Quotes from Konnie Huq

One minute you're up a mountain, the next you're down a well. One minute you're with Tony Blair, the next you're with McFly. Ten years feels like two years when you're in the 'Blue Peter' bubble.

I get recognised a lot. If there are a load of school kids together, they'll shout at me, but I'm quite good at giving grief back. I give as good as I get.

My parents were first-generation immigrants. My mum wore a sari but at school and as a teenager and in my 20s I wanted to fit in.

My husband Charlie says I get ready five minutes before I go out the door. I am one of those people who can't do anything unless it's imminent - that's how I roll.

Back in humanity's hunter-gatherer days, you only ate meat if you'd recently made a kill, which required a huge amount of effort, and was therefore relatively rare. There's a reason humans only have one set of incisors to rip our meat apart: we're not supposed to eat the stuff at every meal.

In all aspects of our society we overcomplicate things under the guise of making things easier and simpler, when in fact we are doing the opposite.

I like interiors as much as exteriors but 'interior designer' just sounds naff as a job.

A problem shared is a problem halved, but as with so many problems affecting women - periods, menopause, post-natal depression - we often feel embarrassed, as if we're moaning or just plain wrong to air them.

We rip out a perfectly good kitchen worth thousands of pounds, only to replace it with another costing roughly the same. The old one has to be disposed of, the new one had to be made. From raw materials, factory processes and transportation the extra effort is substantial. Overcomplication.

And then I saw this article in 'Time Out' magazine for TV presenters, so I went along with my sisters and we did this audition. It was open auditions, it was just a fun day out, but there were maybe 600 people there or something. It was just crazy.

When I was in the sixth form I presented a cable and satellite programme about music, television and video. I used to do public speaking competitions.

From a young age I was really into pop music because I had these two older sisters who were into it, and I wanted to be like them. They liked Wham! and so I was really into them too.

Food lovers tend to make life difficult for themselves on their travels. It's like travelling first class, if your expectations are so high, you're bound to be disappointed.

I've never been more terrified than when I learned how to paramotor. They attached this machine to my back, as if I was a stuntman in a James Bond movie, and I had to fly over all these trees and patches of concrete in Cirencester.

Having seen many of my friends go through the trial of trying month after month to conceive, then finally the joy of getting pregnant followed by the heartbreak of miscarriage, I know how lonely and isolating it can be to have to go back to square one carrying that heartbreak with you.

I did this show for Sky called 'King of the Nerds', which was a reality show looking for the world's biggest nerd, essentially, celebrating the geek, which is also what I'm about.

I wear mascara, eyeliner, a bit of foundation and blusher. I always think lip gloss makes you appear properly made-up. Slap it on and suddenly you look glamorous.

An experience that shaped me happened early in my TV career when I filmed in Mozambique, Angola and Bangladesh for 'Blue Peter' and Comic Relief. Places with extreme poverty. When you see that first-hand as a young person, you take it with you for life.

I'm the youngest of three children and grew up in Ealing, west London. My eldest sister, Nutun, is nine years older than me, and my middle sister, Rupa, is three years older.

Growing up as the youngest daughter to immigrant parents, it was instilled in me from an early age to not be wasteful and to be respectful of money and possessions.

Never mess with other people's kids. You will never win. It's the child's word against yours and they have parental reinforcements as back-up. You just can't triumph.

At eight or nine I passed the exam for Notting Hill and Ealing High, a private school. I had an assisted place; I was always the one who, for financial reasons, didn't go on the skiing trip or whatever.

I'm lucky in that the media is much more freelancey. So I didn't have that pressure that lots of people have if you jump off the ladder, then you get left behind.

I think relaxation is escaping from your everyday encounters. You can read the words on a page and be transported to somewhere else. And the more consumed you are with it, the more you're cocooned.