Yahoo News Helen Skelton on how she laughed her way through her marriage split
The former Blue Peter presenter said she had found a way to get through her difficult year with a smile on her face.
What did you miss?
Helen Skelton has said she found a way laugh through the pain of her split from husband Richie Myler.
The Countryfile star found herself as working single mother-of-three last year when her youngest daughter was just four-months-old, after she split from Leeds Rhinos player Myler last April.
Skelton - who was finalist on Strictly Come Dancing last year - said she had had to find a way to get through the difficult year with a smile on her face.
What, how, and why?
The Morning Live presenter appeared as a guest on Good Morning Britain to discuss her new book In My Stride.
Host Richard Madeley asked her what she had learned from the "downs" of her life.
Skelton, 40, said:"I think life happens, doesn't it? You know, nobody knows what's around the corner.
"Nobody knows what's coming next and my friends always joke because I always say, 'Oh, you have to laugh or you'd cry'.
'That's an image you can't unsee you in bed with my book!' @HelenSkelton talks candidly on her adventures and how she has found the resilience to deal with life's challenges. pic.twitter.com/mzd0tnhpDJ
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) October 16, 2023
"And for me, it's about always finding a way to laugh in every situation because life is hectic, everybody's doing the juggle, everybody's dealing with stuff that you don't really want to deal with.
"Being an adult at times, you're like, 'Why does anyone have to grow up?' so for me, this is all about finding a way to get through things with a smile on your face."
Skelton announced her split from Myler on social media last April after eight years of marriage.
She had sons Ernie, eight, Louis, six, and 21-month-old daughter Elsie Kate with the rugby player.
Myler then revealed he was in a relationship with Stephanie Thirkill, the daughter of Leeds Rhinos' president Andrew Thirkill, and they welcomed a baby together in April this year.
Skelton has cycled to the South Pole, kayaked on the Amazon River completed a 78 mile Ultra marathon walked a 66-metre high tightrope between the chimneys at Battersea Power Station.
But the TV presenter said competing in Strictly dance partner Gorka Marquez last year empowered her to be brave and confident in her body.
She said: “You get out on the dance floor and it’s the most soul-baring, naked thing you can do. You’re so exposed, you have to be very brave.
“And that took me by surprise. And I just feel very, very lucky that I had wonderful people with me on that adventure.
“As adults, we’re not sometimes good at looking in the mirror and saying, ‘It’s all right’.
“For me, I went into it thinking, ‘I just had a baby. I’ve got three kids. My body is not what it used to be’.
“But the dancers look at you and go, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s incredible, you made a human’. They look at their bodies as machines and I think that for me was a really empowering and powerful thing.”
What else did Helen Skelton talk about on Good Morning Britain?
The former Blue Peter presenter was asked to comment on reports the children's TV show is under threat of the axe, due to ongoing issues.
Skelton, who began her career on Blue Peter said: “I say to everybody who ever asks me, ‘Is Blue Peter still on?’, go to YouTube, look at Tony Walsh’s poem that celebrates 60 years of Blue Peter.
“It reminds you why that show is so important and so relevant. Blue Peter was telling kids to be whoever they want to be before everybody else was saying it.
“It was talking about sustainability and making stuff and recycling before it came on the agenda.
“It was a show that I was privileged to work on. Our job was to excite kids about the world and I hope that it’s doing that for a long time to come.”
The CBBC programme is currently presented by Abby Cook and Joel Mawhinney, after the departure of Mwaksy Mudenda.
Her exit follows those of Richie Driss, who was replaced by Cook, in March and Adam Beales, who was replaced by Mawhinney, in July 2022.
A BBC spokesperson has said: “The future for Blue Peter is bright. There are categorically no plans to stop it.
Good Morning Britain airs on ITV from 6am to 9am from Monday to Friday.
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Watch: Who is Helen Skelton?
