Kelly was born as Lorraine Smith on 30 November 1959 and lived in the Gorbals area of Glasgow until she was two;[1] she has Irish ancestry.

Kelly spent the first few years of her life in Glasgow before the family moved to East Kilbride where she attended Claremont High School.

She turned down a university place to study English and Russian in favour of a job on the East Kilbride News,[2] her local newspaper, and then joined BBC Scotland as a researcher in 1983.

On the back of her coverage of the Pan Am Flight 103 disaster in Lockerbie, in July 1989, Kelly presented TV-am's Summer Sunday programme with chief reporter Geoff Meade.

[5][6] In June 1994, Kelly went on maternity leave, but shortly afterwards she was sacked from the main presenting roles, she returned in November 1994 to do a mother and baby slot.

According to the Sunday Mirror, in 2007, Kelly was prevented from appearing in an advertising campaign for Asda as GMTV managing director Clive Crouch felt that such a move would create more bad publicity for GMTV, which had recently been fined £2 million by broadcasting regulator Ofcom for its misuse of premium-rate phone lines.

[12] On 4 May 2012, it was confirmed that Kelly would take over from Christine Bleakley as presenter on Lorraine's sister programme Daybreak.

In February 2014, Kelly announced that she would leave Daybreak to focus on Lorraine which she began hosting five days a week from 28 April 2014.

In 2024, Kelly has come under significant scrutiny on social media for her frequent absence of her show, Lorraine, which she leaves in the hands of Christine Lampard and Ranvir Singh.

[20] On 19 September 2014, Kelly reported from Dundee on Good Morning Britain on the Scottish independence result.

"Good Morning Britain with Lorraine" had a more news-focused style to it, yet still featured interviews with celebrities, Hollywood updates from Ross King, and medical advice on the pandemic with Dr Hilary Jones.

[30][31] From 2004, Kelly co-presented This Morning with Phillip Schofield, on Mondays and Fridays,[32] to allow Fern Britton to spend more time with her family,[33] but she left in March 2006.

[30] She also guest hosted The New Paul O'Grady Show[30] and returned three other times from 2006 to 2008, owing to sheer popularity.

[24] In 2006, Kelly filmed an ITV documentary programme Secrets Revealed – DNA Stories, made by STV Productions,[35] and broadcast on Sky Real Lives.

[42] Kelly has also made acting appearances in the Scottish sitcom Still Game and the soap opera River City.

[58] Kelly was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to charity and the armed forces[59][60] and was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting, journalism and charity.

[61][62] On 16 November 2014, Kelly received a special Scottish BAFTA award honouring her 30-year television career.

[66] Between 1993 and 2005, Kelly lived at Cookham Dean in Berkshire,[71] on the Thames west of London, with her husband, Steve Smith, a television cameraman, whom she married in 1992.

Kelly previously lived in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, until she moved to Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, in December 2017 as she found commuting back and forth was not working.

[72] Kelly and her husband then decided to sell their Broughty Ferry home to be closer to Lorraine's work, and so they could spend more time together.

[73] They have one daughter, Rosie, born in 1994,[74][75] who teamed up with Lorraine on The Cube in December 2021, playing for MS Therapy Centre which supports Steve's sister.