If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from watching Loose Women, it’s not to pick a fight with Kaye Adams: as she points out herself, she’d have an argument in a room on her own if she could. What she doesn’t mention, though, is that her quick wits and fast tongue would probably mean she’d win.
So it comes as a surprise that, in real life, the forthright Scot is softly spoken and chilled out. She’s also one of those stars the cameras don’t do justice to: immaculately turned out with swishy, blow-dried hair and radiant skin, she looks far younger than her 52 years. It goes without saying that she loves a good natter, and we settle down in a cafe for a long and entertaining chat.
"I find myself getting into debates with people, even when I’m not on the show," she says with a laugh. "I’m sure sometimes I walk out of a room and everyone rolls their eyes and says, 'Oh, for God’s sake.' But it’s just the way I am."
But, after a total of nine years on Loose Women, nobody would expect anything less. In fact, it’s one of the reasons she’s so popular.
The show is much more than just a job to Kaye, who counts some of her closest friends among the other presenters.
"There’s something really special about the team, and we just have so much fun together," she says. "Sometimes it gets quite heated and we can get a bit huffy with each other, but we all respect each other so much that we’ll come away from it, have a cup of tea and everything will be fine."
As well as a successful stint on the popular daytime show, Kaye has had an extraordinarily varied career. After starting out as a political journalist, she’s presented talk shows and radio programmes and even squeezed in appearances on celebrity versions of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, MasterMind and Countdown. She also appeared on Total Wipeout, bouncing over the famous blue balls.
"My kids [Charlie, 14, and Bonny, eight] practically wet themselves when they watch it back; it’s an endless source of amusement for them," she says. "At the time, I felt as if I was jumping around like an athlete, but I looked more like a wee old lady tottering about at the church sale on a
Sunday morning."
Long before such silliness, Kaye tried her luck as a Westminster journalist, an experience she didn’t enjoy because of the ‘very entitled, boy’s club atmosphere’ in politics at the time. Early in her career she impressed her TV bosses by securing an interview with the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
"I was a bit of a leftie student back then, and I went in with this attitude that I was going to give the 'milk snatcher' what for," laughs Kaye.
The Iron Lady, however, had other ideas.
"The minute she saw me, she could tell I was wet behind the ears. She sorted out my twisted collar and brushed the dandruff off my shoulders, then showed me around number 10. All of my fire left me.
"During the whole interview, I only managed to ask her two questions, she just talked. The editors had to spend the whole night cutting out the bits of the interview where I just said “mmm”!"
With such a busy career and a fun social life, Kaye left it until later to start her family. She met her partner Ian when he was her tennis coach.
"Sounds like a bad Jackie Collins novel, doesn’t it?" she says with a smile. The couple had been together for eight years quite happily before one day – aged 36 – she decided she wanted kids.
"I was walking over Westminster bridge and out of nowhere it came into my head," says Kaye.
"In some ways it was great having my first child at that age [38]," she says. "I’d done all my major self-obsessing about the way I felt and looked – I’d figured myself out and was ready to give back to my kids."
But having kids later on did come with some drawbacks. "My eldest, Charlie, recently pointed out that me being older means we won’t have as much time together. It completely floored me and I had to catch my breath."
Upsetting as that thought was, Kaye wisely doesn’t dwell on it.
"You can’t get too tied up in what you think you should be doing at different ages," she says. "We’d be kidding ourselves to think there’s an element of control in our lives – you only have to think about cancer sufferers to know that."
Sadly, Kaye’s life has been greatly affected by breast cancer. She lost
‘a very dear friend’ to the illness, and has watched her Loose Women co-host Carol McGiffin battle the disease. As such, she’s an ambassador for the charity Breast Cancer Care and will be hosting a fashion show in which all the models are breast cancer survivors.
"It’s such an amazing show and a unique kind of atmosphere – it’s really very poignant," says Kaye. "I get a bit twitchy about people being labelled brave or inspirational; I think everyone should be able to deal with cancer in their own way. Carol knows she can talk to me about her illness, if she wants to. I totally admire her."
Thankfully, Carol is now well on her way to recovery, and will hopefully soon be back on our screens. Did seeing her do so well on Celebrity Big Brother in 2013 inspire Kaye to think about appearing in a reality show next?
"I’m obsessed with Strictly Come Dancing. I love nothing more than sitting down to watch it with a bottle of wine," she says with a smile.
"But there’s no way I’d ever appear on the show – it would be like Miranda [Hart] going on. I can’t think of any situation on television that would be more stressful – I’d be stricken!"
As long as we can still get our Kaye fix on Loose Women, that’s fine by us...
How does Kaye spend her Sunday?
Weekend away or Sunday at home?
I really love being at home because I travel a lot in the week.
Lazy lie-in or up with the larks?
Somewhere in the middle. I used to be such a late sleeper, but I’ve got children now.
Gym or lazy day?
I have to do some exercise or I get agitated. I do spin classes a lot because
I like sweaty exercise.
Running errands or pampering?
Getting my nails done would send me over the edge – I’m not a girly girl at all.
Boxset or country walk?
I love taking my cockapoo Bea for walks. It’s great having a dog because it gives you a good reason to get out and about.
What did you do last Sunday?
Nadia [Sawalha] was visiting. She spent most of the time swanning around wrapped in a blanket like a babushka because she’s not used to the Scottish weather. I introduced her to Edinburgh gin – she’s a total convert now.
Breast Cancer Care’s annual Scottish fashion show is on Wednesday 4 November at the Radisson Blu in Glasgow.
For care, support and information, call 0808 800 6000 or visit breastcancercare.org.uk