Francesca Cumani: 'There's always going to be someone younger, prettier, better'

This article, exclusive to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers, was originally written in October and sees Lee Mottershead meet an ITV broadcaster in an honest and forthright mood

In the kitchen of her Suffolk cottage, the soon-to-be Australia-bound Francesca Cumani is trying desperately to prevent the horse who finished second in the 2007 Melbourne Cup from pilfering one of the six avocados currently residing in an extremely colourful fruit bowl.

As a soundtrack to the somewhat unorthodox scene, Ken Bruce's Radio 2 show is playing in a home where Cumani's baby son Teddy is fast asleep, blissfully unaware his mother is engaged in a familiar but friendly battle with a 19-year-old free-range thoroughbred who likes to roam the garden, occasionally popping his head through the kitchen window in pursuit of his five a day.