Gloria Hunniford at 84:I've no plans to retire.. to have record out is so exciting

Loose Women star is looking to the future

- BY SUE CRAWFORD

At 84, Gloria Hunniford has earned a break. She was just seven when she earned her first pay day as a singer in her native Northern Ireland. And in the 77 years since she has barely stopped.

Now a Loose Women regular and one of the hosts on the BBC's Rip-Off Britain, Gloria is a staple on our screens.

And she has just thrown a lavish party to relaunch A Taste of Hunni, the album she recorded in 1979.

Now, in an exclusive interview, she reveals it is her work that is saving her from her grief. It has been 21 years since she lost daughter Caron Keating to cancer, and just six months since her husband Stephen Way, 85, died after 30 years together.

She says: "Work makes me feel safe, because I have a structure, I know what I'm supposed to be doing.

"All the emotional stuff and all the heartbreak, that's the hard bit to cope with. To do nothing would be miserable for me." She is thrilled to be re-releasing A Taste of Hunni. Gloria put out several singles in the 60s and 70s and even supported Roy Orbison when he toured Northern Ireland in 1969.