“Still Here. Still Smiling.” Carol Kirkwood’s Defiant Stand After Years of ‘Dreadful Abuse’ — And Why This Moment Feels Different

After years of silence, Britain’s most familiar weather face has finally spoken — and the message has stopped critics in their tracks.
“I show up every day. I own that screen.”
At 63, Carol Kirkwood is no longer absorbing the noise. She’s answering it — calmly, firmly, and on her own terms.

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The British television world was jolted in mid-2025 when Carol Kirkwood, the long-standing weather presenter on BBC Breakfast, chose to confront years of online trolling and viewer criticism head-on.

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In a candid interview that rapidly gained traction across national media, Kirkwood delivered a line that instantly resonated far beyond the  weather forecast:

“Still here, still smiling — and I’m not going anywhere.”

It was not shouted. It wasn’t theatrical. And that was precisely why it landed with such force.

A Familiar Face — And an Unseen Reality

Kirkwood has been part of Britain’s morning routine for decades. She joined the BBC as a weather forecaster in 1998, following formal training with the Met Office. Since then, her warmth, professionalism, and unmistakable enthusiasm — even in the bleakest forecasts — have made her a fixture of early-morning television.

Millions tune in daily to see her deliver forecasts alongside presenters such as Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt. Yet behind the polished broadcasts, she says, existed a relentless undercurrent of negativity — one that intensified as the years passed.

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“Dreadful Abuse” — In Her Own Words

Speaking to outlets including Radio Times, with coverage later amplified by the Daily Mail, Express and others in July 2025, Kirkwood described what she called “dreadful abuse.”

She revealed that criticism arrived not only through public posts on X (formerly Twitter) but also through direct emails — some of them deeply personal. Much of it focused on her age, her appearance, or her presence on screen — a pattern familiar to many women in broadcasting and closely tied to wider conversations around sexism and ageism in media.

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This time, however, she chose not to deflect.

“I am what I am, and I don’t really care what anybody thinks of me,” she said.
“Call me what you like — but I show up every day and I own that screen.”

The remark — firm, unembellished, and unmistakably final — quickly became the quote everyone was sharing.

Strength Forged Off-Screen

What made Kirkwood’s response resonate was not defiance alone, but perspective. She explained that life beyond television had reshaped what truly matters to her.

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Having lost three close friends to breast cancer, she admitted the experience changed her relationship with criticism entirely.

“It makes you think, ‘Why am I worried about a few lines?’” she reflected.

She also addressed society’s fixation on youth with quiet disappointment rather than anger:

“It’s terribly sad that there’s such an obsession with looking young. Why? There’s beauty in every age.”

To soften the moment, she even reached for humor — likening online hate to “water off a duck’s back” before adding, with a meteorologist’s wink, “or maybe heavy rain off a duck’s back.”

Why This Time Felt Different

Kirkwood has alluded to online abuse before, including as far back as 2014, but this statement carried a sense of closure. Viewers and readers sensed it immediately.

“Still here, still smiling — and I’m not going anywhere” became more than a quote. It became a line in the sand.

A Career — And a Life — Beyond the Forecast

Born Carol MacKellaig in Morar, Scotland, in 1962, she grew up as one of eight children in a hotel-running  family. After early work in local television and BBC radio, she steadily built one of the most recognisable careers in British broadcasting.

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Away from the weather map, Kirkwood is also a bestselling novelist, with four books published and another on the way. Her personal life has included challenges — including her 2008 divorce from Jimmy Kirkwood — but recent years have brought happier chapters.

In 2022, she announced her engagement to partner Steve Randall live on air at the Chelsea Flower Show. The couple married at Cliveden House, Buckinghamshire, on 27 December 2023, later describing the day as “blissful.”

She has also stepped beyond forecasting, appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015 and continuing to champion meteorology as both a science and a public service.

The Reaction — And the Silence That Followed

Following her comments, social media filled with messages of support. Viewers praised her restraint, clarity, and refusal to shrink herself to satisfy critics.

What stood out most was what didn’t happen. There were no personal counter-attacks. No escalation. Just a reaffirmation of purpose.

“I’m doing my job to the best of my ability,” she said, “and improving myself daily — whether people think I’m capable or not.”

Still Standing, Still Forecasting

As of early 2026, Carol Kirkwood remains a central presence on BBC Breakfast, delivering forecasts with the same calm authority and unmistakable smile. Professionally fulfilled and personally grounded, she shows no sign of stepping aside — or stepping back.