'Divorce is not a pleasant thing'

She’s been through the toughest of times, but now Kirsty Gallacher is turning her heartache into a new beginning

Kirsty Gallacher is exactly the sort of woman you’d want on your team. She’s committed, enthusiastic, organised to a tee (sometimes even her interview answers sound like bullet points) and sitting still ain’t in her nature.

When our shoot starts to over-run, putting her in danger of being late for her next engagement, she steadfastly refuses to call it a day until she’s nailed the final shot, and proactively conjures up some creative ideas of her own to help move things along.

This kind of dedication to the cause is very likely one of the reasons she’s been getting along so famously with her Strictly dance partner Brendan Cole, 39, a notoriously tough taskmaster and a man who has a reputation for being less than patient with anyone he deems not taking things seriously enough. Just ask Fiona Phillips. Or Lulu.

He won’t have such concerns with Kirsty.
“We are both perfectionists,” she agrees. “We both want the same thing and we’ve both got that mentality. If I got to training and we just sat down and had coffee all the time, I would be really uncomfortable with that.”

There’s no time for coffee breaks in Kirsty’s packed schedule at the moment. Once she’s got her boys Oscar, eight, and five-year-old Jude to school, she’s straight into three hours of training with Brendan before heading to the Sky Sports News studios, where she anchors the late-afternoon bulletin.
She gets home at around 7pm and will sometimes squeeze in an extra dancing session after the boys have gone to bed. It’s a challenge, but one that Kirsty, 39, is relishing, particularly coming on the back of what has been a hugely testing time.

Last summer, she and former England rugby player husband Paul Sampson, 38, announced they were to split after four years of marriage and 14 together. Paul moved out of the family home in Virginia Water, Surrey, and their divorce came through earlier this year.

Kirsty bristles when the topic is raised – her sentences become clipped, some of the more emotionally probing questions are understandably sidestepped (when asked if she’s been through a grieving process she answers a different question entirely) and her eyes turn misty.

She’s uncomfortable talking about something so personal and clearly still raw.
“I am no different to anyone else going through a divorce – it’s just not a pleasant thing,” she says.

“You split up from someone who you’ve been with for a long time. We have two kids and it has been difficult. I know there are people that go through far worse, but it was not pleasant. The last year, there has been a lot of sorting things out and there has been a lot of emotion. But I do feel like now is the time to regroup and go forward. It’s just one of those things.

“Hopefully all that is behind me and I can enjoy my life again. I feel like I’ve got myself together and I can concentrate on going forward in a positive way.”

 

During the last 12 months, Kirsty and Paul’s priority has, naturally, been to protect their sons from the fallout. They work together to divide the childcare between them, and Kirsty says both boys have adjusted well in the aftermath of the split.

“The kids are great. They are doing brilliantly and, touch wood, it will continue like that. As long as they are OK then you are lucky.

“It actually works very well, and it’s great for the boys to have that balance. They are very sporty, so they go off with their dad and do loads of rugby and this, that and the other. It’s quite nice for him to take them to that stuff. So it’s good, we share everything and balance it and just make sure they are OK.

”Although doggedly independent, Kirsty, who is one of three children, also relies on help from her parents – golfing legend dad Bernard, 66, and mum Lesley, 62 – for extra support.

“I’m a single working mum,” she says. “I have always been very independent and I would rather try to cope with it myself. You make a choice and you make it work.

“But there are times when it’s more difficult than others, and my parents are incredible. I still call my mum all the time: ‘Mum, can you do this? How do you do this? What do I do now? How do you make this?’ I’m very lucky to have her.

”Quite apart from the fact that she doesn’t have time to think about meeting anyone else, Kirsty is enjoying the freedom of single life and, for now, isn’t interested in getting back on to the dating scene – although she was linked to 30-year-old golfer Martin Kaymer at the end of last year.

“It’s not on my mind,” she says instantly. “I’m enjoying being on my own – I have so much going on, loads of work, my schedule is nuts at the moment. I’m not even seeing my friends so I can’t see anyone else.

“I need time for me at the moment. I need time and space.”

She’s not ruling out having more children, though. A few years ago, she said she would love another child and hoped one day for a daughter. That, despite everything, has not changed.

“Ah, I would love more kids,” she says, visibly softening. “If I happen to be in the situation in the next few years where I could have more, then yes, I would. I love being a mum and I get broody quite a lot. I had great birth experiences and I know I’m very, very lucky for that. Giving birth is a bit of a drug for me, and I kind of want to go back there.

