I binned off gorgeous date over cringe red flag – I’m done with time-wasters, says Inside The Factory’s Cherry Healy
TV presenter Cherry Healey is looking for love again after splitting from her long-term boyfriend – and reckons her flirty forties are the perfect time to bag Mr Right.
But the Inside the Factory star, 43, has no truck with time-wasters and self-obsessed men.
The BBC presenter, who split from a long-term relationship last year, reveals how she recently binned off a date who talked about himself for 90 minutes solid.
She told The Sun: “This guy was gorgeous but talked about himself for an hour and a half.
“He turned to me and said ‘do you want another drink?’ and I said ‘You know what, I’m going to go home because all you’ve done is talk about yourself and people I don’t know’.
“He hadn’t asked what I did for a job or anything about my family life, nothing.”
Despite her dating disaster, mum-of-two Cherry is loving single life after her six-year relationship with advertising executive Carl Kisseih ended last year.
And she reckons dating in her 40s is better than any other decade.
Cherry said: “As you get older you know more about who you are and you can communicate your likes and dislikes much more clearly which benefits relationships endlessly.
“I know what kind of person I’m suited to, can spot a red flag a bit further away and a green flag a little better.
“When we’re younger we idolise love and lose ourselves in romance and in someone else. We want love from them so badly that we forget to ask the question, ‘Do I actually really like them?.”
‘Awful’ break-up
Cherry was previously wed to entrepreneur Roly Allen and the couple have two children together, daughter Coco, 13, and son Bear, nine.
She later described their 2016 break-up in “awful”, saying: “We’d been married for six years and together for eight and suddenly it felt like throwing my life up in the air and waiting to see where it landed.
“I had loads of work on and had to keep my emotions in a box until the evenings when I would just sob and sob and have chocolate snacks in the early hours of the morning.”
But it appears she now enjoys a great relationship with her ex hubby saying: “I feel lucky, you can marry a real pain. Luckily I don’t have that and it’s a lovely, happy thing.”
Cherry is from an aristocratic background – her dad Nicholas is the son of a 4th Baronet and she attended posh Cheltenham Ladies College before completing a degree in drama.
She is known for her documentaries on BBC Three including a trio of films about her own life, including Cherry Has a Baby, Cherry Gets Married and Cherry’s Body Dilemmas.
Cherry has also presented shows like Inside The Factory with Gregg Wallace, who quit the programme in March this year, and The Jump’s spin-off show On The Piste and has appeared on Celebrity MasterChef.
Despite her upper-class upbringing Cherry is refreshingly down-to-earth and talks to us from her kitchen with her hair in a messy bun wearing virtually no make-up.
“I was rushing from one place to another today and at one point my mascara was smudged in the back of a taxi as I went to my next meeting, but I don’t worry about those things nowadays.”
Cherry says age has taught her more about her personal style too.
She says: “In my early 30s I had no idea if my style was boho, mix and mix, just crazy, but now I know who I am in every single way. I like to wear really clean lines and casual clothes.
“If I’m going out on a date, now that the kids are older, I have a little bit more headspace to get ready. I’ll put on some music, spend some time doing my make-up and, because I know what clothes suit me, I find it quite easy to get dressed.”
4am nightmares
Cherry hit the perimenopause two years ago but said at one time she blamed her symptoms on splitting from Carl.
She explained: “I’m generally a really good sleeper and don’t suffer from anxiety but I was waking up at 4am and sitting up bolt right and feeling anxious, unable to get back to sleep.
“It was the closest to a panic attack I’ve ever felt. I’ve never experienced anything like it.
“I was making a programme for Channel Five about health taboos at the time and, even though I was talking to people about the perimenopause I was thinking ‘Don’t be silly, it can’t be that’
“I knew my relationship was coming to an end which was really distressing and thought ‘maybe I’m stressed about that’. But then the relationship ended and everything stayed the same and I thought ‘this must be hormonal’.
“I got advice from some of the doctors on the show who said to get supplements, keep perfect sleep hygiene, watch my alcohol intake like a hawk and get some exercise.
“So far I’m managing but if I need HRT I will go to my GP without shame or question.”
Cherry last week joined a female protest in London against tech bosses who banned Bodyform adverts on Facebook that used words such as ‘vagina’ and ‘menstrual cycle.’
Meta says the campaign ads were moved by mistake and have since been reinstated but Cherry says the ban was just the tip of the iceberg.
Research by Bodyform reveals that words to describe women’s autonomy are routinely banned on sites like Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
Vagina is the most flagged word on Facebook and countless women have complained that their tasteful breastfeeding pictures have been removed.
The Jump presenter raged: “I’m sorry, but in ten years time we are being told we’ll all be hiding from AI robots so, if we’re looking at that kind of sophistication in tech, then surely it can tell the difference between a female in a sexual situation and a woman breastfeeding?
“With the technology we have and the algorithms, surely we can stop words such as endometriosis, vagina and vulva and period being censored?
“This is where misogyny comes in because it takes time to sort the coding and algorithms to sort this out and most of the big tech companies are owned by men.”
Cherry, who is famous for her female-focussed BBC Three documentaries, also said stars like Beyonce and Kim Kardashian must join in the female movement to talk openly about women’s issues – including the menopause.
She said: “If there’s ever a taboo for someone who has made their money out of being glamorous and relevant, it’s getting older.
“It would be so powerful and important if women in the public eye who are visible, like Kim Kardashian, say ‘yes my body has changed, but I’m still vibrant and I’m wise and I’m still working’.”