Fast confession - Kristina Kloubková: Don’t ask me about sex!

You don’t talk about privacy often. Do you try to protect it?

I have been trying to do so recently. I am an open person who is not afraid to speak the truth and I say things the way I see them. I have learned that this is not the best idea in this business. So I am not so open anymore and I try to protect my privacy. Jasmínka is part of me, so she is visible in the media, but other than that I do try to protect my partner who doesn’t work in showbusiness and who doesn’t like all the attention.

Does he see that in a bad light or is it just unpleasant for him?

I think that he doesn’t understand it. He doesn’t understand why I would tell a stranger that my child had glandular fever. But I think it is a good thing that I am able to say something like that so that the other mothers out there aren’t so afraid. When the doctors told me she had glandular fever, I knew it was just some sort of disease you get from kissing, but what I didn’t know was why my four-year-old daughter had it and how it is treated and the diet really is disgusting. Looking for recipes which my child could eat and which were at least even slightly palatable is quite a difficult thing and I am happy if I can be an inspiration to other mothers by doing that.

When did you find out and is treatment for children different to treatment for adults?

I think it is the same for everyone. Glandular fever is often mistaken for tonsillitis. Tonsillitis was suspected in Jasmínka too, but she had a swollen liver and spleen as well as a temperature and when her tummy was still hurting after three days, we went straight to the infection unit. A blood test told the doctors what the problem was. 

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So she had to go on a diet.

I am quite pedantic, so Jasmínka had a very drastic diet to help her liver and she was always hungry and above all she hated the taste of it all. She said: “Mummy, you are such a good cook, but this is so disgusting.” Luckily, after a week, the doctor told us that the situation had improved and that we could ease up a little. So I eased up on the diet a little and kept it up with her for two months so she wasn’t doing it alone. With this diet, you can’t eat any fat, and I am really used to cooking in dripping, with onion and garlic and on top of that, we were on this diet at Christmas, so no sweets or biscuits.

Did she not try to give you the puppy-dog eyes?

She does try that, but she knows I won’t budge when it comes to things like this. Surprisingly, she is a reasonable girl. It’s funny how she can handle all of those doctors and blood samples without any problems. But paradoxically, yesterday I had to get a splinter out and she had such a fit that it completely shocked me. 

Were you not like that? In what way does she in fact take after you?

I get the feeling that she is not very similar to me. Of course I would like to say that she gets all of her good characteristics from me and all of the bad ones from her dad, but unfortunately I can’t say that. She has a talent for movement from her dad. She would be suited to ballet. But that is maybe because I am bringing her up differently to how I was brought up. I want her to grow up into a self-confident girl, but I am now at that stage when I am saying to myself that I shouldn’t be too liberal with my kindness. So she doesn’t get everything. But she doesn’t have everything she wants. However, when she was ill, I did buy her presents every time she had a blood test, so she got used to that over that half a year. 

She is already at that age when girls care about how they look. Is she already starting to “dress up”?

She does like to dress up. She chooses her clothing herself, tells me how to comb her hair and what things she doesn’t like. I was never like that and it is entertaining to watch her.

Does she not try to “style” you?

She does! She tries to tell me how to dress and is even able to say to me: “Mummy, that really doesn’t suit you.” But I do often wear what she tells me to wear.

What does she really not like to see you wearing?

She doesn’t like dark colours and she likes skirts. But I don’t wear those much. So she is over the moon when I wear a skirt or a dress and asks if I can buy it for her too. She has already also told me she wants a large bra too ... (laughs)

At the age of five? (laughs) Shouldn’t she rather be getting ready for her first day at school? Are you teaching her a few things in advance so she will fit in there?

She is clever, so I am not pressurising her into anything. She already knows all of the letters of the alphabet and I am teaching her to articulate when she speaks. And she has also fallen in love with Harry Potter and asked whether I am willing to pay for her to learn English at school. So I asked her why and she said: “Otherwise Harry won’t understand me.”

You said she is gifted as regards movement like her dad, but you are a former dancer yourself, so why couldn’t she have got that from you? 

She gets that from both of us, but her dad, grandmother and grandfather had a talent for ballet. It would have been strange if she had not inherited that.

So do you in fact want her to take that path?

I don’t. But I do know that she should be active in some way, so I showed here various dance styles on YouTube such as street dance and hip hop and so on and she clicked in Swan Lake, where the ballerinas were dancing on tip-toe and she said to me: “Mummy, I want to do that.”

But you don’t want her to. Why is that?

Because it is really painful and it is a life which last for only a short time. She would have to go abroad, not stay here in this country. But she will make that decision herself anyway in time. Recently, when I was creating some choreography for an advert, I took inspiration from Jasmínka.

Other than presenting, you still do choreography?

Sometimes a bit of that work comes my way again and I really enjoy it. If I get an offer which is not a long-term one, I gladly accept it. I am considering a longer-term offer for a musical at the moment. Jasmínka will already be in school so I should be able to manage it. But I should probably rather be getting ready for that school, because when I saw the maths, I just didn’t understand it at all. I hope Jasmínka stays as clever as she is now and in the end, it will be her who is explaining things to me.

Maybe you could help her with composition.

Well, the content baffles me there. I saw some subject matter where the pupils were supposed to write about something and the content was a man how sees his wife kissing a stranger. He goes to her, gets angry and in the end, he goes home, takes some pills and switches on the gas. I understand the grammar of the text, but the content?? I think I am going to have a problem with that.

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The teachers are going to love you! (laughs) What impression do you think you make on people?

Probably a different one that if they actually meet me. If they meet me outside of work, they are really surprised that I am small, slim and that I look younger, which I find amusing and which always makes me happy. Nevertheless, I do find it strange, seeing as I make a living from that TV screen!! But I do sometimes come across as cold and inaccessible. But I don’t think that I am like that. I only come across like that during the news because there is nothing to laugh about there. On the contrary, when I am presenting “Víkend”, I am myself and some topic or other always engages me there. But if I have to do a report on sex, I blush and if I don’t manage to do things in one take, I am unhappy about it and start to get all sweaty.

Are you shy?

Surprisingly, I am. But I think those sorts of things are sensitive and private matters.

So there are topics which you don’t like speaking about in public. Is there anything else apart from sex?

I don’t think so. If I don’t like something, I say so.

How do you relax?

I am mostly stopped only by me or my daughter getting ill. I am not very good at relaxing and despite the fact that I have learned to say no, I am still not very good at it. But I have improved. Before Jasmínka was born, I had three jobs. I now have one and we will see how things go.