Sunday Mirror -

GAIL PORTER IS TIPPED TO BE ONE OF THE HOTTEST STARS IN 1999, BUT SHARON FEINSTEIN FOUND OUT THAT ONE THING SHE DOESN'T WANT IS THE ATTENTION OF MEN...

She is already being billed as the girl to make it big in '99, the latest of the so-called TV babes, snapping at the heels of Denise -van Outen and Zoe Ball. Gail Porter might be only 5ft 4in and weigh barely 6 1/2 stone, but those big blue, doe-shaped eyes are focused on only one thing...success.

Last month, the children's TV presenter succeeded in widening her fan appeal by appearing with only a splash of baby oil and a pout in one of those laddish magazines. But with Gail it's definitely a case of look but don't touch as far as the opposite sex are concerned.

Men have no place in her life now and are unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future. For Gail, 27, says she has never been in love, finds it impossible to form relationships with men and hasn't had sex for more than two years.

"I don't miss sex because I can't even remember what it is," says Gail, who fronted BBC2's Fully Booked Show add has two new series in the pipeline- ITV'S How 2 and It's A Mystery. "I've only had one relationship, with a businessman I met back home in Edinburgh, but it didn't work out because I was so determined to get on and move to London.

"That was my last and only adult relationship and it ended 2 1/2 years ago," she adds, despite the rumour mill linking her with former Blue Peter presenter Tim Vincent and 911 singer Lee Brennan.

"Yes I was very fond of this man in Edinburgh, but I've never been in love...that's for sure. I find it very hard to form close relationships with men. "I think it's because I'm such a private person and difficult to get to know.

"Sometimes I meet someone I like, open up too much and then I snap back. I'm very, very confused when it comes to relationships. Of course, everyone needs a cuddle now and then and I have days when I go home to my flat and I'm just desperate for someone to come round and give me a hug. Frankly, I would be happy with a one-week stand every now and then. But men always want to get into a relationship.

"I thought they'd be really pleased that I'm like this - they could have their cake and eat it, go off and do whatever they want, because I don't care as long as they take me out to dinner a few times - but they're not. I just want to have fun and don't want anyone to stop me." Gail adds: "There's so much hype around having a relationship and I think that's really bad. When you're young it's drilled into you that you're going to get married by the age of 20.

"I get treated as though I'm completely abnormal and yet I'm very happy. It's the pressure of our society and it's no good for children.

"I'm trying to change things in my own small way by telling people I'm single and happy, so hopefully kids will see that they don't have to have a boyfriend. "Women can be on their own, be successful and not have to have a man to make them happy.

"I go out once a week with my girlfiends to a wine bar and we have a great giggle. That's my ideal night out. The last time I was in a nightclub was about six years ago. Guys aren't desperate to take me out and that's fine. I don't long to go on a romantic holiday with a boyfriend.

"I could always go to the Caribbean, find someone there, have a romance for two weeks and then leave him. Now that's appealing. I'm not a commitment Gail is just as determined that children will never get in her way. "I never, ever want children and I'm very clear about that. People who don't know me say, 'Oh yes you will, you'll change your mind,' but my mum knows how deeply I mean it.

"I love other people's children - I've got a godchild and cousins - but I'm too selfish to ever have one of my own. I haven't got it in me to look after somebody. "The chances of me getting pregnant are very slim. It would be the second immaculate conception.

"But who knows, one day I may have sex again? I wouldn't mind, but I'd be very careful and never get myself into a situation where I became pregnant."

An unwanted baby is highly unlikely, especially as last month Gail helped back a safer sex campaign by the Health Education Authority, which encouraged more people to use a condom. But she was surprised about all the fuss over her appearing in the nude in GQ magazine. "It was just a storm in a teacup," she says. "I posed nude and you can see my bottom. But I didn't think it would cause so much hassle. "I really enjoyed having those photos taken and my mum loved them."

What the nude photographs didn't reveal was Gail's pierced nipple. "It's nothing really," she laughs. "It just makes me feel feminine." But she hates being described as a babe.

"I'm more as a potato than a babe. I'm not attractive. Some of the girls on TV are stunning, like Zoe Ball and Davina McCall, but I just look like your average girl next door.

