Why makeover guru Trinny Woodall opened up about mum’s COVID-19

What Not To Wear favourite Trinny Woodall made a rare concession to talking about family when she revealed her mum was ill with the deadly coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the globe.

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Not even a “windy pop” can stop Trinny Woodall in her tracks.

A windy pop for the record is what the British fashionista and makeup queen, world famous for hit television show What Not To Wear, calls a fart.

“I have never ever done a second take unless I did a windy pop, even then it would probably go out live,” Woodall tells Insider.

“I have never done that (a second take), even when I did What Not To Wear, Susannah (Constantine) and I were well known for doing just one take.”

Fashion and makeup guru Trinny Woodall.

“Trinny and Susannah” hosted the first five seasons of What Not To Wear which ran on the BBC and was syndicated globally from 2001 to 2007 and continues to be broadcast in some countries around the world.

Just over two years ago, Woodall launched Trinny London, a stackable makeup range of cream-based products.

She now employs more than 75 people and with coronavirus, has been leading the troupe online from her home office.

Woodall has upped the ante on her digital content with so many of us at home, going live on Instagram at least twice daily — generally at noon and again at 6pm — to connect with the nearly 800,000 followers she refers to as her “Trinny tribe”.

“I can never stop talking so I have always got something to say,” she says by phone from her London home. “I have got to do what I am good at and throughout my career I have hopefully brought people joy and made them feel passionate about certain things so that is what I am doing and that is what Trinny London is doing.

“The spirit of people brings me joy. There is such a sense of community and I just feel how incredible that is. It makes you remember how precious things are in times like this.”

Trinny Woodall with her What Not To Wear co-host Susannah Constantine.

Woodall, 56, sees her live digital content as a way of distracting fans from the harsh state of the world amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The UK of course has been hard hit by the illness with more than 18,100 deaths.

“We are all safely at home, which is the best place to be,” Woodall says. “I am being a mum and I am looking after the home. It is just a new pace for all of us. I think the most important thing during the day is to make sure you are in touch with a friend at some stage, feel that communication. Zoom, House Party, all these things really help. But still there is a shift and it can be quite lonely and isolating so it is very important to reach out to those people who might be in that position and see how they are doing and just talk to people and feel that community spirit.”

Despite her polished exterior, Woodall is not afraid to be herself on camera as demonstrated by her windy pop comment.

And while she does have some boundaries in terms of what she shows of her personal life with daughter, Lyla, and partner Charles Saatchi, she did revealed during one of her Instagram live chats that her 89-year-old mother was diagnosed with coronavirus but subsequently recovered.

“If you have a relationship with an audience online you need to be emotionally very honest otherwise I think it is false,” she says.

“If I am flat, I will say I am feeling flat. If my mum is in hospital with corona, I will say I am feeling scared. I feel that what my audience sees is what is happening. I don’t necessarily share every part of my home but Lyla pops in, I will do exercises, I will be doing makeup in the bathroom so they see elements of my home but I would never do a tour of my house.”

Trinny and Susannah work the crowd at Westfield, Penrith, during a 2009 visit to promote their long-running show What Not To Wear.

Trinny London, she says, was a natural progression for the fashion expert, who has written several books and released a shapewear range.

“When I have done makeovers with people in the past, make-up is the first thing they notice,” she says. “I just love the transformation that makeup can do and over the years I have learnt a lot of makeup tricks that I wanted to share with people.

“One of the biggest ones is to go from powdered products to cream-based products because I think for any age it is a far more flattering way to wear makeup and it makes people look ageless.”

Originally published as Why makeover guru Trinny Woodall opened up about mum’s COVID-19