'Have great doubts' Chef Delia Smith, 80, candidly opens up on not having children

express.co.uk:

How To Fail with Elizabeth Day, released today, Delia said why she did not have children.She said: "Although I don't have children, it's never really bothered me, and I have great doubts about whether I would have been a good parent."I really have doubts about that."Elizabeth then asked Kate whether she got stuck into her work because she felt that she needed to leave a contribution because she did not have children.She replied: "That isn't something that's ever been a problem."And if I had [that] problem I would go and adopt an unwanted baby."I wouldn't mind doing that now but I'm too old."Delia continued: "Somebody who shall be nameless said that one of the things that was missing was that because I hadn't had children I didn't understand how to feed children."Not at all, my cookery course was in the school curriculum."Delia also spoke to The Mail on Sunday in 2009 about why she never had children.She said: "It wasn’t to be, but I have loved what I’ve been able to do by not having children."Maybe one of the reasons I’ve been so successful in my career is down to the fact I haven’t had any children."I think if I’d had a family, I would have gone wholeheartedly into being a mother."Delia's first television appearance was in the early 1970s, as a resident cook on BBC East's regional magazine programme.Following the success, she was offered her own cookery show, Family Fare which ran between 1973 and 1975.Her 1995 book Delia Smith's The Winter Collection sold 2 million copies in hardback, becoming the fifth biggest-selling book of the 1990s.In February 2013 she announced that she had retired from television cookery programmes, and would concentrate on offering her recipes online..