One of the giants of British media, Street-Porter is a regular on Loose Women, a former TV executive, newspaper editor and author – and about to launch a one-woman stage show. She talks about love, regrets and her fury with her late mother
Janet Street-Porter is the straight-talker’s straight talker. Nobody says it how it is quite like her, whether she’s talking about how she “hated” her mother, tried to kill her sister or cheated on her four ex-husbands. The former TV executive, newspaper editor, author and Loose Women regular is now going on the road with a one-woman show called Off the Leash. To be fair, she’s never been on it. Street-Porter’s website heralds her as “the nation’s favourite pissed-off pensioner” and promises that, with the new show, “in the words of her good friend Elton … ‘the bitch is back!’”
We meet at a restaurant she has booked in west London. When I get there, she’s already perusing the menu and eavesdropping on the couple behind us. “That man behind us is very irritating,” she stage-whispers. “He’s giving this woman advice about making friends.” My back is to him. What does he look like, I ask. She sticks two fingers down her throat and makes a gagging noise.