Beverley Knight: ‘If a fan throws something at me, I’ll just leave the stage’
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How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Beverley Knight
5.30am
My husband James [O’Keefe, an entrepreneur and health coach] gets up crazy early but I’ll just open an eye, register that he has got up, then drift off again. I tend to stir when Zain, our rescue dog, bounds in. We’ll have a lovely mummy and dog snuggle.
8.30am
I go into the garden and do grounding for 10 minutes. Without sounding knobby, this is just standing with my bare feet on the grass, so I get the nice vibrations from the earth. It’s healing.
10am
I’ll walk Zain from our home in Finsbury Park to Highgate. Sometimes I’ll listen to a podcast – I like British Scandal. Or I’ll practise my breathing – five gentle breaths in, seven out – which expands your lung capacity and calms you down. I tend not to eat breakfast, but I’ll pop to the gym after we get back.
12pm
Lunch is a pretty clean meal. James is a great cook. There’s always leaves, and we like fermented foods such as sauerkraut, plus beef mince or maybe liver. I’ve got a healthy lifestyle, but popcorn and sweets let me down.
2pm
I often work on Saturday afternoon. I might have interviews, or a photo shoot. If I’m in the theatre [Knight recently performed in Sylvia at The Old Vic], I’ll have a matinee and evening show. I love acting, but I’m a musician to my core – I’ve been working on my new album, The Fifth Chapter [out 29 September], and I go on tour in October.
I’m so looking forward to it, but if some fan decides to start throwing things at me, as has happened with other artists recently, I’ll just leave the stage.
3pm
If I’m not working, I love to visit the Imperial War Museum or the Natural History Museum. I also like going to Shoreditch. There’s a really good West Indian restaurant near there, Café Caribbean, and an amazing Korean place.
5pm
I’ll catch up on TV at home – I’m on season five of Formula 1: Drive To Survive. I’m that person who’ll shout at the TV, I go all in.
6pm
Mostly we’ll eat at home, because it’s that bit healthier. I’m of Jamaican heritage, but James is really good at West Indian dishes – he makes a great ackee and saltfish. Then we watch a film.
9pm
I spend for ever in the bath, listening to my favourite music: Prince, some soulful house…
11pm
I’ve stopped looking at my damn phone in the evenings – the blue-light emissions encourage your brain to stay awake – so it’s banished to another room. Then I fall fast asleep.
