CAROL Vorderman has insisted her ‘special friends’ are ‘nobody else’s business’ after she was grilled by Vanessa Feltz in an awkward chat about her casual approach to dating.
The 65-year-old once famously confessed she has five men in her life but isn’t exclusively dating anyone.
After Vanessa, 64, quizzed Carol on how she manages to have multiple romantic partners without developing feelings for them, the presenter has made it clear she’s not bothered about what anyone else thinks.
She said: “I have my ‘special friends’ and it’s nothing to do with anyone else. If people don’t like it, it’s their business.”
Speaking to woman&home as the publication’s latest cover star, Carol continued: “We all live our lives differently and I’m very content with how I live mine.
“People can judge away but I’m much happier not caring.
“Their opinions really don’t affect me. I’m very much a free spirit and I think that as long as what you do doesn’t harm anyone else, then crack on!”
When Carol appeared on Vanessa’s Channel 5 show last week, she was asked by the host: “So these gentlemen, what are they there for?”
Carol burst out laughing, as Vanessa continued: “Would it be fair to call them friends with benefits?”
The mathematician replied: “I think that’s probably better.”
Vanessa then asked Carol how she stops herself from developing feelings for these men, especially feelings of jealousy if they start to date other women.
The presenter said: “Usually, maybe this is just me, once you’ve done the benefit bit, you start to miss them by lunchtime and get upset if they haven’t phoned.
“Are we different?”
Carol replied: “Yes definitely different on that.”
Vanessa was then keen to know how Carol approaches the situation, to which she explained: “So, one of my friends, is in America.
“We’ve known each other for 12 years, we talk all the time. He’s very successful.”
Vanessa said: “And then it’s Sunday afternoon, you could have had a walk through the park hand-in-hand.
“Do you not miss him? You don’t feel like you’d like him to just be there and share your whole life?”
Carol bluntly replied: “No.”
She went onto explain: “Obviously I have friends who are very happily married for 30 years, 40 years.
“But there equally as we all know, marriages break down and more than half break down.
“Life changes, society changes.
“And what we have for the very first time, is a generation of women from my kind of age, who are more financially independent than our mothers ever were.”
