Kirstie is moving on

Allsopp, a former Bedales girl who worked at Country Living magazine before going into the property market, is very close to her family. She grew up in Dorset, where her parents also have a home, the eldest of four children. Her parents are Fiona, an interior designer, and Charles Allsopp, Lord Hindlip, former chairman of Christie's. "My mother loves having children," she says. "She would have had more but she got cancer when my youngest sister, Sophie, was two."

Her mother has had three serious bouts of the disease. "She has a tumour on her spine at the moment," says Allsopp. "She is really very ill and she can't have chemo because it is not a soft-tissue cancer. The weirdest thing is that she looks amazing even though she is so sick. She lives in the healthiest way she can to try to stop the cancer from spreading. She juices all the time and only eats organic food. She is amazing."

How is Allsopp dealing with it all? "Of course it's dreadful," she says, "but my mother is not falling apart, so it would be pretty unhelpful if we all collapsed around her. She is living her life and we are living it with her."

Life though, according to the writer Harriet Lane, was something the young Allsopp found quite hard. Lane, who also went to Bedales, describes the teenage Allsopp as being "untrendy and attention-seeking, yet desperate to fit in". She also highlights that, even then, Allsopp dressed like a matron, albeit a slightly sexy one. But in the end it is this look that has become Allsopp's trademark. Her high heels, pleated skirts and long red coats have obviously gone down well with her legions of fans.

Today, 34-year old Kirstie looks as she always does, clad in a black V-neck jumper, full mid-length black skirt and kitten heels. She's rather striking - buxom, pale-skinned and luxuriant dark hair. Does she think her good looks helped her get a job on television? "No!" she says, horrified. "I hate seeing myself on screen. I think I'm fat and ugly and clothes that seemed to work off-camera look like a dog's dinner. I come across as a posh Sloane but maybe that's what I am."

What, we have to ask, can mere property mortals learn from her? It's a cliche, she says, but area wins over property every time. "Think about where you want and can afford to live and buy there, even if you are a first-time buyer."

Another key tactic of Kirstie's is to take a builder, not a surveyor, when she views a house. "Unlike a surveyor, they can tell you how - and if - you can fix the problems. What puts other buyers off may not be so expensive to mend." She also warns against buying bigger than you need unless you intend to make money from the extra space. "I built a wooden office in the garden of my flat," she says, "which put thousands onto the value."

And when you're selling, she counsels, don't waste time doing unnecessary work. The rooms to focus on are the kitchen and bathroom. "People are very frightened of these rooms, especially single men who work all hours and can't imagine how they're ever going to fix a half-tiled bathroom."

What of young Londoners struggling to buy their first home? "I'm a real advocate of buying with friends or family to help you get on the property ladder. Thirty years ago people bought houses in couples but the way we live has changed. We accept that people get married and have children later and we need to adjust the way we think about buying houses too.

"Of course, you have to set ground rules early on and those uncomfortable conversations-need to be had before you even begin to look at properties. Friends should make a written agreement that covers all eventualities: what if your best friend gets a boyfriend and wants him to move in? What if one of you wants to sell? Also, I'd recommend making the money side as even as possible - if you split the purchase 30/70, then you have to split the sale 30/70."

Is she sure she wants to give up the property shows? "Oh yes," she says. "I am very appreciative of the public profile it has given me because now I have a voice and I have strong opinions. I was very against the Government's Home Information Pack because it was ill-thought-out and I and others were vocal about it. Now the essence of the law has been changed for the better and I feel good about that.

"But I also actually don't want publicity. I don't go to premieres and parties and I don't take my baby shopping in his pram down Sloane Street and then express outrage that he's been photographed. I accepted no free gifts for him, although I was offered loads, and he will never be in Hello! or OK! or anything thing like that. People are always complaining about the media but they court it at the same time."

The only thing that has hurt her in the past was when Amanda Platell wrote in the Daily Mail that she was having a child with someone else's husband. "Not true," says Allsopp. "Ben and his wife are divorced." And that she once did some nude pictures for a girlie magazine. "I posed naked for my friend who is an artist," she says.

The allegations about her partner hurt most though. "I didn't think I'd have children out of wedlock," she says, "but Ben has been married before and so I don't think he's in a hurry to do it again. Our child is our commitment to each other."

What about the persistent rumour that she "stole" him from his wife? "I did not!' she says. "I met Ben at a party for a prospective Tory MP friend of mine, Orlando Fraser. Ben's wife, whom I knew at school and whom he was already separated from, introduced us." So there is no bad blood?

"As any step-parent knows," she says, "it is the children who come first. So yes, we all get on and the children go from their mother's to ours and they are very excited to have their new brother around."

So what is the future, then? She has just designed a brand called Moving Sense along with William Miller, who used to be Nigella Lawson's business partner. "Ooh, it's wonderful," says Allsopp, getting excited again. "I can't tell you how many people use plug-in air fresheners. They are my bugbear. So I have created three different scented candles people can burn in their house, especially if they want to sell it."

Scented candles? Is that it? "Oh no," she says, giggling. "I've also done three specially-created tool kits. There's a starter tool kit and a picture-hanging kit and a sewing kit. The idea is that people, especially women, should be empowered to fix their own homes. You wouldn't believe how many people I meet who can't change a washer or fix a doorknob back on."

Allsopp shows me the kits. They are rather nattily disguised as 1930s adventure books. "They fit into your bookshelf," says Allsopp. "I am very proud of them because they are practical and they look good. I really want to do more design-based stuff."

Then she says she must go, Bay has come home and needs feeding. Foxy needs a walk. The builders need more tea. "This," she says beaming at Bay, "is all that matters really. Ben and Bay and my stepsons. I'll just see how everything else pans out." Then she tucks Bay under her jumper and disappears upstairs.

. To buy Kirstie Allsopp's Moving Sense home-starter kits online or for stockist information visit www.movingsense.co.uk