Helen Skelton reveals ‘family’ bond with Morning Live co-hosts – exclusive

Helen Skelton has presented some of the BBC’s best-loved TV shows, but her current role as one of BBC Morning Live‘s three mainstay presenters has afforded her some of her closest personal bonds. 

“I’ve done this job for a long time and I feel very lucky that every now and again you land on a group of people and a crew that really clicks,” Helen tells HELLO! in this exclusive interview. “Michelle [Ackerley] and Gethin [Jones] and I have all been friends for years and years. Gethin and I crossed over a lot at Blue Peter, so we’ve got a lot of the same reference points. 

“Michelle and I used to flat share back in London so people say, ‘You’ve got a natural chemistry’, but we have known each other since we were in our twenties, starting out in telly.

“If you have to go to work and you like what you do and you do it with people that are like an extension of your family, then you’re very lucky and I definitely feel like that at Morning Live,” she adds.

Raising three children

Of course, away from Morning Live‘s set in Manchester, Helen’s focus is her own family – namely, her children Ernie, nine, Louis, eight, and Elsie, three, whom she co-parents with her ex-husband Richie Myler, from whom she split in 2022. 

“My mum has always told me you get out of life what you put in, and if you want to have a nice house and a nice car, you’ve got to work hard and earn the money for it. And if you want to have a good relationship with your kids, then you’ve got to invest in them and make sure they know that they’re the priority,” Helen says of her approach to parenting her brood.

“That’s always what’s been instilled in me, and that’s how I approach my mum space. I hate to admit it, but the older I get, the more I realise [my mum] knows what she’s on about.”

Pushing herself out of her comfort zone

With Helen having started out in 2008 as the 33rd presenter of the cornerstone kids’ TV show Blue Peter before starring in shows such as Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins and earning a spot in the 2022 Strictly final, it is no surprise that she encourages her children to push the boundaries of their comfort zones. 

“I wasn’t a runner and then I ran three marathons in the desert,” Helen says of completing the gruelling 78-mile Namibia Ultra Marathon in 2009. “I’m not a kayaker and I’ve paddled the Amazon,” she says. “I think it’s important to put yourself out of your comfort zone or you don’t know where you’re going to land.”

But whether Helen’s children will follow her into showbusiness, remains to be seen. 

“[My parents] never told me what I should do or what I should be. They’re were wonderfully supportive in whatever I did, so I think that’s definitely a lesson I’ll take forward,” Helen says. “You think before you have kids, ‘Oh, they might do this, they might do that’, but as long as they’re happy, there’s no point trying to get them to do something that they don’t want to do.”

Helen’s career highlight

With her 17-year-long TV career in mind, Helen remembers her personal highlight. “The 2016 Olympics in Rio is always going to be a thing that I dine out on until my deathbed,” Helen admits. 

“I saw [swimmer] Adam Peaty get his gold. I’m a sports fan, and to be ringside for those things is just the ultimate privilege. Rebecca Adlington, Mark Foster, and I joked that our studio was the house of fun.”

Helen’s latest undertaking sees her take on an ambassadorship for Philips Sonicare, who are raising funds for The Hygiene Bank through Boots, a gold and founding partner of the charity. During National Smile Month (12 May to 12 June), Philips will be making a donation of £1 for every Sonicare toothbrush sold on Boots.com to the Hygiene Bank.

“You don’t feel awake until you’ve brushed your teeth – it makes you feel a little bit fresher,” Helen says, who takes the time to teach her children proper oral hygiene. 

“If they see me doing it all the time, then [they’ll learn] it’s what you do. It’s the last thing they do before they go to bed. It’s the first thing they do before they leave the house. It’s just about instilling that habit so that they’re not thinking about it.”

Embracing her forties

With every opportunity, Helen – who celebrates her 42nd birthday on 19 July – reminds herself to be grateful for this current chapter. “The older you get, the more you realise every year is a total privilege,” she says. 

“I’ve lost people young that should still be here, so, of course, I’d love the metabolism that I had in my twenties or a few less lines around my face, but at the minute, it all still works, so I don’t take any of it for granted.”

Ahead of entering her 42nd year, Helen reflects on her greatest personal learning. “You’ve just got to sit in the moment that you’re in,” she says.

“That’s the good thing about being a countryside person and being a sports person. It’s the ultimate lesson in that nothing stays the same. When you’re in a good time, just really lean into it and make the most of it – if your relationship is good or your kids are good, just rinse every second of it but equally, the bad times don’t last either. Tough times don’t stay tough forever.

“The only thing that you can be sure of is that the sun is going to rise and the sun is going to set. Accepting that everything changes is really quite liberating.”

Looking to the summer

Not one for overplanning her future, Helen keeps her focus on her upcoming projects before a summer off with her children. “I’ve got a series with my good friend Dan Walker, who I adore, and we walk about Yorkshire, we belly laugh,” she reveals.

“I’ve just finished filming a series with my friend JB Gill and my other friend Jules Hudson, so that’s a bit like Blue Peter for adults. I do all kinds of mad things.

DISCOVER: Helen Skelton’s daughter Elsie is her twin with wild blonde curls 

“And then we are returning for a second series of Lost and Found in the Lakes,” Cumbria-dweller Helen adds. “I’ve got those three things on the horizon, but the Lake District one is just a great one. It’s weird. I’ve never done anything that people where I live talk about so much, so it’s been good.”

Philips Sonicare has partnered with The Hygiene Bank charity to ensure that everyone has access to oral healthcare products and is donating £1 of every Philips Sonicare toothbrush being sold through Boots.com.