Carol Vorderman drops Countdown bombshell as she reveals real reason she joined show
CAROL VORDERMAN was the star of Countdown for a whopping 26 years and she’s now admitted her career on the much-loved quiz show almost never happened.
Carol Vorderman stars on Countdown in the early 1990s
Carol Vorderman, 56 - who left the Channel 4 show in 2008 - said when asked about becoming an "accidental celebrity": “I genuinely am. This all only happened because my mum wrote a letter to Countdown and forged my signature.”
Carol - who confirmed that her mum Jean had lost her battle with cancer in June aged 88 - admitted that she thought the Countdown application was a “ridiculous” idea at first.
The bombshell continued: “She [my mum] was never one to go, ‘Oh, you should do this’, she was one to go, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t do that.’ And I’d be like, ‘Well, I’m doing it’, that was my nature.
“But she was always there. We’d just moved to Leeds, we were living out of a car, so I sorted a house and a joint mortgage and I took on the responsibility of her.”
Carol Vorderman stars on Countdown in the early 1990s
Countdown only happened because my mum wrote a letter and forged my signature
Carol added to the Daily Mirror: “But there was an article about Countdown in the Yorkshire Evening Post and she did say I should apply.
“I was like, ‘Don’t be ridiculous’, so she wrote the letter, included my graduation picture, sent it off and then told me what she’d done. The phone on the hall telephone table went, the producer asked me in for a maths test and it all went from there.”
Carol’s comments come after she previously claimed to have been “forced off Countdown over a pay cut debate”.
Admitting she’s since been banned from the studio, the former I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! star stated: “I was on Countdown for 26 years and I’ve not been allowed back in the studio since.”
When she was asked why, Carol replied: “You tell me. I was told, ‘You’re never welcome here’. I have no idea why."
She went on to tell OK! Magazine: "About six months after I left Countdown, they had the 5,000th [episode party] and I absolutely wasn’t invited.
“It’s not bitterness - I wish them all the best. Life moves on, doesn’t it? I love my life, I have a great time."
Countdown airs weekdays at 2.10pm on Channel 4.