Ex I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and BBC Breakfast star Louise Minchin said the “significant moment” in her family life has sparked a new form of grief
Former BBC Breakfast presenter Louise Minchin has opened up about a bittersweet chapter in her family life, that many parents can relate to. The 56-year-old said she was feeling an “impending loss bearing down on me” after her youngest daughter, Scarlett, recently flew the nest.
Louise experienced the same feelings six years prior to this, when her eldest daughter Mia left home to go to university. “Walking past her open bedroom door and seeing her bed made and the floor clear made my heart ache,” she revealed.
“Who knew that I would miss not just her, but her mess too? It felt like a vacuum had opened in my life that I couldn’t fill, and for weeks I woke up with what felt like a dull sense of grief pressing on my chest.”
Now with both of her children away from the family home, Louise said she is still adjusting to what she’s described as “a significant moment” that brings bittersweet feelings. While it’s sad to see them leave, she expressed joy in watching them become “fully fledged adults with homes of their own”.
“I am lucky that they feel fearless enough to do that,” she added in her column with Platinum magazine. To help get her through this chapter, Louise said she’s put dates in the diary for some quality time with her daughters, which recently included a trip to Tuscany.
While embracing this period together, Louise said the three had some “difficult conversations” that they “would have never touched on during snatched moments at home”.
This sparked a whole new realisation for the presenter and author, that her role as a mother had gone from “practical to psychological support”. Furthermore, Louise said that while she communicates with her daughters as much as possible through texts and calls, she has realised it’s time to enjoy her newfound freedom.
“As long as they keep in touch, I have to be content with that and in the meantime, enjoy my own life, remembering at any moment they might be back,” she added.
Louise shares her two daughters with her long-term husband David, who she married in 1998. The former I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! star is best known for previously fronting BBC Breakfast for 20 years.
Louise stepped down from the show in 2021 due to no longer wanting to work such “utterly gruelling” hours. To be ready on the red sofa for 6am three days a week, the mother-of-two had to set her alarm for 3.40am, which she admitted took a toll on her lifestyle.
She previously told The Times: “The hours are horrific, utterly, utterly gruelling, and it has an impact on every different part of your life — when you eat, when you sleep, how you feel. It was my dream job and I absolutely loved it but I’d done it enough.”
BBC Breakfast airs daily from 6am on BBC One