Radio and TV Anchor Reveals She’s Never Had McDonald’s in Her Life

You may catch Jenni Falconer on the airwaves, but you definitely won’t catch her in the drive-thru ordering a Big Mac. The Scottish-born radio and TV presenter is serious about her health and fitness, so much so that she recently revealed that at 48 years old, she has “never even tried a Pringle or had a McDonald’s.”

Falconer made the confession while opening up about her active and healthy lifestyle in a new interview with the Daily Mail. Saying that she is “quite good with my discipline to be honest,” the RunPod host shared that she has “a strict work schedule in the week, I am up at 4am, I juggle a few jobs, I’m training for the marathon, I go to the gym and play golf…play golf so when I meet my friends on the weekend, I do allow myself a margarita… but I am the type of person that if you challenge me, I will absolutely stick to it.” She took up one such challenge when she was 14, when her mother bet her money that couldn’t go a week without eating crisps or chips, a bet that resulted in Falconer never tasting McDonald’s.

“When I was 14 my mum bet me a £1 that I couldn’t stop eating crisps and chips, which were two things I loved, and so I did it… I quit them… and now it’s 34 years later and I still haven’t eaten them,” Falconer, a regular travel reporter for the ITV daytime show This Morning and a Smooth London breakfast host, revealed. “Since I quit crisps, there has been Pringles and Kettle Chips, they weren’t even around when I quit crisps. I never have fries… I have never had a McDonald’s.”

Just a few years after swearing off crisps and chips, Falconer began running at the age of 19. Falconer’s busy routine at the time — having started her career in television, attending University in Leeds, and working in Scotland — prevented her from doing regular exercise and she realized she struggled to “recognize” herself in clothes. Falconer said, “No one went to the gym back then,” adding that she “didn’t do any exercise and I started to get really unfit and I didn’t recognize myself in my clothes.” Falconer said that “one day I decided I needed to do something because I didn’t want to become unhealthy.”

“My whole attitude and reason for running has entirely changed. When I first started yes, it was to tone up and lose a few pounds but running and exercise is way more than that,” she said. “Nowadays I don’t exercise for weight loss. I want to be healthy and active and live a long healthy life. I want to feel good rather than look good, obviously looking good would be lovely but feeling good is more important.”

While Falconer may nix chips and fast food from her diet, she does allow herself a few treats. The avid marathon runner told Daily Mail that she treats herself to a margarita on occasion, sharing, “When I meet my friends on the weekend, I do allow myself a margarita.”