CLARA AMFO: Why I'm glad I left the BBC after a decade (2024)

There’s a lot of love for Clara Amfo.

When, at the endof last year, she announced on Instagram that she was stepping down (from the show Future Sounds) after nine years as an influential Radio 1 DJ, celebrities piled in with messages of support: Claudia Winkleman shared her thoughts with a string of hearts; Stacey Dooley with clapping hands emojis; ‘huge love to you goddess’ wrote Zoe Ball.

At today’s photoshoot, the tourists in the 18th-century courtyard of London’s Royal Academy of Arts clearly recognise 40-year-old Amfo from her TV work: co-host of the Brit Awards and Glastonbury, Strictly contestant, guest judge on both RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Voice.

She’s twirling in a scarlet dress slashed to the uppermost thigh, stopping to place a strategic hand between her legs, flattening the frock that’s being blown apart by a blustering wind. ‘Gotta protect the area!’ she laughs. This kind of thing doesn’t usually go down at the Royal Academy.

You’ll be gathering that Amfo is not easily embarrassed. Over our post-shoot lunch, at a table in the courtyard (chicken salad in cardboard catering boxes), we get on to the subject of Billie Eilish.

Amfo was personally requested by the American superstar to interview her for her Billie Eilish: Up Close TV special in 2021, filmed at the singer’s Silverlake Los Angeles home. At the time of the YOU magazine photoshoot, Eilish has just created global headlines concerning her sexuality by talking to Rolling Stone magazine about masturbation.

‘Good for her,’ beams Amfo. ‘She’s learning and enjoying her body. And I think Billie’s so successful because she’s very truthful.’

As she roars with laughter, I remind her that she once said her friendship group on WhatsApp recommended vibrators to each other. She responds with her filthiest cackle yet. ‘I’m not letting that be your quote!’ she hollers, as befits a savvy media professional. ‘No f***ing way! Listen… enjoy it. Whether you’re Billie Eilish or flippin’ Bob the van driver.’

However, Amfo does have a caveat to this message of acceptance. When Eilish referred to her vagin* in the Rolling Stone interview, ‘She meant a vulva. I’m the daughter of someone who worked in medicine so I’m very aware of anatomical correctness!’

Amfo’s Ghanaian dad, a doctor, arrived in the UK in 1970 with £25, became an NHS microbiologist and married Grace, a hospital cleaner. Amfo and her four brothers were raised in a busy, loud music- and book-filled home in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, where their dad instilled a belief system: education and hard work would prove the ‘golden ticket’ in life.

Graduating with a media arts degree in 2006, Amfo lived out his ethos: she joined Kiss FM as a marketing intern in 2007, progressed to stand-in presenter, then drivetime host, leading to BBC Radio 1 Extra in 2013 and her daytime Radio 1 show in 2015.

She lost her beloved dad aged 72 that year (‘the worst day of my life’) and wants to make him proud still. ‘Always,’ she nods. ‘I feel his presence, and I’m very much my father’s daughter.’

Then, late last year, came the news that Amfo had decided to leave Radio 1 and in March she presented her final show, ending 11 contractual years at the BBC. Everybody wants to know why she quit.

What happened – she explains – was years of ‘relentless’ workload and zero holidays, not even a bank holiday, which left her ‘burnt out’, feeling she’d done enough for the Beeb (‘You know, when your boots are full’).

After begging for last summer off (which the BBC granted her) she spent months debating with herself whether to leave, and by November, still feeling the same, she quit. She insists that the move had nothing To do with approaching the age of 40, a traditionally stock-taking milestone.

Keen for new, broader experiences, Amfo is currently trying on different hats: she’s still freelancing with the BBC (including recording a pre-Glastonbury Live Lounge special with Dua Lipa); and she’s hosting the new late-Friday-night ITV Studio Sessions, her first TV series as a solo presenter, showing now on ITVX.

She is also a trusteeof the Royal Academy and was recently here alone (she prefers going to galleries solo), viewing an exhibition close to her heart as a second-generation Ghanaian: Entangled Pasts 1768-now. Art, Colonialism and Change.

‘I’ve never been busier,’ she says. ‘But I’ve also been able to go to my friends’ wedding and just live. That smile that you see, it’s from the contentment of [thinking], “Y’know what, Amfo, you did the right thing.”’

Whatever she does next, she won’t be fazed by the rich or the famous, having worked with many of the world’s biggest stars. She’s interviewed Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Elton John, Paul McCartney, William and Kate (she’s been to their royal homestead ‘a few times’). She’s played basketball with Justin Bieber and popped round to Elton’s to listen to records.

She was astounded at who got in touch when McCartney – ‘who was lovely, really warm’ – appeared last year on her Radio 1 show, where the new Beatles song ‘Now and Then’ was premiered. ‘Most of the texts I got were from, I’d say, 15- to 25-year-olds,’ she remembers, ‘saying, “My parents brought me up on the Beatles – this is so exciting.”’

Being close to fame has, however, made Amfo aware of its destructive powers. ‘A consistent thing I’ve found through interviewing over time is, there’s an added pressure of “performance of gratitude”,’ she says. ‘They feel like they’ve constantly got to be [high-pitched holler], “Oh my god, I’m so grateful! I’m so grateful! I can’t be seen to be a terrible person, and if I don’t take that one picture there’ll be a smear campaign against me!”

