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Former BBC Breakfast host Louise Minchin has admitted she never watches the programme despite co-presenting it for two decades.
Minchin, 56, who stepped away from the red sofa in 2021, said she doesn’t watch the programme, which is now fronted by Naga Munchetty, Charlie Stayt, Sally Nugent and Jon Kay, due to a “compartmentalisation thing”.
“I remember it as a really important, happy time, and that’s how I want to remember it. They’re doing their own thing, which is great, and I’m still friends with them all, but no, I don’t watch it,” she said in a new interview with the i.
Minchin said that she ultimately left the show because she began struggling with the early starts, which involved waking up at 3.46am each day, with the show beginning at 6am.
“I was being paid really well and it was a prestigious role – a lot of people don’t understand why you’d walk away from that,” she said.
She eventually went to see a sleep specialist due to the impact of the early starts, adding: “That was one of those moments where I realised, maybe I call time on this, before it calls time on me.” In the first two years after leaving the show, she said she felt “permanently jet-lagged” and was sleeping lots.
Minchin also experienced emotional pressure in the job, such as the responsibility of delivering big stories.
“I had some very difficult stories to deal with over those 20 years, and I didn’t realise how heavy the weight of responsibility was on my shoulders. You’ve got to deliver bad news with empathy and integrity. But that pressure to be emotionally ‘on’ every day builds up. I walked out of the studio on my last day and felt this huge weight lift. Like a mountain had fallen off my shoulders.”
During her time on BBC Breakfast, Minchin fought for equal pay and gender equality in the workplace. When the BBC released its list of top earners in 2017, her name was absent, despite her co-host Dan Walker earning between £220,000 and £229,999 that year.
As she got older, Minchin said she felt emboldened to speak out on gender equality in the workplace.
“There’s a point you reach where you just think: actually, I can say something,” she said. “I started to realise that in my forties: I’m an older woman which means there are places that I can call things out, where younger women might not feel able to. And I think if I can do that, then it’s incumbent on me to do so.”
“I just got to a point in my career where I felt confident that I would rather speak out than be afraid of the consequences,” she said.
Minchin recalled speaking up in a meeting when a female colleague was spoken to poorly.
“There were 20 people in the room. I called it out. I think it may have affected my career. But I didn’t care, and I still don’t. Sometimes you just have to stand up for other people,” she said.
Since leaving the show, Minchin has written her debut novel, Isolation Island, a thriller set on a remote island where a reality TV competition grows dark, which is partly inspired by her stint on the 2021 series of I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! She has also published two books, Dare to Tri, about her relationship with sport, and Fearless, a collection of stories about inspirational women.
English (US) ·