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Mother of all changes
Helen Tither18/ 6/2008
THERE'S a funny etiquette game when it comes to interviewing a showbiz personality. And it goes something like this. There is always one really interesting topic you want to ask them about - you know, the one thing everyone else wants to read about. The only thing is, it just so happens that's the very same topic they don't want to talk about.
Of course, you are not going to ask them straight out (particularly if forewarned not to by their `people') - and they are certainly not going to give anything away for nothing. And so the games commence.
In Melinda Messenger's case, the topic du jour is her separation from husband Wayne. A shock to the world of celebrity, the childhood sweethearts with the model family of three perfect, cherubic children, recently went their separate ways.
As we are meeting in the green room at Granada Studios to discuss the former page three girl's new presenting role on ITV1 gameshow Bingo Night Live, I'm supposed to "skirt around" the issue. But seeing as the couple did a very public photoshoot with Hello! magazine to talk about their separation, it's going to be a little hard to ignore the subject.
Luckily Melinda, who has spent more than a decade in the public eye since springing to fame in the Daily Star back in 1997, is a dab hand at this interview lark. Asked about how all the stories about the split have affected her children, she answers without a flicker of her perfectly made-up eyelids.
First hand
"It doesn't really mean anything to them," she smiles. "They know what's going on at home first hand. Really, for them, there isn't a huge amount of difference. Wayne is still coming home at weekends. We are trying to make it as gentle as possible on them.
"There's no animosity between Wayne and myself. It's all fine."
With her long, angelic blonde locks cascading down her back, her baby blue eyes and girly giggles, there's something so girl-next-door about Melinda that it instantly puts you at ease.
Sorting out her own cup of tea before settling down for a chat on the sofa, dressed down in jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt, the 37-year-old has perfected her down-to-earth persona.
She seems open, friendly, and just the right side of ditsy. Having taken a career break to raise her three children - Morgan, Flynn and Evie - she's back to work now as a TV presenter on this and several other daytime shows. Although, she says still takes her motherly duties extremely seriously.
Life in the Messenger household sounds like bliss, with family board games a-plenty and fun for the kids in the garden.
"I absolutely love gardening, growing strawberries in hanging baskets - the children love that, it's a good way for them to connect with nature," she says.
"Take that break"
"It was absolutely essential for me to take that break with the kids. I always carried on working but did the bare minimum. I wanted to be at home as much as possible. Even now I am working lots but I try to only be away from home three times a week. I loved being there for the morning routine and after school - I would not change that for the world.
"That time flies by so quickly and you can never get it back. Even now when it comes to a school show or something I want to be there - these are the special moments you never get back."
There's certainly no doubt that Melinda takes motherhood seriously, having enrolled her brood in a Steiner Waldorf school, which encourages more play and spiritual education than mainstream schools.
In many ways, she has been reinvented as a golden-haired earth mother. Her new presenting roles on property and gardening shows, new-found love of modest, bust-covering necklines and wholesome smile reinforcing our idea of her as the nation's favourite mum.
It's almost impossible to remember those cleavage-flashing early days of her career when she rocketed to fame after posing for a double glazing advert in her undies. Marketing boffins would probably call it a "re-branding exercise". But, basically, it comes down to the fact that behind the fluffy blonde exterior has always been a canny woman who knows how to play the media game and win every time.
Whether posing for pictures in her sexy bikini or her scruffs, or answering prying questions she knows how to portray the public image she wants, from sex goddess to earth mother. Baring all without giving anything away.
Free-to-play Bingo Night Live airs Tuesday-Saturday on ITV1.
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