Cat Deeley
English television presenter
To anyone I have lost touch with. It happened purely by accident as life took over.
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
Question
What would you like to leave your children?
Death & what remains
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
To Gorka Márquez, who was my Strictly partner, for not winning the glitterball in 2022.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 209 →When I was 17 I didn’t visit my gran for six weeks as I was out partying. At the end of that summer she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I never saw the real her again. I would love to say sorry to her as I loved her so much.
Alison Steadman
British actress
I didn't go to a retirement party once for someone who had been special to me and he died shortly after.
Cybill Shepherd
American actress and former model
To a man whose heart I broke at 17.
More from Helen Skelton
View profile →More sleep – my children do not sleep.
Chaotic, warm, northern.
My new year resolution is actually to read all the classics and I’m ashamed that I haven’t read everything by the Brontë sisters.
Good memories. When I’m gone, I want them to feel that they were always my No 1 priority.
After the 2012 Olympics I hosted the parade. I had on a little skirt and when the prime minister came on everyone cheered. I thought: “Oh my God, they love David Cameron,” but they were cheering because my skirt had blown up, and I’d flashed my knickers at him.
That you get out of life what you put in. When you grow up on a farm you literally reap what you sow.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 122 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 69 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Ronnie Wood, Viv Albertine, Charles Dance, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Adam Peaty, Tracy-Ann Oberman
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- All failure & regret questions
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