Over the past 30 years, Gaby Roslin has graced our screens on the likes of Morning Live, Children In Need and of course, The Big Breakfast, all usually presented with a beaming smile and infectious enthusiasm. But finding joy, she exclusively tells OK!, is a conscious decision she makes every day, especially when life throws unwelcome curve balls, such as grief, her way.
“It’s about finding the joy in the small things, and I think we’ve forgotten that,” she tells us when we sit down to catch up ahead of her debut Saturday show on Magic Radio. “The news is very bleak and life is very, very tough for lots of people so I’m not just saying, ‘If you smile everything will be better’, but you do have to look for those little nuggets of joy.”
Being determined to find happiness every day doesn’t mean Gaby is totally immune to the awful hand life can deal, especially as we get older. Her life hasn’t all been rainbows and unicorns and, in fact, she’s been through some horrific times, she says, including the death of her mother to lung cancer in 1997, followed shortly after by her dad having a stroke. While her mum Jackie passed away almost 30 years ago, Gaby admits she gets the occasional gut punch at not just the memory of what happened, but also what she’s missed out on.
“There was something on the radio this morning, and they read out something about somebody saying their kids never got a chance to meet their grandmother,” she says. “My mum died 28 years ago, and it just got me in my stomach. I always say to people when they lose someone, ‘Just remember, there are no rules to grief.’ And now here I am 28 years later, like somebody had hit me in my tummy.”
The hardest thing for Gaby is that her own children, Libbi-Jack, 23, from her first marriage to musician Colin Peel, and 17-year-old Amelie, who she shares with her husband of 12 years, David Osman, never got to meet their maternal grandmother. “I talk about her and there are photos of her around the house, so my kids do talk about Granny, even though they never met her.
“I wish she’d been there when I’d had the kids because she always used to say, ‘Right, darling, when you have children, I’m going to take them off your hands one day a week so you and your husband can go out. You can go out for supper and get up to whatever you want to get up to and then you can pick up the kids!’ But you carry them in your hearts and every so often they come to the front of your mind when you least expect it.”
After marking exactly 38 years in television last month, Gaby has just landed her own solo show on Magic Radio, bringing her wonderfully energetic vibes to the nation every Saturday morning. She started her career in satellite television in January 1987, before moving into more mainstream shows including The Big Breakfast and Motormouth.
However, even after nearly four decades in the business, those new job nerves are still very much there, but she’s not mad about it. “I get ner-cited, as I call it, I get very nervous and excited but it’s good, I love the adrenaline and there’s nothing quite like live radio and television. “I’m very lucky because I’ve got my live Sunday show at the BBC, live Saturdays on Magic Radio and Morning Live during the week, there’s a lot of ‘live’ in there and I couldn’t be happier!”
Gaby, who filled in last year for Zoe Ball on BBC Radio 2 when Zoe’s mother passed away, turned 60 in July, so no one would blame her for wanting to take her foot off the pedal. But that’s not how Gaby rolls, she tells us emphatically when we ask if entering a new decade has made her want to slow down — and also, she’s actually “only 33”.
“No, I turned 33!” she says, laughing. “It’s so weird, everyone goes on about age and I’m really happy to be alive, but I find it so weird. We always talk about a woman’s age, but never the man’s age. So actually I’m 33 again, and I’ve got loads to do still and loads to learn and I think that’s the greatest gift, so why would I stop doing something I love? Something that hopefully puts a smile on someone’s face? That’s really all I want to do and if I do it, I’m winning.”
Gaby’s message of spreading positive energy isn’t just an act, she really does put her money where her mouth is. In 2023, she published Spread The Joy to share her tips and tricks to “live a happier, more fulfilled life, one tiny task at a time”. She’s also hosted six series of her Reasons To Be Joyful podcast in which she chats to a different celebrity each episode about what makes them happy.
Her long guestlist is eclectic, with everyone from astronaut Tim Peake to actor Luke Evans. At the top of her wish list of future guests — which includes Barack and Michelle Obama and Will Ferrell — is When Harry Met Sally star Billy Crystal. She explains, “I interviewed Billy on The Big Breakfast and he just hung around and we got on like a house on fire. I’ve just seen he’s doing something again with Meg Ryan so I’d love to interview them.”
When asked about her dream TV show, she says, “I’d love to do a daily, crazy live TV show where the guests — really big names — have to jump in bouncy castles and whoever jumps the highest gets to be interviewed! I think everything’s a bit safe and I don’t like safe. I’m going to carry on always wanting that and hopefully one day it will happen.”
When she’s not working, Gaby’s time is filled by laughter-filled conversations with her best friends, lively family meals and kitchen discos with her loved ones. Their life in London, she says, is one packed with fun. “I know it sounds trite but we just laugh a hell of a lot,” she says.
“We have meals together, phones down, and we just talk and laugh. I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I haven’t made a meal and been doing some stupid dance. My kids will say, ‘Mum what are you doing?’, then they’ll get up and do it. And then my husband will go, ‘My God.’ And then he’ll start too! We just laugh, we’ve been through awful stuff but all still laugh, thank God.”
Listen to Gaby Roslin on Magic Radio every Saturday morning from 10am
* Follow Mirror Celebs on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads
