When it came to talking to her mother about the menopause, Match of The Day host Gabby Logan didn’t exactly get the most straightforward answer she was hoping for.
She broached the subject after a ‘eureka’ moment when she walked past a mirror one day and realised she looked older than she felt.
“My mum is very glamorous. She's in her mid seventies and she's from the school of thought that just talking about it would somehow age her in a way,” Gabby tells Ateh Jewel on this week’s episode of HELLO!’s Second Act podcast.
“She said ‘I didn't have a menopause. No, I just had lots of Bacardi and Coke and dark chocolate.’
“And I look back and think, I remember you in your early fifties. I think you did. We’re quite lucky genetically, I think I probably have followed a similar pattern. I haven't had huge, massive physical changes, but there was definitely a creeping level of anxiety and things that felt a little bit more uncertain…something hormonal was clearly going on.”
She is determined to offer an honest opinion with her 20-year-old children twins Reuben and Lois, to prepare them for every stage of life, especially now they have left home. “I really miss their company,” she says of her empty nest.
However Gabby says her honest approach backfired when daughter Lois read her unfiltered confessions in her first memoir, The First Half.
“She was horrified. I cheated on a boyfriend and she said ‘I can’t believe you did that’.
“I said, it's really important that you know I've made mistakes because you can make mistakes and come back from those things.”
Secret to marriage success
Thankfully her 25 year marriage to former rugby player Kenny Logan, who has recovered from prostate cancer, has been solid. The secret behind their success she says is having fun and being each other’s cheerleader - whilst keeping a competitive sporting streak. “We're each other's biggest fans. He's never begrudged any career success I've had, he's always really encouraged me, and that's been wonderful.”
Gabby also opens up on the podcast about the impact her parents ‘painful’ divorce had on her following the tragic death of her 15-year-old brother Daniel from an undiagnosed heart condition and how she coped with the recent loss of her father footballer Terry Yorath.
The night before he unexpectedly died, she read a message to him she had received from a childhood fan who recalled his kindness, a moment she says she treasured as the tributes flooded in after his passing.
“That learning to love and learning to lose, learning to experience all the full range of emotions, I think is really important.
“You've got to have those times that are a little bit harder to get through and learn to come through the other side.”
Listen to the Second Act podcast, now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts and Youtube.
