions about my sex life. I was 21!”, she says with a shiver.
Elsewhere in the interview, Sara spoke about weighing just eight stone at the height of her modelling career, which she owed to an unhealthy lifestyle. “I had what would now be described as ‘disordered eating’,” she explains. “But back then, in the early 90s, it was just seen as the norm. You smoked a lot of Malboro Lights and survived on slimmer soups and coffee. It wasn’t remotely healthy!”
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Now 51, Sara says she sees her 50s “as a golden time”. As well as hosting her Teatime show on BBC Radio 2, she’s now an author, having written a memoir and two novels, with a third due this summer. She’s also mum to three children and, last year, Sara ran a 135-mile ultramarathon for Children in Need.
Is Sara a good mum? “I think so; my kids seem to like me. Ben and I are annoyingly in love and we laugh a lot, which is a good foundation for their childhood, " she says. "They’re very lucky; my parents divorced when I was young, so I didn’t have that. Let’s not forget that they’ve grown up in a privileged household, which makes life so much easier. I was surrounded by love, but my mum worked every hour God sent and there was always a slight undercurrent that money was tight.
“I’ve got a career that I really love, and my kids know it takes me away from them sometimes. But I’m also a good role model. It’s good for the kids to see a woman who’s ambitious. I never used to think I was – when I was younger, being ambitious was a dirty secret. It’s ridiculous – I doubt a man would ever have that thought.’
So are the rumours true and we’ll see Sara presenting Strictly next? Sadly not. She points out that every name in showbiz has been mentioned. “The Krankies will probably be taking over next week…” she laughs.
Read the full interview in Good Housekeeping UK’s May issue, on sale from Wednesday 1st April.
Sara Cox hosts her Teatime show on BBC Radio 2, airing Monday to Friday from 4pm. Her podcast, The Teen Commandments, is available on all major podcast providers.
