'I'm not some leggy, pouty bird' says Kirsty - as she flashes her legs

11 April 2012
The Weekender

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Any suggestions that she was hired to bring a leggier, more glamorous image to the BBC's Crimewatch programme have been firmly denied by Kirsty Young.

And just to prove it, she has posed on a red chaise longue, kicking her legs into the air.

Miss Young, 39, was given the job presenting Crimewatch following the departure of Nick Ross, 60, and Fiona Bruce, 43.

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Laid back: Kirsty Young shows of her legs in a photoshoot for Good Housekeeping magazne

But she dismissed any suggestion of ageism as "nonsense".

Predecessor: Young is replacing Fiona Bruce on Crimewatch

"If I was 22 and some leggy, pouty bird, then I could see it, but they're stretching it a bit thin,' she said in an interview with Good Housekeeping magazine. "Fiona and I are of the same generation."

Ross resigned in June complaining of the BBC's "patronising" obsession with young presenters. Days later it emerged that Miss Bruce was being moved to Antiques Roadshow.

Miss Young moved to the BBC from Channel 5, where she was also known for showing off her legs.

She is replaced there by Natasha Kaplinskythe face of BBC's Six O'Clock News and winner of Strictly Come Dancing, who won a £3million deal to defect.

Miss Young also hosts Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, where she replaced another veteran, Sue Lawley.

In October it was reported that she had lost 130,000 listeners but since then she has been credited with growing into her role after a raft of revealing interviews.

She told Good Housekeeping that she would not find it difficult to sleep at nights while hosting Crimewatch, despite the murder of former presenter Jill Dando in 1999.

"I don't have a nervous disposition. People's fear is disproportionate to the likelihood of them being involved in a violent crime.

"A boy being shot riding his bicycle occupies the news for weeks because it's so unusual.

"Madeleine McCann going missing preoccupies us all because it almost never happens that a girl is taken from her bed."

Miss Young said that her most difficult challenge to date was giving birth to her children.

She and her partner, Nick Jones, who runs the Soho House chain of members' clubs, have two daughters - Freya, who is almost seven, and 21-month-old Iona.

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