I’ve seen people have meltdowns because they were having an off dayor were violently ill and were taking on people’s disappointment. You can’t live your life at the behest of other people; you stop being you.’

Is she good at fame herself?

‘Listen, I ain’t Beyoncé,’ she hoots, aware that she’s not a household name. There follows a lengthy, uncharacteristic pause.

‘I’ve never really had a voracious appetite [for fame]. If there’s an event I’m invited to, I’ll get dressed up and go, but you will never see me ringing up my publicist saying [imaginary phone to ear, breathless voice], “OK, so me and my partner are just going on a date here…” It makes me cringe!

‘I understand that being a well-known person is a by-product of what I do, and it’s lovely when people come up and say, “I love your show”, but I think you’re only as famous as you act. Ed [Sheeran]’s a great example. You can go under the radar; I know people who are stupidly famous and you wouldn’t know who they’re dating. It’s a choice.’

Is Amfo dating? In her early mid-30s she had what she’s described as ‘toxic’ relationships with controlling or needy men. It seems, from what I’ve read, she’s been single ever since.

‘Have I?’ she teases, finishing up her lunch. ‘You know what’s funny? I bumped into a mate the other day, lovely Eddie Kadi [comedian and Strictly contestant, 2023].

He said, “Y’know, Clara, we don’t really know much about you, on that side of things.”

Well, there’s something to be said for keeping some stuff for yourself.’ She fixes me with a spectacularly twinkly stare and a huge smile, and says. ‘I’m having a lovely time.’

She’s dated men who’ve ‘resented me, tried to compete and reduce me, and that is not happening. I know so many incredible women – powerful, accomplished, bright, sparky, whether they’re in straight relationships, gay, whatever – who let their partners reduce them. Some in the public eye. You would be shocked.’

She’s also wary of social media. She uses Instagram but came off Twitter years ago, urging everyone to consume sparingly (‘like your favourite sweet treat’), otherwise it’s dangerous narcissism.

Back in upbeat mode, she recalls a meeting she had just the previous week with a TV exec about a mooted project, still under wraps. ‘She said, “You really are a hot knife through butter, aren’t you?” ‘I’ll take that! Sorry!’

She’s not sorry – Amfo is a self-made success story. ‘I don’t come from a showbiz family – haven’t had any leg up,’ she says, and she hopes for broadcasting triumphs well into the decades ahead – ‘I still feel energised, vital,’ she adds. She seems rooted in London for now and has owned her own home for years: first a one-bed flat in East London, moving more recently to a bigger flat nearby.

‘I live in a house,’ she corrects me. ‘Which I bought [low-slung campy voice] for my damn self. Tee hee!’

Speaking of home, it’s time for Amfo to go. A taxi waits. I tell her she seems fabulously happy. ‘Listen,’ she replies, ‘you’ve caught me at a good time in life, genuinely!’ Even as she’s leaving, the DJ is filling airtime.

‘I’m just trying to flippin’ enjoy myself,’ she concludes. ‘I’m excited about living my life. A mistake that I’ve made, particularly in the last two, three years, is [clicks fingers] career, career, career and not really being in the joy.

‘That’s my one thing I’m trying to stick to this year. The world is a mad place, you’ve got to find it where you can get it.’

Clara Amfo's cultural picks

Film: Blink Twice, out on 23 August: it’s a comedy thriller starring Naomi Ackie, who is brilliant.

Album: Rachel Chinouriri’s What a Devastating Turn of Events. Honest and utterly charming songwriting.

Track:‘French Exit’ by Dua Lipa. I’m playing it on repeat.

Food:Maramia Cafe, Golborne Road, West London, for homely Palestinian. The sujuk [sausage] is incredible.

Gallery:The Royal Academy. Its Summer Exhibition (18 June-18 August) is an incredible assault on the senses. You’ll want to visit more than once.

TV:We are Lady Parts on Channel 4, about the trials and tribulations of four girls in a punk band. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and back for a second season.

Art:Chris Ofili’s No Woman, No Cry at Tate Britain. Every time I see it I gasp.

Designer:Feben. She’s so innovative with her use of textures and shapes. The beaded yellow number [on the cover of the print issue] was such fun to wear. Rumour has it Beyoncé was eyeing it up!

Hotspot:St John’s Lodge Garden in Regent’s Park, a private square with public access. It feels magical.

Book:I Shouldn’t be Telling You This But I’m Going to Anyway by Chelsea Devantez, out this week. Her podcast dives into well-known women’s memoirs and pop culture. She’s lived quite the life herself and is now sharing her story.

Podcast:Sidetracked, Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw’s take on the week in music.

Club:Moko in Tottenham, The Townhouse at The Standard, London, or anywhere my friends Martelo or Benji B are DJing.

ITV Studio Sessions is streaming on ITVX

Picture director: Ester Malloy.

Stylist: Michelle Duguid.

Styling assistant: Tim Brooks.

Hair: Kevin Fortune at SW Artists using Ruka hair.

Make-up: Yasmina Bentaieb using YSL beauty.