After years spent honing her skills in disciplining unruly kids, Supernanny Jo Frost wants to take a leaf out of her own book and have children.

But at the age of 38, the parenting expert knows she may have left it too late to conceive naturally, especially as she is still searching for the love of her life.

‘I've been single for a long, long time - too long,' she says. ‘It would be fabulous to meet a nice fella. I'm not far off 40. So whether I have my own children or adopt, I don't know. But I don't think the moment is far away.'

Jo confesses her biological clock is ticking and she wants to settle down to family life, something she's been robbed of since Supernanny began five years ago. Now screened in 47 countries, the star nanny confesses it's her television persona that may be holding her back from having her dream life.

‘I'm not some stern bitch,' Jo says. ‘I'm much gentler than people seem to think. It's difficult to hold down a relationship when you're as busy as I am.'

New kind of nanny

In a bid to overhaul her image, Jo is ditching Supernanny and will star in a new TV series called The Jo Frost Project. She'll continue to travel the UK, imparting advice to families in need, but the bossy persona, matronly heels, horn-rimmed glasses and uptight suits are a thing of the past.

‘I've done the show for five years. Enough is enough,' she says. ‘I want to show people that there's more to me than the naughty step.

‘I was always told what to wear on screen before. Now I can't wait to show off my own fashion flair.'

The buxom brunette's makeover could help her meet Mr Right. Having a net worth of $15 million and becoming a household name in the US in the last year, Jo says her star status gives potential suitors an unrealistic expectation of her.

When in London, down-to-earth Jo lives with her widower dad. She has no formal nanny qualifications and doesn't even own a car. She does her own laundry at a laundromat, travels with no entourage and carries her own luggage through airports. With just four weeks off each year, her time's precious but daily meditation helps Jo to stay focussed amid her hectic schedule.

Following a recent appearance on a US chat show in which Jo joked, ‘Bring on the American men,' she's received more than 400 emails from love-struck males who see her as Supernanny, not Jo. ‘Blokes still pass me in vans and shout, "Will you put me on the naughty step?" It's all very silly but I don't really mind. Boys will be boys,' Jo says.

Her desire to start a family and find her soulmate is a complete about-turn for Jo. In the past, she's always talked of being a career woman first and has been up-front about her unwillingness to start a family. ‘Husband, children... it hasn't crossed my mind,' she said in an interview three years ago. ‘I'm so busy with my work I take life one step at a time.'

At the age of 20, Jo wanted to become an actress but turned to nannying to pay the bills. Four years later, Jo felt compelled to continue looking after children as a tribute to her late mother Joa, who died after a battle with breast cancer at the age of 43.

Healing power of love

‘I really miss her and loved her dearly,' Jo says. ‘Her death was the most devastating thing that happened to me. It gave me added understanding. Love is the biggest emotion and healer. I believe that all children can be helped. It only takes one person to make a difference in a child's life.'

Jo feels her mother's spirit ‘around me all the time' when she works. ‘She was a major influence in my life,' Jo reveals.

Now that her electrician father Michael has turned 62, Jo knows the time is right for him to become a grandfather so he can still be young enough to run around with her kids. She shares a close bond with her dad and her brother Matthew, who's two years younger. She wants to give them the chance to have an extended family and the opportunity for
her children to be raised in the same loving environment as her parents raised her.

‘I'm a very sensitive woman, most definitely a woman who's a loving daughter and a good big sis. I'm a woman of integrity,' she says. ‘I was raised with a lot of love in my life. My parents say I was a child that was a social butterfly, and I wouldn't say I'm any different now. My dad says I would waddle along in my diaper and make friends with everybody.'

So it seems that for this nanny it's no longer enough to be helping other people - including celebrity parents such as Jamie Oliver, Hugh Jackman and Britney Spears - raise their children. Now she wants to make life all about having her own.

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