Carol Smillie, the former television presenter, spent several days on the Greek island of Zakynthos this month being guided through an intensive set of yoga poses and stretches by her daughter, Christie Knight, who runs retreats there, according to videos and photos posted to social media.
Knight, 29, uploaded clips and images of the sessions, writing on one post: “Bringing my mum on retreat to get her to fall in love with yoga is going well. To be fair, I reckon she’s smashing it.” In a second-day video she said: “Day two of getting my non-yogi mama into yoga,” and Smillie, 63, laughingly replied that she feared she was “going to break.” Smillie later said she enjoyed the music and “the calm bit at the end,” and joked that her favourite position was the child pose because she could “have a wee snooze.”
The posts show Knight leading group sessions while Smillie practised alongside, and they also document other activities the pair undertook, including paddleboarding at sunset, a speedboat outing and swims in the surrounding turquoise waters. Smillie captioned one social post: “A few days just the two of us, teaching me yoga, wellness and how to make better reels. Memories to last a lifetime.”
Knight is the eldest of Smillie’s three children with husband, former restaurateur Alex Knight. The couple’s other children are Robbie, 27, and Jodie, 25. Knight has been photographed and filmed taking groups through yoga sessions on Zakynthos; the social posts indicate the mother-daughter trip combined instruction with leisure and family time.
Smillie, who rose to prominence on shows including Wheel of Fortune and Changing Rooms and later presented the National Lottery draw, has spoken previously about using breathing exercises and lifestyle changes to manage menopause-related symptoms. In a 2017 interview she said a life coach had advised her to improve “wellbeing through the menopause” with a combination of diet and yoga breathing exercises that helped with severe mood swings and insomnia.
The Zakynthos retreat appears to have been a short, private stay during which Knight introduced her mother to a fuller sequence of poses. In the clips she leads Smillie through standing and floor positions and encourages her to persist despite her jokes about discomfort. Smillie concludes one session in the footage saying: “I’ll get there. It’s all about trying.”
The social media material draws on familiar elements of contemporary wellness culture: instruction-led mini-retreats, outdoor activities such as paddleboarding, and the posting of short videos and images to share personal progress. The posts do not indicate whether Smillie plans further formal yoga training or additional retreats, and neither Smillie nor Knight provided extended comment beyond the social media captions and clips.