Lucy Alexander opens up on A Place In The Sun concerns after leaving BBC show
EXCLUSIVE Lucy Alexander has admitted she was apprehensive about fronting A Place In The Sun as an older woman.
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Lucy Alexander is best known for her presenting role on Homes Under The Hammer, as the property expert made her show debut in 2003. She quit her job on the programme in 2016 and has since guest presented Channel 4's A Place In The Sun.
The small-screen star shared her concerns about fronting the property show abroad admitting her age made her conscious.
The property expert added that she had put on a "few pounds" while dealing with menopausal symptoms.
"The thing I'm apprehensive about as a 53-year-old woman with menopause," she explained. "I was thinking, 'I don't want to be feeling hot. Hot flushes when you're travelling and in the sunshine."
She went on: "I'm not like the younger guys and I'm the oldest one [on the show] and they're all in their 40s."
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Lucy refused to not take the opportunity as she hoped to inspire women of a similar age.
She said: "I thought, 'No Lucy come on. You're a good audience for women your age. You're not a little hen.
"I definitely put on a few pounds during the menopause. I had to push myself on that front."
Lucy has been keeping busy with developing new TV projects but admitted she struggled during the pandemic to find work as Covid halted her plans.
She explained: "I've got some really good programme ideas that are in development at the moment. Some of them are fantastic and when they take off it's going to be super exciting.
"But because of what happened everything just got put on the back burner. Unless you were a presenter, who was currently on a show, I wasn't."
The former Homes Under The Hammer star said she was "out of job" after filming her BBC consumer programme.
"I kind of just finished Customers Always Right. I had just finished filming that," Lucy recalled. "We were up for a big RTS award. It was successful and we were looking at maybe doing another one."
She continued: "Then it was Covid, then we didn't get recommissioned, and then I was out of a job. I didn't have any work.
"Unless you were one of those people who were working on Hammer or on a different programme you were stuck at home. We are all self-employed, don't forget."
Lucy admitted: "It wasn't the greatest of times for me. I still had a mortgage to pay and a family to feed.
"It wasn't the greatest of times so I've had a good few years now where it has been a little bit quiet. So I'm definitely ready to get back on the TV really. That's what I want to do."
During that period Lucy also suffered a family loss as her mother died in 2020 following a battle with cancer.
She continued: "I had a couple of years off. My mother died - she sadly passed away. Then we kicked off with Covid.
"I just feel like we have had a few years of having a lot of time to process and think.
"The kids have all gone off now and flown the nest. I definitely feel like I'm ready for a new challenge."
A Place In The Sun airs weekdays on Channel 4 at 3pm