Ex Changing Rooms star Carol Smillie has spoken out about being snubbed for the new reboot because she’s ‘too old’.
The 60-year-old was a hit with viewers after presenting the makeover show throughout the nineties and early noughties.
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Carol Smilie not invited back to Changing Rooms
Despite finding fame on the show back in 1996 and being the original host for eight series, Carol was not invited back to be a part of the new reboot.
Whereas co-star Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen did make a comeback, the 57-year-old presented the new show alongside Anna Richardson when it made a comeback last year (August 2021) on Channel 4.
Speaking on the How To Be 60 With Kaye Adams podcast, Carol opened up about how she walked away from the television world after realising how ‘sexist’ the industry is.
Carol slams ‘sexist’ industry
Speaking candidly to Kaye, Carol said: “I might feel a wee bit sometimes, you think ‘oh, come on how can a man carry on into his seventies or beyond on TV?'”
The former TV presenter also said she believes Loose Women’s Gloria Hunniford is being given daytime TV for ‘tokenism – and ageist attitudes won’t change in her lifetime.
“But it’s just unthinkable for a woman to do the same. Apart from maybe Gloria [Hunniford], but they put her on daytime and it’s kind of, you know, it’s a sort of token,” she explained.
“It feels tokenism but you can get upset about it and you can rant and rave about it,” she continued.
“It’s probably not gonna change in my lifetime, unfortunately. That’s just why I don’t do it anymore. I just think it’s better to move on and not get angry about things that you can’t really change.”
Carol Smilie quit TV because of ‘ageist’ attitudes
When asked if she quit TV at the age of 50 because of ageist attitudes, she said: “Yes, definitely.
“After 50 it’s very obvious that the opportunities that come up are far less interesting, exciting, well-paid, all of these things.”
The mum-of-three said she understands that ‘you can’t always be at the top’, but it’s not healthy to ‘cling on and get angry about it’.
“Just think it’s someone else’s turn – time to move to something completely different. Something that’s not going to matter your age so much, or your weight.”
Changing Rooms’ Laurence throws shade at Carol
Last year, Carol’s former co-host Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen praised bosses for not bringing her back.
Speaking to The Sun, the interior design expert even described the move as “clever”.
When asked if he would have liked to see Carol as the host, he said: “No and, hand on heart, what the producers and what Channel 4 have done is actually very clever.
“They have moved on and it wouldn’t have worked if it had been Jurassic Park – it had to be a reinvention.”
Changing Rooms first landed on BBC2 in 1996.
The show saw couples swap houses with friends or neighbours and redecorate one room.
Carol was the original host of Changing Rooms, continuing when it switched to BBC1 two years later.
Laurence, meanwhile, was among the team of designers that helped contestants out.
Others included Linda Barker, Michael Jewitt and Oliver Heath.
However, in 2003, there was a switch-up and Laurence took over hosting the show from Carol.
It went off air a year later.
Read more: Carol Smillie looks nervous as daughter Jodie Knight auditions for The Voice
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