Carol Vorderman doesn't want a "traditional" relationship and enjoys dating multiple men.
Carol Vorderman doesn't want a boyfriend
The former 'Countdown' star - who was previously married to Christopher Mather for a year and Patrick King, the father of her kids Katie, 30, and 25-year-old Cameron, for a decade - favours "no-strings-attached romances and loves the "freer" way of dating she's embraced, with a series of "special friends".
She told Fabulous magazine: “I get frustrated when women are told to find a man.
“It’s b*****ks, because the goal is not to be in love, the goal is to be happy.
“I want to be able to genuinely say: ‘I love my life.’ And I can say that. So I don’t need to be validated by this nonsense. Love comes in many forms...
“I don’t see my marriage as a failure. So I’m in a new chapter that’s been going on for 10 years now.
“I am a great proponent that if women choose to not get married or they want to be with someone for a limited period of time, they can now.
“It’s your choice if you have a boyfriend or you don’t.
“I might have a boyfriend who only lasts a few months. I call them ‘special friends’. People may have other terms for them!
“But I’m happy living my life that way. The people involved are also very happy about it. That’s between us, it’s nothing at all to do with anybody else."
The 62-year-old presenter won't date anyone already in a relationship and admitted she has been seeing one of her "friends" for over a decade.
She added: “The first rule is: do no harm, so for me that means only single people, obviously.
“In the past, you’d be called horrible words as a woman. A man is a ‘player’, but there is no female equivalent word. So I’ve made one up. I call it ‘Boada’, which is like [ancient warrior queen] Boadicea.
"I’m not going to tell you all the details, but one of my ‘friendships’ has gone on for 11 years. And I have one ‘special friend’ in America. Sliding into DMs is not how I operate, but if people want to do that, that’s up to them.”
“I have a very full, happy, exciting and adventurous life. And it makes me laugh every day. It’s ridiculous and it’s fantastic.
“I think many people are living that life but are too frightened to say. There are a lot of fresh divorcees coming into their 50s and the majority wouldn’t want to get married again.
"They’d say: ‘Maybe I’d like someone, maybe a few people. I didn’t know I wanted to do this, but I want to explore this now.’”
As well as an active dating life, Carol also has a number of male friends she enjoys sharing her hobbies with.
She said: “I go paddleboarding. I love horse racing.
"One of my friends is an astronaut. So I have a lot of friends, not just ‘special friends’. There are so many different elements to my life. I’ve found in the past that when I’ve been in a ‘traditional’ relationship, it restricted my life.
"It’s been: ‘You should be interested in what I’m interested in.’ Now I can make a decision and I don’t have to check in with anybody.”
Tagged in Carol Vorderman