A beloved star has lifted the lid on the wild career she had before turning her hand to dealing antiques. BBC presenter Irita Marriot has become a regular host and antiques expert on and .
The TV personality is regularly seen appraising and selling items for a profit at auction as well as appraising guests family heirloom that have been collecting dust in people's attics. Now, the Latvian dealer is returning to our screens with a bang for the second series of her REALLY daytime show which is set to hit the airwaves on May 5. In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, the 40-year-old broadcaster revealed that before she became a renowned auctioneer, she was a drag race driver.
When asked about the vintage cars she drives on Antiques Road Trip, she gushed: "We actually have been quite lucky.
"I love the cars and I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to a car. I like a good roar." It was at this point that she lifted the lid on her wild sporting career as a drag race driver in the heart of Latvia in her early twenties.
She went on: "When I was about 19 or 20 when I came back from America I actually took part in drag racing in closed down airports in Latvia. It was in the dark, in the pitch black, and you didn't know where the end of the runway was, you just kept going.
"That's in a different lifetime I'm still here but I wouldn't suggest anybody else doing it because it is dangerous, crazy and stupid.
It comes after the presenter opened up about her difficult upbringing in Lativa as she shared her dream to one day compete on Strictly Come Dancing.
She gushed: "I mean, if there were some crazy stars aligning - which I can't ever see actually happening - but when I was a little girl, my upbringing was tough, put it that way.
"We were poor, my dad was a lifelong alcoholic and times were hard. But one thing that my mum and me used to watch on telly to kind of take our minds off things was ballroom dancing.
"And I remember being very little and twirling around the house and I wanted to be that girl in a feather-bottomed gown twirling around the floor being completely free and feeling like there is no weight in the world at all.
"If I could make that one thing happen, I don't care what the show would be, if someone can make that happen, that would be the ultimate dream for me."
The Derbyshire Auction House S2, Mondays from 5 May at 9pm on REALLY and available to stream on discovery+.
"If I could make that one thing happen, I don't care what the show would be, if someone can make that happen, that would be the ultimate dream for me."The Derbyshire Auction House S2, Mondays from 5 May at 9pm on REALLY and available to stream on discovery+.
