Anne Robinson has confessed she regrets not waiting before debuting her facelift on television.

The presenter, 78, was mocked after getting the cosmetic surgery when she was around 60 years old and appearing on The Weakest Link.

Speaking to Angela Scanlon’s Ask Me Anything on Irish TV, she says she wishes she had not gone straight onto TV with the new look.

She explained: 'When you have cosmetic surgery it is a bit like taking a leg of lamb out of the oven. You have to let it rest for a bit.

'I went on television quite quickly afterwards and it was a famous headline which said, "This face is the Weakest Link" as it was quite blown up.'

However, the quick-witted gameshow host does not regret being honest about the work she had done in 2004.

She said: 'I think you are only as sick as your secrets. It is very hard to be pretending you have not had a facelift.

'When I was first on television there were quite a few presenters who were the same age as me and now they are all younger. It seems easier to just be open about it.'

Anne, who hosted The Weakest Link from 2000 to 2012, became the host of Countdown last year, but quit in July 2022.

She said: 'I tried to be nice on Countdown. I loved it but nothing was ever going to be as wonderful as The Weakest Link or being a newspaper journalist.

'I probably made a mistake thinking I could replicate it on another game show. [Countdown] is a brilliant show but it does not really require a smart-arse presenter.' 

She added: 'If you were quite obese, I would say ‘What do you do when you are not eating?’. But you can’t do that anymore.'