Claudia Winkleman was told to cut her fringe when she landed the hosting job on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.

Claudia Winkleman was told to cut her fringe when she landed the Strictly Come Dancing job

Claudia Winkleman was told to cut her fringe when she landed the Strictly Come Dancing job

The 51-year-old television presenter joined Tess Daly as co-host back in 2014 after the departure of the late Sir Bruce Forsyth.

Claudia has now spilled that Danny Cohen, who was the controller of BBC One at the time, phoned her to offer her the job and then asked for her hair stylist's contact details.

Appearing at the Edinburgh TV Festival, she spilled: "[He said] I’m just going to need a phone number from you. I was like, ‘Oh yeah, okay, which one?’ and he said, ‘Your hairdresser’s.' I was like, ‘Bit weird!'

“Two days later, James, who does my hair, said, ‘This guy phoned up to complain about the length of your fringe.’

"He was like, 'You can have this job but it’s just annoying, it’s down to your nose. You want to be on telly but you’re invisible!'"

Claudia - who has kids Jake, 19, Matilda, 16, and Arthur, 11, with her film producer husband Kris Thykier, 51 - attributes her hairstyle for things “happening” like losing her virginity while a History of Art student at Cambridge.

She said during her ‘Behind The Fringe’ tour in Guildford: "People ask what I am hiding with my fringe — and it's a massive forehead that is repellent.

"When I was 21 and a virgin, I got my fringe and everything started happening."

The BBC Radio 2 DJ also credits being a “walking fringe” as a reason she doesn’t “need” cosmetic injections to keep looking youthful.

Claudia said: "I don’t need Botox now. Have you seen how long my fringe is? It is now almost upper-lip length, I cannot recommend it enough.

“When you hit 51, just grow an enormous curtain in front of your face. Go full yeti. It works.

“I am a walking fringe. But I grew it a centimetre every month and then suddenly started getting complaints. I genuinely get letters of complaint.

“The main concerns seem to be, ‘How does she see?’ and ‘What is she hiding?’. I also had a, ‘Have you got squirrels under there?’ which was a particularly good letter.”

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