“As I’ve got older, my friends and I have become much more open about talking about sex,” says Jessie Ware. At 41, the pop star turned podcaster surrounds herself “with women who are honest about their vulnerabilities, whether that’s talking about a lack of confidence or simply comparing which vibrators everyone’s using.”
But today – settling cross-legged on the baggy, velvet sofa of her south London home – the down-to-earth mother-of-three is yanking her hair into a messy bun and working out how she can “bring that sense of filth, honesty and humour” to her first proper arena tour. “Because I want to take that kitchen-table intimacy to those bigger spaces, so we’re all dancing together, sweating together, laughing together.”
Although Ware has been the critics’ darling since the release of her sleekly soulful, Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Devotion (2012), she was very guarded (“you mean mysterious?!”) at the beginning of her career. Mainstream success has taken time. But fame has grown with the popularity of her hit podcast, Table Manners. Launched in 2017, the cosy series has seen the increasingly relaxed singer and her mum Lennie invite celebrities over for dinner, interviewing everyone from Paul McCartney to Sadiq Khan over home-cooked food and often cocktails. Ed Sheeran (with whom she wrote her biggest hit “Say You Love Me”) famously had four portions of sausages in 2018. Kylie brought her own brand of rosé wine in 2020 before the pair collaborated on single “Kiss of Life” the following year.
