Quotes from Mary Nightingale

It was a deliberate policy not to invite Hello!' into my home. I could have done that stuff and made a lot of money, but I've never regretted not doing it.

I was offered a screen test for a business show on Japanese TV. I did it for a laugh, really, and I got the job. It turned out to be a pretty brave yet brilliant decision.

Once you have children, the years slide by so quickly.

It's still acceptable for male presenters to appear elderly but not their female counterparts. You will never find an old woman and a young man presenting combo.

I think the knowledge and education of young women is incredibly important.

I think in terms of being a good presenter, it's not as simple as having been out in a war zone. Actually the news is far broader than that.

The modern world is about knowledge and it's our job as mums to help our daughters.

I took a while to fall in love with Val d'Isere. It was November 1985 and, keen to delay getting a 'serious job' after university, I had signed up for a season as a chalet girl. What struck me first back then, as I rolled into town on the Bladon Lines bus, was the sheer ugliness of the place.

Gradually, we fell in love with camper-vanning. It's a strange business to begin with - rather like driving a large, rather flimsy cardboard box. It's ugly, the suspension's appalling, you rattle around like pebbles in a tin, and you can't hear yourself speak above the engine.

On screen you have to look elegant, understated and appropriate, and I used to spend masses on designer stuff, but now I get everything in Zara.

I was a decent cook - competent enough to turn out the standard Eighties chalet fare: beef Wellington, banoffee pie, Delia's chocolate bread-and-butter pudding - but it wasn't haute cuisine.

Stats are stats but if you want to be sure you're going to have, say, three children with no problems, you should start at around 23.

If you want to be famous, you can be. You can go to all the things you are invited to. But I don't take to that kind of nonsense.

We'll just unwind in the evening by going out as a family for a pizza where we'll meet up with other families we know from the children's school.

It's taking a while for older women to be the norm on TV.

Modern girls are much more informed than we were. Modern girls seem to know more and there is openness.

I was always anxious about whether I'd find a career I loved or be able to afford to buy a house.

There is a choice you can make. You can want to be a firework and are comfortable with fame. You love it and you want to wear nice dresses and do all that stuff. I don't want to do things like that.