Mirror
25 February 2006
I LAUGHED ON THE TV.. BUT INSIDE I WAS SO BROKEN UP
I fell apart after dad died ..I still miss him so much It's wonderful to know that he would be so proud of me BEST FOR WEEKEND TV
TESS Daly is the girl who really does seem to have it all. She is beautiful, rich, successful and blissfully happy.
She and her presenter husband Vernon Kay dote on their cute baby daughter, Phoebe.
And this week Tess and Vernon are on screen together in the same show for the first time as they host BBC1 celebrity duet competition, Just The Two Of Us.
Tess's life appears so wonderfully perfect that even her Strictly Come Dancing co-host, Bruce Forsyth, has called her: 'Miss Sunshine.'
But behind her model smile and glamorous image, she is nursing a private grief for her father, Vivian Daly, who died of of emphysema two and a half years ago.
"It's strange how people have this idea of you that is so far removed from reality," shrugs Tess, 35. "There's no such thing as 'having it all'. Life is full of downs as well as ups and I've certainly not had a charmed existence.
"The show that turned things round for me was Strictly Come Dancing, but no one had any idea how torn up I was when I did that very first show.
"Yes, I made sure I looked the part and laughed and did everything I had to do, but I was completely broken up on the inside."
Tess got the job within months of her father's death. As heartbroken as she was, she couldn't turn the opportunity down. She also knew it was the one show her father would have loved to see her present.
"My dad loved ballroom dancing," she says with a smile. "He got me into it when I was a kid. It was his sort of thing old-fashioned, graceful. He just loved it. Everything about it would have appealed to my dad. He'd particularly liked to have seen me in the clothes I wear on the show.
People may criticise the look because it's not trendy, but those clothes are beautiful. I can just hear dad saying, 'You look like a class act'. Now it is wonderful to think I've done something that would have really made my dad so very proud."
Tess's journey to stardom has not been easy but she was helped to the top by the work ethic instilled in her by her parents.
Vivian, a working-class man from the Peak District, and his wife Sylvia spent their lives doing shifts in textile factories to keep the family afloat.
"We were a normal, happy family," says Tess, who has a younger sister, Karen. "We certainly weren't poor but we weren't rich by any means. My dad started working at the age of 15 and never stopped.
"There were constant threats of redundancies all the time I was growing up, but my parents never stopped working. They'd do shifts, nights, anything, so we could have food, dancing lessons, holidays - all the things you take for granted.
"I didn't get everything I wanted as a kid and I think that's right.
BEING told, 'No, you can't have it because we can't afford it', was one of the best lessons my parents ever taught me.
"It made me realise if I wanted a pair of Lycra shorts then I had to earn the money to buy them. I had to get a Saturday job and pay my way. It was that simple." Vivian would think nothing of getting up at 4am for the early shift or returning home after midnight - whatever it took to put food on the table. He passed this belief in hard work on to Tess and Karen, 33, who is now a teacher in New Zealand.
"He worked from 15 to 65 and got his gold watch," says Tess. "All he wanted then was to enjoy his retirement and take some time out to smell the roses. But his lungs had been poisoned and the doctors told him he had just two years left to live."
Vivian died 18 days after Tess married fellow TV presenter Vernon Kay in September 2003. The couple, who now have a 16-month-old daughter, Phoebe, were on honeymoon at the time.
"I fell apart," says Tess, quietly. "I miss him so much, every day." She has rarely spoken about her dad because the pain is still so raw, but she smiles as she recalls taking Vernon to meet her family. I knew they'd get on - and they did," she says. "I'd lived all round the world and I brought home a boy from down the road in Bolton.
WHAT Vernon and I have in common are our backgrounds and our families.
"His dad is a lorry driver and he's been married to his mum for ever. They believe in hard work and being normal. His family is a reflection of mine. When I met him I knew he had the same values I had. I knew that what was important to him was important to me."
On Thursday, Tess and Vernon made their debuts as co-presenters of Just The Two Of Us. They have been dubbed the Posh and Becks of television and were recently named Britain's favourite celebrity couple. But Tess can't take it seriously. "We're not about being a celebrity couple," she insists. "The most important thing to us is our relationship and our family. Vernon isn't anything like my dad in personality. My dad could fix anything, but if Vernon tries any DIY I know I'll have to kiss goodbye to a couple of walls and then call in a professional. But he is an honourable, old-fashioned man - just like my dad was.
I KNOW my dad was glad to see me with Vernon. Even though he was so ill when we got married he still wanted to walk me up the aisle. I'm glad he got to see us settled."
Tess and her dad didn't always see eye to eye. He was unhappy when she began modelling at the age of 17, after being approached by a talent scout in Manchester.
"I was halfway through my A-levels and I got the chance to go to Japan," she says. "My parents were not happy. Modelling meant nothing to dad - he thought I ought to get a good, safe job in a bank.
"I had to fight my corner to get them to agree to me giving it a go. But when I arrived in Japan I was clueless. I could have got on the plane straight home, but I had to make a go of it for my sake and for my parents' sake."
Although she worked in Paris, New York and Japan, and graced magazine covers, Tess knew she would never be the next Cindy Crawford.
"I wasn't the prettiest and I wasn't the slimmest but I worked hard," she says. "I was polite. I always arrived early. I got more work that way because you can get fooled into thinking you are something special being a model.
"I saw it all - eating disorders, drugs, young girls sitting on the knees of old, rich guys in nightclubs. A lot of it turned my stomach.
"I'd just go home a lot to see my family. I wanted my dad to know I was being professional. There's no way I could have looked my parents in the eye if I was doing anything I was ashamed of."
Now that she is a mum herself, Tess hopes to recreate the security for Phoebe that her parents gave her.
"I have a very different life now," she says. "But I'm still my father's daughter. I'm a working-class girl.
"My parents never made much money but they gave me and my sister a lot more than children from rich families often have - a sense of security, strong moral values and a work ethic.
"I always knew my parents loved us and loved each other, and I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for them. The most I can do in life is to make my dad proud of me."
Just The Two Of US, Saturday, BBC1, 9.15pm' Sunday, 8pm
