Carol Kirkwood on life after BBC Breakfast: living the dream
Former BBC Breakfast weather star Carol Kirkwood says she is living the dream after retiring in April to spend more time with her husband. Among BBC Breakfast presenters known for early starts, Kirkwood traded 2:45am alarms for travel, free evenings and a quieter life in affluent Bray.
Key Takeaways
- Carol Kirkwood left BBC Breakfast weather duties in April after nearly three decades as a BBC weather presenter.
- She says she quit by choice to spend more time with husband Steve Randall, whom she married in 2023.
- The couple live in Bray, where average detached homes have been around £1 million, and have already travelled to Las Vegas and Italy.
- Kirkwood, 64, calls retirement liberating and busier than work, while staying in touch with BBC colleagues.
Why did Carol Kirkwood leave BBC Breakfast?
Kirkwood did not walk away because she was tired of television. In interviews after her exit, the 64-year-old Scot said she loved being a weather presenter and that leaving was her decision.
“I loved being a weather presenter. I loved my job, and it was my choice to leave, because I love my husband more, and we want to do things together,” she told The Independent.
She had been a BBC weather presenter for 28 years, primarily on BBC Breakfast, and had been the show’s main weather face since 2010. Among long-serving BBC Breakfast presenters who built careers on dawn shifts, her reason for going was personal rather than professional.
Where does she live after retiring from morning TV?
Kirkwood and Randall, a former policeman in his early fifties who is also retired, remain based in Bray, an exclusive riverside village near Windsor about an hour from London. Rightmove figures cited by the Daily Express put the average detached home there at around £1 million over the past year.
She has described their contemporary detached house as a refuge with a manageable garden where the couple enjoy pottering. The village is also known for Michelin-star dining, including Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck.
They married in 2023 in a small ceremony at Cliveden after meeting in 2017. Randall proposed near their Bray home. Kirkwood was previously married to businessman Jimmy Kirkwood for 25 years; they divorced in 2008.
What is Carol Kirkwood doing with her retirement freedom?
“I’m living the dream, I’m loving it,” she said, adding that retirement has made her busier than when she was working. Free weekday evenings mean cinema, theatre, meals out and staying up late for the first time in years.
Travel was central to their plan. They saw The Eagles at Las Vegas’s Sphere once dates finally fitted, then visited Matera and Venice. Bucket-list stops include Nashville, Graceland, New Orleans, India’s Golden Triangle and a longer return to Australia.
Both had comprehensive Bupa health assessments after losing family and friends to cancer. Results were normal, though her fitness was only just average, prompting lunges, squats, Couch to 5K and weight training. They favour a Mediterranean, cook-from-scratch diet at home.
She still misses colleagues on BBC Weather and BBC Breakfast but stays in touch as friends. “I’ll never not look at the weather – it’s a part of my DNA,” she said, while insisting she is finally living to her own timetable.