BBC Breakfast star Carol Kirkwood has opened up about the relentless online abuse she’s endured throughout her decades-long career — and the deep pain it causes when her family is targeted.

The 63-year-old meteorologist, who joined BBC Breakfast back in 1997 and has been a beloved presence on British screens ever since, admitted that while personal attacks no longer faze her, seeing loved ones dragged into the vitriol still cuts deep.

“My family doesn’t deserve to be dragged in, it hurts,” she told the Radio Times, adding that the cruel words are now “water off a duck’s back” to her. “I am what I am, and I don’t really care what anybody thinks of me… Whether I’m called a weather girl, a weather presenter or a broadcast meteorologist — it doesn’t really bother me. Titles don’t matter.”

Carol began her broadcasting career in 1992 at Windsor TV before moving on to BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4. By 1993, she was a freelance presenter at the BBC, later joining BBC News in 1998. Since then, she’s become a familiar face on BBC Weather across TV and radio.

She has previously spoken about the “very personal” trolling she’s faced, telling The Herald in 2014 that some messages were “dreadful.”

In August, Carol addressed concerned viewers who noticed her hoarse voice during a broadcast, revealing she was battling a “pesky 100-day cough.”

Away from the cameras, Carol stunned fans at Christmas 2023 by announcing she had married her partner Steve Randall in a romantic and intimate ceremony at Cliveden House, Buckinghamshire. “It was the most perfect day — we are bursting with happiness,” she shared at the time.