Kate Garraway Book Launch

GMTV veterans Lorraine Kelly and Kate Garraway have admitted they fear being axed from the breakfast show just like colleague Penny Smith.

They revealed their fears on a emotional night out with other presenters of the breakfast show, including veteran Smith, 51, who will leave the programme in June.

Penny, who has been with the show for 17 years, has become the first high-profile casualty of ITV's planned budget cuts.


Lorraine, 50, who earns £350,000 a year, shared her fears at the launch of GMTV stylist Mark Heyes new book.

She said: 'It is very unsettling for everyone.

'It's a tough time as no one knows what is going to happen. All we can do is pull together and hope for the best."

Kate, 42, who takes home £210,000 a year, also admitted: 'I'm worried, everyone is. Still, I've been here for 10 years and I'm so grateful for that.

'Anything else will be a bonus. We're just keeping our fingers crossed,' she told The Mirror.

According to one report ITV sources said Lorraine is likely to be safe and the cuts, of up to 30 per cent will probably fall on the main show where the format is changing.

But the situation is not so clear for Garraway who has suffered a number of embarrassments of late.

Last year she admitted to being less than candid about her age, and recently she was exposed after she failed to reveal that her two stone weight loss was not due to cooking healthy dishes and following a strict exercise regime as she had suggested in her weekly column for New! magazine.

Instead, the working mother-of-two children had been receiving free hampers of specially prepared low-calorie ready-made meals that were being delivered to her.

Husband Derek Draper was also embarrassing linked to a plan to set up a blog to post false rumours about the private lives of senior members of the Conservative Party and their partners.

Draper later apologised for his part in the affair.

The pair spoke at London's Sanctum hotel in Soho where they were joined by fellow GMTV presenter Emma Crosby, 32, and weather girl Clare Nasir, 39 to support the launch of Heyes style bible Get The Look.

The bash was also a chance for the GMTV veterans to bid an impromptu farewell to newsreader Smith.

Penny is going on to present a brand new Radio 2 show in June with Dame Kiri te Kanawa, and she is writing her third novel.

A GMTV insider said: 'It is one of the rare times that all the women have been together since it was announced that Penny would be leaving so they took the opportunity to cheer her up and let her know how much she would be missed.

'It all got a bit emotional in then and there were a few tears.'

Credit: Mail and Fashion411