The BBC weather presenter says she’s not worried what people think about her 13-year age gap marriage.

Carol Kirkwood is one of our most loved TV personalities. She’s presented the weather on the BBC since 1998, and competed in Strictly Come Dancing in 2015.

The 63-year-old has published four novels and her fifth, Meet Me at Sunset, is out now. She spoke to Saga Magazine for our September issue about marriage, travel and being the naughtiest auntie.

On her Sliding Doors moment

Meeting my husband Steve was fate. We were at a function neither of us wanted to go to. It was a Sliding Doors moment – if I hadn’t gone, we would never have met.

We chatted, he gave me his number, and ages later, we met for coffee.

He was only a friend before we became involved. I wasn’t looking for a romance – I was happy being single. After a 25-year marriage, I needed to find myself.

Marrying in her sixties

I was 61 when Steve and I married. He’d proposed when we were on a riverbank picnic near our home in Berkshire. Although we’d talked about getting married, it still came as a shock.

Our wedding at Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire was the most perfect day. Storm Gerrit was raging outside and we didn’t even notice. It was about us getting married rather than having a big, fancy wedding.

We had no guests and wrote our own vows, which was really emotional. When you are older, you know more what you want

On her age-gap marriage

Steve is 50 this year. Other people’s opinions about an age gap don’t matter – I don’t feel he is younger than me. He is so romantic.

On the days I work, he gets up at 2.45am to make me a cup of tea and packs my breakfast. Those thoughtful things mean the world to me, far more than being taken to an expensive restaurant.

Image credit: Abi Chadwick Photography

I have 15 nephews and nieces and am known as Auntie Callie. One of my nephews says I am his “naughtiest auntie”. I don’t know why!

I’d like to think I am also a kind auntie who will always listen to them.

A unique Royal photograph

A highlight of my career was giving a talk about the weather to the late Queen and her WI at Sandringham. I also met King Charles when he was a young prince visiting Lochaber High School in Fort William, where I was a pupil.

Standing in line, we were allowed to take pictures, but my camera jammed. He came over and managed to fix it. I went beetroot red, but I now have a good picture of his nostrils!

Carol’s new book

Steve and I fell in love with Majorca, which is where we went so I could research my fifth novel, Meet Me at Sunset, about a woman running away from a shattered love affair.

Like all my other novels, it is about escapism. Visual imagery is so important to me. I want to take my reader with me – I can’t do that unless I’ve been there.