Despite being a popular face of daytime TV, broadcast star Steph McGovern is notoriously private when it comes to her life off-screen.
The Middlesbrough-born presenter craves the "normality" and "grounding" of her home life in North Tyneside, and actively shields her partner and their five-year-old daughter from the spotlight.
Sitting down for a chat with HELLO!, Steph offered rare insights into her motherhood journey, her invaluable life lessons, and her exciting transition into the book world.
Parenting fears
At 43, Steph calls her daughter her proudest achievement, though she admits that the profound life change has magnified her worries.
Asked how motherhood has changed her, Steph explained that motherhood brings "this underlying fear of something going wrong" and a heightened sense of her own mortality.
"There's the constant worry of, 'Is she going to be all right crossing the road?' and 'Is she going to be all right in school today?' You just have this underlying fear of something going wrong. Me and my partner are both healthier now because we're [thinking] 'We have got to try and live as long as we can, for her.' Gone are the days of thinking ageing was a bad thing, ageing is a privilege."
For Steph, the fear was amplified in the early stages of motherhood. "When she was a baby, I was googling poo colours… and any rash, [I was thinking] is it the rash, get a glass, get the neighbours to come in and check what type of rash it is.'"
Parenting fears aside, the former BBC Breakfast presenter also touched on the joys of motherhood, revealing how it's given her a new perspective on the things she used to take for granted. "It's teaching you to see the world again through their little eyes, and having an appreciation for nature and what's around you."
In recent years, Steph has also relished seeing her daughter's personality develop. "I love seeing a bit of her grandparents in her personality… She's got two grandparents who are artists and so she's really creative and I'm like, 'This is so cool.'"
Entering a new chapter
Shortly after Steph welcomed her daughter in November 2019, she ran with an idea that had been brewing in her mind for a while, and embarked on the beginnings of what would become her debut novel, Deadline.
"So she was born and then lockdown happened. I'd gone from thinking I'm going to do all these nice maternity things… to being at home," Steph explained.
"And then I launched the first iteration of Packed Lunch at home, and my partner was working at home as well. The writing was the escapism. I didn't have a book deal then, I was writing because I just wanted to write and I was enjoying the characters."
With more than 20 years in journalism, Steph's own career serves as the backdrop for her novel, with several notable parallels between herself and her protagonist, Rose Steedman. "I have got so many good stories from my career that I'm never going to write a memoir, because I don't talk about my partner and my family."
Reflecting on what ultimately prompted her to put pen to paper, she added: "I've always thought about what I would do if one of my broadcasts got hijacked… I read a lot of Harlan Coben and he's always talking about the 'What if?', and I do that in my head if I'm in a domestic situation. I'll be like, 'What if, on this plane now, we suddenly saw a hand appear at the window?', which really annoys my partner."
The juggling act came when lockdown ended and Steph was commuting to the studios in Leeds. "I'm writing the book, driving in and out of work every day. I've got one of those little nana trays with a cushioned bottom - I used to sit in the back of the car and give myself an hour to write.
"I never thought it would get published because I just thought, 'I'm just going to sit on it.' And then it took a few years, because I was too frightened to let anyone see it."
Impostor syndrome struggles
Despite live telly feeling like a "natural habitat", Steph confessed that pivoting into the book world led to feelings of impostor syndrome. Having grown up thinking she was "bad at English", seeing her book come off the printers for the first time was a profoundly emotional experience.
"I never thought that I'd be good at writing because I've just never had the confidence," Steph admitted. "Whenever I've been asked to write a column for a paper I've just gone 'Gah, I can't do it'.
"I'm amazed I've done it. I keep seeing the physical book, and I'm full on crying. I cried at the factory [when it came] off the printer, which is weird because I've done loads of amazing things in my career, but for some reason, this felt like the biggest achievement, because I always thought I couldn't do it."
"In the book world, I've just been a bit more intimidated, and I think it's because I read so much. I know how many good authors are out there, and I just feel a bit of impostor syndrome."
"Russell T Davies sent me the most amazing feedback. He'd read the whole thing. He just talked about characters and what he liked. And I just sat and I cried for about ten minutes."
Important life lessons
When it comes to sharing key life lessons with her daughter, Steph cites authenticity as a "superpower".
Musing on the beauty of difference, the Celebrity Bear Hunt star said: "I just think the world is trying to push us all into being this homogenised lump. The best thing you can do is try and be yourself whatever you do, because there will be times in life where you will feel the need to be different in order to fit in.
"And actually, your superpower is not fitting in. It's the difference you bring."
"We talked to our little girl about that a lot because obviously she does have two mums, and that's a little point of difference, but we talk about how that's OK because there are other families who don't have grandparents, and you've got grandparents, or there are other families with only one parent… It's not a weakness. It's a strength. Difference is a strength. I think that's the key."
Beyond this, Steph, who worked as a financial journalist and runs a podcast called 'The Rest Is Money', is passionate about teaching her daughter the value of money.
"It's really important to me that she understands the value of money… My parents were brilliant. We didn't buy things we couldn't afford. I really understood the concept of saving. When I was dancing, we'd buy second-hand dresses, and I was taught that they were just as good as the bespoke ones."
Steph's parents also taught her that family holidays are the direct result of hard-earned savings.
"That's what I say to my daughter when she's saying, 'I don't want you to go to work.' So I'll be like, 'Do you want to go on holiday in a few weeks?' And she'll reply, 'Yeah.'
"'Right, well I need to go to work.'"
Feeling rooted
The former Channel 4 star is feeling more settled than ever. Asked whether a potential move might be on the cards, Steph replied: "I feel really settled. We haven't been here that long, about three years. We're right by the sea, and, don't get me wrong, there are times when it's freezing cold and there's horizontal wind and everything else, but I want my daughter to be Northern, because I just really value my upbringing in the area."
She added: "It's the best normality I can bring, and we are unusual because of my job… I'd like to think that no matter what, we'd always have a place there [in North Tyneside]."
And with one book already under her belt, and another in the works, Steph is most definitely riding a high. She's "pickier" about accepting new TV opportunities, and is continuing to make waves with her retail business and podcast.
"I'm very philosophical about telly. I absolutely understand that you take the highs with the lows because the highs are there, but they inevitably come with some lows… I'm just going to do things I really want to do now."