Bubbly TV star Alison Hammond is dialling back her saucy side as she fears it’s no longer acceptable to flirt with celebrities on air.
The This Morning host – famed for her cheeky chats with Hollywood hunks Harrison Ford and Hugh Jackman – admits she’s had to tone down her approach a bit. And the 48-year-old, who split from landscape gardener Ben Hawkins in March, insists she is not to blame for Wolverine star Hugh’s recent marriage breakdown after 27 years.
In an exclusive interview, Alison says: “Things are not good in the Jackman camp but it’s not because of me… I feel quite bad for him as he’s had a really long marriage, but I just love that man. He’s one of those guys who gives an interview 100%. I’ll never forget it. We’ve been flirty so many times, but you can’t flirt nowadays. You’ve got to be careful.”
Alison with Hugh Jackman on This Morning (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)Alison and Hugh’s on-screen chemistry first went viral in 2017 after she shared a bottle of bubbly and some olives with the 55-year-old actor during a chat for ITV ’s This Morning. Hugh said at the time: “‘You are without doubt, over the years, the best person to interview me. I always find it amazing.”
He added: “I’m not retiring, by the way, so we can have many more of these dates.” Reflecting on the sofa chat that thrilled viewers, Alison says: “I’ve done so many interviews with Hugh so I thought, ‘Let’s have a date’. Then I pulled off this sheet and there were these olives and he started feeding me them with a cocktail stick.
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“I’ve got gappy teeth, and the stick got stuck so we had to stop filming to get it out.” In September, Hugh announced that he was divorcing his wife Deborra-Lee Furness, 67, after almost 30 years of marriage. The pair have two children together. In a statement, they said: “We have been blessed to share almost three decades together in a wonderful, loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.”
Viewers loved Harrison Ford interview (Daily Record)Alison confirmed the end of her own two-year relationship with gardener Ben in March. She has since put her £700,00 home in Solihull on the market – but the Brummie has vowed she will never leave her home town. Down-to-earth Alison – raised in a council house by Jamaican parents – says: “I put my house on sale and people were saying I’m moving to London, but anyone who knows me knows Alison ain’t going anywhere.
“I love Birmingham. I don’t know what it is about the Brummies, but I find the people are really warm.” Two decades after she first found fame on Big Brother alongside the late Jade Goody, former holiday rep Alison dominates daytime TV. She has disarmed stars such as Lady Gaga, Michael Buble, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – who she ‘married’ on air – and Harrison Ford with her charm.
In 2017, Alison left This Morning viewers in hysterics when she interviewed the Indiana Jones icon alongside his Blade Runner 2049 co-star Ryan Gosling. During their chat, Alison admitted she hadn’t seen the original film before downing whisky with the pair. “I thought, ‘I’m going to get sacked’,” Alison recalls. “I just laughed the whole way through.
'Marrying' Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson (ITV)“At the end, Harrison came up to me and said, ‘Alison, you’ve made my day today’. Then, a few days later, we did a Zoom interview and he didn’t know who I was… didn’t have a clue.” Despite that small hitch, Alison’s career has gone from strength to strength. This year, she became the first Black presenter of the BAFTAs and the first Black host to be nominated for Best Presenter at the National Television Awards.
She has also been tipped to replace Holly Willoughby as the lead host on This Morning. Alison has also become the new face of another British institution, The Great British Bake Off. Being a co-host alongside Noel Fielding is especially touching for her as her mum, who died of liver cancer in 2020, was a big fan of the show.
Alison says: “I pinch myself hosting This Morning and now this… I’m pinching myself all the time. My mum absolutely loved Bake Off. I can bake, but I’m like Jamie Oliver – I chuck it all in and hope it works.” Alison has come a long way from the days when she struggled to make ends meet and is now thought to be worth around £4million.
Alison and Holly (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)From the age of 11, she took part in drama workshops run by Central Television, but a lack of money meant she was unable to attend drama school. Despite this she landed minor TV roles then in 2002, she got her big break on Big Brother. Despite her success since then, Alison says she was still put through her paces to land her dream job on the Channel 4 baking show.
“I’d never wanted a job so bad,” she says. “I had to audition for it and the maddest thing is, I was like, ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ I had to do this chemistry test with Noel and they were all watching me, so I said, ‘Hi Noel, look at the chemistry’. They then handed me a script and I thought, ‘That’s the audition done’, but they said, ‘No, you’ve got to do a bit more’. So they took me to a garden centre and told me they wanted to see me interview people.”
Alison worries that her presenting skills aren’t always up to scratch though. She admits: “There are some times I think I’m going through the menopause because I’ll be sitting there and I’ve no idea what this piece is.” But whether Alison is off-script or on, one thing is definitely for sure – the British public couldn’t love her any more.
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