"I can't remember my mum ever telling me I was pretty and my dad certainly wouldn't do anything like that. I find it annoying being called a babe because I want people to look past my physical appearance to who I really am. But it's great girls are becoming so successful on TV. However, we still have a fight on our hands because we soon get labelled.

"When I worked for a TV company in Edinburgh I was treated very badly by the men, doing anything from cleaning the railings with a toothbrush to babysitting someone's kids late at night.

"Some of the guys were really rude, making comments I found very hard to take, and I often wanted to turn round and whack them. But I thought, 'No Gail, just grin and bear it and then get out'."

Gail got her big break three years ago when she sent a tape of herself interviewing people on Edinburgh's Royal Mile to 10 TV stations, and landed a job with Scottish TV on a new show called TIGS. "I always knew I was going to. the top," she says."l was inspired by Star Wars. My mum took me to see the film end by the end I was sobbing because I hated walking out and being faced with reality.

"From that day I decided that I want to be part of that fantasy world. I'm a huge dreamer. I hate the thought of growing up, and because I look so young I get away with murder. I spend a fortune on toys, any- thing that talks, and I love Buzz Lightyear. I'm like a woman possessed when I go into Hamleys. When I have a girls' night at my flat they all look at the toys and say, 'Oh God Gail', but after a few bottles of wine I can guarantee all the toys are walking and talking around the floor. By the end of the night we've all regressed to the age of five and I refuse to change."

Yet two years ago Gail was forced to grow up very quickly. The grandmother she adored, Mary Twiddie, died of cancer, and her parents split up. "My gran dying of cancer was horrific," says Gail, who lives in a one-bedroom flat in Maida Vale, North London. "I was very close to her, but I saw her shrink away to nothing. I hated it.

"At the same time my mum and dad split up and it was really bad, the worst time of my life. I can never remember ever being so upset. It was just when I got on to television so at least my gram saw my TV debut. She was 100 per cent behind me.

"I didn't know how to handle my feelings at the time, but Grandpa kept saying, 'Just get on with your work, it's what Gram would have wanted'.

"But to tell you the truth I was relieved when my parents split up. They weren't happy together and I'd much rather they were happy. So many parents say they stay together for the kids, but when they stay together and aren't happy it's more harmful to the kids than leaving and letting them grow up in a loving environment.

"I think more children should try to understand that and let their mums and dads just do whatever they think is best. Maybe I wish my parents had split up earlier."

One of her main worries now is the constant rumours that because of her waif-like build she is anorexic. "For the past few years I've been very thin, but I'm definitely not anorexic," she says. "I do eat well, I'm just very active. I'd never starve myself. Too many people on TV do that.

"I think I've got a nice, round face which always makes me look very healthy. Anorexia is a serious problem and a lot of kids need help. It's quite difficult getting through to some kids that there's nothing wrong with their weight.

"Young girls talking about whether they're fat or thin in the school playground is frightening. Girls shouldn't bother, they should just be happy with what they look like. I know it's easier for me because I'm so small, but even I get up some mornings and think I look fat. Then I push it to one side and just get on with the day.

"I eat lots of fruit, grapes, strawberries and apples. Lunch is salad, vegetables or ricecakes, one of those three, and at night I love a piece of fish and a couple of glasses of red or white wine. It's healthy eating. This country is really bad for thinking we should all be eating fish and chips or pizzas and if you don't there must be something wrong with you."

But even though Gail looks as if she could blown over by the slightest breeze, she knows how to look after herself. She is a trained kick- boxer and left one man nursing a bloody nose and missing a few teeth when he attacked her on a street in Edinburgh.

"A group of us were coming back from a school disco when we were surrounded by football hooligans," says Gail. "My mates just ran and caught the bus. All I remember is someone smacking me in the face and me fighting back like crazy. I either broke his nose or his jaw as I was covered in blood and it wasn't my own.

"More children should take up self-defence. It's important to be able to defend yourself." Gail adds: "I need to get my aggression out sometimes and it's great going to the gym and laying into a punch bag." Men...you have been warned.