Homes Under The Hammer star Martel Maxwell appeared on Celebrity Antiques Road Trip yesterday and was quizzed by her co-star James Braxton about the most famous person she had interviewed. Revealing all, she said: “Donald Trump.” Surprised by her reply, James asked: “Really, when?” Martel explained: “Before he was President, way before… it was at a New York fashion show.
“He was all mine in terms of he was looking at me, fully concentrating, engaging and charming for 45 seconds I’d say and then a Victoria’s Secret underwear model walked passed and his jaw just dropped open and he walked off.
“I was like ‘Cheers Donald.’”
During her road trip with James, he also asked her if she was named after the Martell brandy.
She replied: “Well, I didn’t think so… so there was a singer called Lena Martell and mum was listening to the radio and singing to ‘One day at a time sweet Jesus.'”
She then turned to James and asked him: “Do you remember it?”
James insisted he didn’t, to which Martel added: “She was pregnant and she wanted something different and she said ‘Oh that’ll do, but I’ll give her one L instead of two.’”
She added: “But it transpires that Lena Martell had a more common name and she was sitting in front of the hotel bar one day and she said ‘I need something more glamorous’ so she was sitting there looking at all the objects and she chooses the Martell.
“So actually, I’ve snootily said for most of my life ‘No I was not named after the brandy’, but I was.”
Martel began co-hosting the hit property show Homes Under The Hammer alongside Martin Roberts and Dion Dublin in 2017, replacing Lucy Alexander.
The latter left the show after 13 years.
Martel recently revealed what her co-stars really thought of her taking over from Lucy in a candid chat.
She told Express.co.uk it is “brilliant” working with them, adding: “They were both very gracious.
“Martin, having been there for so long, he just said: ‘Congratulations, I think you’re doing a great job.’
“He’s been really, really generous with me and I genuinely feel that if I had a problem, which I don’t, I could just run it by them.”
Reflecting on the time she joined the show, she added: “I have a nervous laugh so if something bad happens I start giggling and it’s not great because it’s really not appropriate.
“But I didn’t get that [nervous]. I thought I would, because it was really surreal, but I just stayed concentrated and thought, I just want to show Martin and Dion I can remember my lines.”
Homes Under The Hammer airs weekdays at 10am on BBC One.