The tears they shed this week when the cameras stopped rolling were, of course, genuine. And little wonder – for after 11 years hosting together, Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly said what was a very emotional goodbye to Strictly.
In a highly emotional, pre-recorded Christmas Day special, the duo, who have hosted the BBC One dance extravaganza together since 2014, are said to have wept at the final cut after bidding farewell to their millions of loyal viewers.
For all that deep feeling, however, there’s a sense that Claudia Winkleman in particular is moving up, as well as on.
As I revealed in October, a full-bells-and-whistles BBC chat show beckons.
As one television insider told me: ‘Strictly’s turned Claudia into showbiz royalty. She wasn’t hugely well known at the beginning of the show. Now she’s the most sought-after person – not even woman – in television.’
All this is only underlined by the fact Claudia, 53, has also had an extremely lucrative Strictly journey.
Today, some 21 years after she first began hosting the spin-off programme It Takes Two, she has amassed a fortune thought to be around £30 million, an astonishing sum.
In contrast, some figures have Tess Daly’s fortune estimated at around ‘just’ £4 million.
Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly have presented Strictly Come Dancing together for 11 years
How, one might wonder, has Claudia become such an earning powerhouse?
The answer isn’t as simple as you might imagine.
Yes, Strictly pays well. She is understood to take home around £350,000 per series.
But Claudia has made her real dough through a series of canny business moves.
First, she has dedicatedly pursued a broad base of commercial endorsements – from Marks & Spencer to Head & Shoulders shampoo. Notably, her chosen brands appeal to her core audience of middle-aged female fans, which only heightens her sheen among TV’s commissioning bosses.
Second – and most crucially – she has joined forces with her astute movie producer husband Kris Thykier in a smart move that has ensured she has kept more of her earnings than ever before, as we shall see later.
It all means that Claudia and Kris are ‘absolutely loaded’, as one source puts it.
Endearingly, though, friends of hers tell me that she ‘despises her money being talked about’. Rather than flaunting her cash, she is instead, they say, ‘quietly flashy’.
Claudia Winkleman after being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire earlier this month
Quiet or not, there’s no doubt that Claudia is now a one-woman entertainment empire, knocking the likes of Holly Willoughby and even Davina McCall into touch.
‘Claudia and Kris sail a bit below the radar because they don’t flaunt it in public, but Claudia must be the richest woman on British television now. Strictly was just a fraction of her income,’ says my source.
Where you can see evidence of this wealth is in the couple’s family home.
The pair, who married in June 2000 at London’s Marylebone Town Hall and now have three children – Jake, 22, Matilda, 19, and Arthur, 14 – share a stunning Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse in the capital’s prestigious Connaught Square. Known for its elegant architecture, other residents include former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie.
They bought the property for £3.25 million in 2006. It’s likely to be worth as much as twice that figure now, with similar homes on the square recently fetching up to £8 million. They also have what has been described as a ‘long-term rental’ on a £3 million Cotswolds home, described by locals as ‘castle-style’.
Claudia, though, appears to have no wish to join the permanent celebrity residents of the Cotswolds, such as Jeremy Clarkson and the Beckhams, preferring instead to stay in the capital.
Her big career pivot came last year when she left her long-time management company, entertainment giants YMU, who count Ant and Dec among their clients. Now she is with Little Arrow, which has two directors, both of whom are rather well known to her: Holly Bott, her former agent at YMU – and her husband, Kris.
This, then, appears to be a production vehicle set up to turbocharge Claudia’s earnings –with her fate and fortune now being very much in her own hands. My source says: ‘Claudia and Kris are very experienced in showbiz and obviously realised they could have more control, and retain more of the income, by going down this new route rather than letting another company take a hefty cut of everything.
Some reports have suggested that Winkleman’s earnings from The Traitors may dwarf her rumoured Strictly salary
‘Kris was instrumental in the project – he has a forensic eye for the financial bottom line.
‘This was about exploiting Claudia’s business potential as much as her telly fame. It’s a risk walking away from an established partnership like YMU, but she and Kris are very shrewd.’
Since Claudia’s move, fellow YMU client Gabby Logan has followed her to Little Arrow. Other celebrities who are now under its remit include Emma Barnett, one of the hosts of Radio 4’s Today programme.
And the work keeps rolling in for Claudia. Of course, alongside Strictly, she presents another of the BBC’s biggest hits, The Traitors, and its hugely popular spin-off The Celebrity Traitors, which attracted 15 million viewers for the final last month.
