Born in Singapore, Clare Bailey Mosley, 64, studied at the Royal Free Medical School where she met Michael Mosley: they married in 1987. She worked as a GP until she retired in 2022. She wrote the companion recipe books to her husband’s The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet, The Clever Guts Diet and The Fast 800. Since his death in 2024, she has established the Michael Mosley Memorial Research Fund; she has also published a parenting guide called Eating Together and The Fast 800 Favourites; there is also The Fast 800 online weight loss support programme. She lives in Buckinghamshire and has four children.
What is your earliest memory?
Minesweeping at a cocktail party when I was about three. I got up in the night and my parents found me drunk in the morning.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Time blindness.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Arrogance.
Aside from a property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought?
A garden chair from the Chelsea flower show. It was almost the price of a small crappy car.
What is your most treasured possession?
My puppy. He’s called Biscuit and he’s a very bouncy cavapoo.
Describe yourself in three words
Optimistic, nurturing, enquiring.
What is your most unappealing habit?
I sleepwalk. I wander around aimlessly and then get back into bed.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
My nose could be neater.
What scares you about getting older?
Loneliness.
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
War and Peace.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A fireman.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Michael.
What does love feel like?
Connection, warmth, somebody you can trust and, quite happily, say nothing to.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
I wouldn’t because everything is connected with everything else.
When’s the last time you changed your mind about something significant?
Six months ago, I decided to move house. I got a skip, cleared everything out and then thought: “Why am I doing this?” So I remained, and I’m glad I did.
What would you like to leave your children?
That they were loved.
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Michael.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My children.
Would you rather have more sex, money or fame?
Money.
How would you like to be remembered?
To have made people healthier and happier.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
To be inquisitive.
Tell us a joke
Somebody told this to me when I was five. When is a jar not a jar? When it’s ajar.