 “My boys are incredible – they are my two most precious things in the world. Children change your life, and when I think of them, I get emotional, because when I’m not with them¿ Everything I do is for them. You can’t describe what that’s like until you are a parent.”

Kirsty and ex-husband Paul; with mum Lesley and golfer dad Bernard

For someone who has had two children, Kirsty is in astonishing shape. Thrice-weekly sessions since the start of the year with personal trainer Josh Salzmann have transformed her body from naturally slim into the machine it is today.

She’s still petite, but the abs are positively popping, the arms are sculpted and there’s not an inch to pinch anywhere.

“I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life,” she says. “I’ve worked hard in the past year and it’s taken regular training, eating well, and yes, I think at this age I feel better than I have ever felt about my body.”

Her routine is resistance and weights-based, and includes push-ups, pull-ups and tricep dips, which explains how those arms happened.

“My mum has good arms, though, so maybe it is in the genes,” she says. “If I look like my mum at 62, I’ll be very pleased. And a lot of it is lifestyle as well. I have two very active little boys, so I do a lot of running around after them. I’m always out and about at the weekend on the touchline of a football pitch or kicking a ball to them or cycling.

“It’s also about what you do on the side. I’ve never really taken lifts, I always take the stairs. My mum taught me that you always keep moving and it’s just a way of living.”

Was posing nude for Women’s Health earlier this year a sign that her body confidence has never been higher? Kirsty shakes her head firmly. No, it most certainly was not. Far from it.

“It was something I really, really had to think about – it wasn’t an easy thing for me to do at all. I’m not a showy person and so it was actually quite difficult for me.

“I didn’t do it because I’m really confident and that was the whole point of it. It wasn’t about the perfect body – it was about fitness, health, strength and wellbeing.

“I was in such a great group of women – Olympic medallists, former athletes – and everyone had a story on a fitness level to tell. I was very flattered to be asked, but I’ve worked hard, here I am, and by no means am I at the point of being really happy. But in the end I thought: ‘Why not?’ If, at 39, I can help inspire some women out there, then great.”

Kirsty never intended to work in television. She was studying at the London College of Fashion when, at the age of 19, a Sky executive approached her at a Ryder Cup dinner she was attending with her dad.

“I just thought: ‘Oh, that will be fun,’ and it was great and exciting because Sky Sports was developing, Sky Sports News and Digital was launching a few years down the line.

“I just went: ‘OK!’ and I was made a runner, and then I worked my way up to assistant producer and then they said: ‘Right, you’re doing a week’s cramming presenting course, and then you’re going on air to be one of our first Sky Digital presenters.’ I was chucked in the deep end. I haven’t looked back.”

That screen break came in 1998, and Kirsty has gone on to work on a string of shows across a range of channels, including The Games and ill-fated breakfast show RI:SE on Channel 4, plus Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV.

However, ask whether the venture on to Strictly is a strategic one in order to move more permanently into light entertainment, and Kirsty is adamant that it’s not.

On Strictly with Brendan Cole

“It’s not what I’m thinking. I love my job at Sky. If things come up, you make a decision, but I am very happy where I am. Sky is like a family, and right now I’m doing this and Strictly is a little bit of fun on the side.

“I’ve already done a lot of Saturday-night shows, so I don’t feel like I am missing out. I think life presents you with things and it’s about whether you are in the right place to do them. So we’ll see.”

Whatever happens on the show, keen dancer Jude is particularly thrilled about his mum’s involvement.

“He loves dancing. Oscar loves music, but Jude is really good at dancing, he just gets up and does his
Michael Jackson stuff, moonwalking and all, it’s hilarious. I’ve said to them it’s just a bit of fun, but they'll get a lot out of seeing it and they can come and watch rehearsals.

“They are loving the whole thing and they find it funny because their friends say to them: ‘Ah, your mummy’s doing Strictly!’”

Kirsty pauses and for a moment it looks like she might burst into tears.

“I really want to try and make them both proud.”

Watch Kirsty on Strictly, tonight, 7.15pm, BBC1.

Additional photography: Alpha, Rex Features Hair: Dino Pereira using Hair Rehab London Make-up: Sarah Exley using Rodial Styling: Kate Barbour Kirsty wears pic 1: top and skirt, both Kim West; bar ring, Freedom at Topshop; shoes, New Look pic 2: top, Quiz; shorts, American Apparel; bar ring, as before; curved ring, ASOS