BBC rules mean that Claudia’s salary does not need to be declared because the show is made by an independent production company, Studio Lambert.
However, some reports have suggested that her Traitors’ earnings may dwarf her rumoured Strictly salary.
Official documents filed by Claudia’s limited company Little Owl Productions reveal she paid corporation tax of £575,000 in the year from May 2024 to April 2025, suggesting an overall income in the region of £2 million in taxable profit for the same period.
The same business also has more than £3 million stockpiled in reserves. Alongside her flagship BBC shows, Claudia also remains presenter of Channel 4’s The Piano and a game show on the same network, One Question.
Winkleman is an ambassador for shampoo brand Head & Shoulders
And next year, her career looks set to truly go stratospheric as she launches her own chat show for the Beeb with So Television, the production company that makes The Graham Norton Show for BBC One.
Likely to air in the gaps when Norton’s show is not on screen and expected to be called The Claudia Winkleman Show, the new programme will give the broadcaster another high-profile platform for A-list interviews.
All this bodes even better, then, for Claudia’s bank balance.
As one source said: ‘If she wasn’t already, this really does cement Claudia as the biggest presenter on British TV.
‘The BBC don’t want ITV getting their hands on Claudia so they’re giving her the opportunity of her career, it’s very exciting. There’s nobody in more demand just now. And her pay packet will reflect that, too.’
In many ways, Claudia was born to this success. Her mother, Eve Pollard, was the editor of several national newspapers and magazines, while her father was publisher Barry Winkleman.
They divorced when she was three, with Pollard going on to marry Sir Nicholas Lloyd. Another giant of the media world, he edited the Sunday People, News of the World and the Daily Express, receiving a knighthood in 1990 before embarking on a broadcasting and public relations career.
Educated at the prestigious City of London School for Girls, which often appears among lists of the top schools in the country and now costs more than £10,000 per term, there was a certain steeliness instilled in Claudia through the circumstances of her childhood.
The presenter also has a signature range with CBD supplements with manufacturer Cannaray
Sources around at the time tell me: ‘Claudia would finish school and go to her mum’s newspaper office. She was never an unconfident young lady. Being around tough newspaper environments certainly helped shape her.’
A degree in art history at what was then New Hall (now Murray Edwards), Cambridge, followed.
Always determined to be a TV presenter, her big break came in 2010 when she replaced Jonathan Ross as the host of the BBC’s Film show.
‘She is lovely – really, really lovely – but behind the friendly TV persona is an iron determination,’ says one source who knows her. ‘Kris shares the same drive. They are a real power couple.’
Her power, too, comes from her commercial endorsements. Earlier this year she became the new face of Marks & Spencer’s collaboration with Jaeger, and has subsequently appeared in a series of advertisements and campaigns for the retailer.
Her trademark hairstyle has also seen her as a long-standing ambassador for shampoo brand Head & Shoulders, an association which began in 2016.
And she has a signature range with CBD supplements manufacturer Cannaray, speaking regularly of her routine with the cannabidiol chemical, which she says helps her to stay calm and improve her sleep.
Voiceovers and corporate events have supplemented her income, too. For example, between 2017 and 2018, a few hours’ work presenting the Designer Kitchen And Bathroom Awards, the Welsh Contact Centre Awards and the awards ceremony for the luxury magazine the Mayfair Times, which celebrates those who make ‘a positive contribution to life in Mayfair, St James, and Marylebone’, saw her earn up to £25,000 a time.
A five-figure sum also found its way into her account in 2013 when she joined booming-voiced actor Brian Blessed in promoting a Cadbury’s initiative to find an ‘honorary taster’ – a job she thought was ‘the best on Planet Earth, ever’.
She was also paid around £100,000 per year to be a columnist for the Sunday Times Style magazine for several years from 2017.
As one showbiz source puts it: ‘Claudia can pretty much name her price. If you want her backing your product, it’s going to cost a small fortune.
‘She probably makes millions a year on top of the TV work from all the extras.’
And alongside her own vast earning potential, Thykier’s own film production powerhouse, Archery Pictures, remains a hugely lucrative operation.
His recent hits include Paramount gangster drama Mobland starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and Tom Hardy.
Other successes include comedy action drama Kick-Ass starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the Colin Firth movie Operation Mincemeat and several series of Sky drama Riviera.
It’s almost dizzying to comprehend the many prongs of the Winkleman-Thykier empire.
Indeed, as one source quips: ‘They’re almost a cottage industry all on their own. Or perhaps more of a mansion.’