Kaye Adams has revealed she is putting plans in place for her pension by selling off part of her home as a BBC inquiry into allegations that she bullied colleagues continues.
The BBC Radio Scotland presenter is off air due to an investigation into her conduct towards staff members after an internal complaint.
Adams, 63, told how she had planned to downsize from her four-storey detached property in Glasgow’s west end as she looked towards retirement.
However, she and her long-term partner, Ian Campbell, have decided to subdivide the sandstone villa into two flats and sell one of them.
She said she was nervous about splashing out on expensive construction work amid uncertainty over her career, but has decided to take the plunge.
Speaking on her How To Be 60 podcast, the mother of two said: “Actually, I am feeling quite chirpy at the moment. It’s been a difficult few months, things have been on pause and all that.
“I was thinking about downsizing and all sorts of options and one of them was to subdivide the house. We love the house, we love the area, we love our neighbours and our neighbours love us would you believe?
Adams has started the process of splitting her home
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“I had this plan in the back of my head to subdivide but it’s a big risk to do that financially. Like most people of our age your house is your pension. That was always the way it was for me — the house is the pension.
“I have gone back and forward and thought, ‘Is this kind of crazy given everything that’s going on?’ I’ve thought about it really, really hard and I’m going to go ahead with it.
“I had an estate agent round today, I’ve got a builder and the architect is coming this afternoon. We’re far advanced with the drawings and we’ve got planning permission. I just thought, do you know what? To hell with it, the horse is coming and I’m going to jump on it.”
• BBC Scotland’s Kaye Adams accused of ‘pro-Labour bias’
Adams bought her home for £750,000 in 2007 and it is thought to be worth in excess of £1 million. Plans approved by Glasgow city council show the ground and first floors of Adams’s existing home will contain the five-bedroom upper flat.
The three-bedroom lower flat will be contained in the basement, which will be enlarged by single-storey side and rear extensions.
• Kaye Adams: BBC inquiry ‘like layers of my skin have been torn off’
Adams, who also presents ITV’s Loose Women, was taken off her morning show on Radio Scotland in October after junior staff members reported her under the BBC’s Call It Out scheme. She denies the allegations against her and has insisted she is “not the person that I was painted as”.
Speaking previously about the investigation, she said: “I don’t want people to think that I’m trying to kid on nothing’s happening. I know that people will be aware of stuff that they’ve read. I can’t even describe it, it just feels like layers of my skin have been torn off, to be honest.
“But I just have to go with it and hopefully there will be a sensible resolution. That’s all that you can really hope for in life. I certainly never saw this one coming. But you’ve just got to deal with it, haven’t you?”
The BBC has said it does not comment on individuals.