Clare Balding
Clare Balding
Clare Victoria Balding OBE is an award-winning broadcaster, journalist and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4, BT Sport and the religious/spiritual programme Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionTV Show Host
Date of Birth29 January 1971
life people trying
Like so many kids, I just wanted to fit in, and I see now that I spent most of my life trying to be what I wasn't, trying to get people to like me.
judgmental rarely
Very rarely will you listen to the radio in a judgmental way, the way you'll watch telly.
becomes
When you're little, your father is your hero. Mine was. Then it all becomes more complicated.
I think I can be spiritual, and I can feel that I want to live well, I want to do things that I'm proud of, and I think that's important. Now, do I need a church to tell me that? Actually, no, I don't.
change knew life lucky realised suddenly thyroid wish
Having thyroid cancer in 2009 really didn't change my life at all. I wish I could say that I had this epiphany. But I knew I was lucky before that, so it's not like I suddenly realised how lucky I am.
On the beach, I take my clothes off under a towel.
fact fantastic public schools sports state
I hate the fact that public schools like the one I went to have fantastic sports facilities, and state schools don't. That's not fair. That's outrageous.
change matters sports
I know sport can change the world, and that matters to me.
acts actual bones far flesh hate love merely shape thin understood veil whose women
I have never understood the clamour for waif-like women whose flesh acts merely as a thin veil for their bones - much as I would love to be thinner, I would hate to take it so far that I had no actual shape at all.
healthier models
Swimmers provide much healthier role models for teenagers than the catwalk.
celebrated relationship sung written
The British have a unique relationship with horses. They are etched into our landscape in chalk, they have been written about, painted, sung about, celebrated and gambled upon for centuries.
allowed british change meant running schools sports women
If you look back at British history, women being allowed to play sport in schools meant they had to change their clothing. They couldn't be running around in their long skirts and corsets, because you can't.
Weekends are a real luxury for me because I'm usually working.
across male time
You come across words all the time that are everyday sexism. I was described as 'competently bossy' and 'bossily competent' by a male journalist, and I thought, 'Gosh, 'bossy' is never used of a man.'