Lorraine Kelly has responded to a popular Twitter account that has been keeping a record of her absences from her self-titled morning show, Lorraine.
The presenter has hosted her own ITV program since 2010, having previously appeared on morning shows like Good Morning Britain and GMTV, but recently fans have noticed she's been absent from her show a lot more in recent weeks.
This prompted one user to create an account called Where is Lorraine? using the handle @LorraineKWatch, which currently has over 12,000 followers. The account describes itself as a "Satire account tracking Lorraine Kelly’s attendance", where it lets people know whether or not she's presenting her show that day.
The account has gotten big enough that it's got the attention of Lorraine herself, who has spoken about it during a recent interview, where she admitted she's been away for a little while due to family reasons.
Responding to the account, Lorraine told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: "The amount of space I occupy in people's heads is quite bizarre. It's hilarious. It’s fine, I don’t mind, I don’t care. I probably would have cared before, but I really don’t now, it’s absolutely fine."
She ended on a serious note, though, saying: "To be honest… you should never comment on things like that if you don’t know what’s really going on in people’s lives. But I am having to take quite a few Fridays off, because my mum’s really not well.”
It feels apt to say now that of course we respect that Lorraine may need more time away to look after her mother. There is, and never has been, any malice behind this account. It is all for fun and we are happy that @reallorraine seems to understand thatFebruary 16, 2024
The @LorraineKWatch account has responded to her interview, stressing that they never meant for the account to be malicious, and that it was "all for fun".
Linking to the radio interview, they said: "It feels apt to say now that of course we respect that Lorraine may need more time away to look after her mother. There is, and never has been, any malice behind this account. It is all for fun and we are happy that Lorraine seems to understand that."
During Lorraine's absence from her show, presenter Ranvir Singh has been covering on her behalf, with Christine Lampard also taking over for certain episodes of the program.
Recently, Lorraine was unmasked as Owl on the hit ITV singing competition The Masked Singer and has recently published a book called The Island Swimmer, which she has been promoting.
Lorraine airs weekdays from 9am on ITV1 and ITVX.
