Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Gabby Logan

Episode Date: April 14, 2017

This week Gabby Logan takes Emily on a walk with her Boxer Milo and Labradoodle Maggie. They chat about being a footballer (Terry Yorath)’s daughter, 90’s ladettes, falling in love with her husband Kenny and her very famous next door neighbour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She is a labradoodle. Well, they say she's a labradoodle. I'm not her mum. I don't know what her dad was up to. Hi, welcome to Walking the Dog. I'm Emily Dean, and I really hope you enjoying the podcasts. I'm loving doing them. So it'd be great if you could remember to subscribe and rate and review the show on iTunes.

This week, I went to visit Gabby Logan in her Buckinghamshire Country Manor, and we went out with her Boxer Milo and her Labradoodle Maggie. She just couldn't get enough of being cuddled and having her tummy rubbed. But in the end, I have to say, look, Gabby, I'm glad you're having fun, but I can't do this all day. Bye. Bye, Lois. I should say... Have we started?

I'm at Gabby Logan's house. She's very kindly invited us up here in Buckinghamshire. And we've just been with her lovely daughter, Lois, who is quite the character. I've sort of fallen a bit in love with her. She was going to come with us. And then I said, are you not coming with us, Lois? And she said, no. I said why not? She said, well I didn't know you were going to be as fun as you were.

Did she? Yes. So I really fell I've got the thumbs up. That's what she said. That's so funny. That's a fabulous honesty. I've now, I've decided no and it turns out you're all right. I wish I'd said yes, but she's...

We discussed it. And she said, what if you'd been some horrible old woman? She's nice to know I'm not that. So we're on your land. Do you want to introduce your dogs formally to us? So this is Maggie, and Maggie is three on the table. is three on the 21st of April and she is a labradoodle well they say she's a labradoodle I'm not a mum she um I don't know what her dad was up to but she comes

from a litter of eight who all look like the mum which is a nice you know that blonde curly yeah you just want to bury your hands in it lie down on top of them kind of curls and because we've got the other dog I have introduced you to Milo who is a classic boxer you know very gingery boxer if you were going to do a cartoon of a boxer he's classic yeah he's got the a nice white bit down the front of his face as well. So he has a kind of open-looking face. And he's our second boxer we've ever had.

So we were into boxers. But I wanted the second dog to be a bit curly. And so Kenny was slightly reticent about this. We should say in case anyone doesn't know. Who doesn't know him? Kenny Logan is Gabby's husband. And so when we were kids, we always had poodles because my mum... Sorry, that was very...

My partner, David Furnish. I made you repeat that. Kenny Logan, my husband. So Kenny's from farming background, right? So for him, dogs were practical things. you know, that they either had Alsatians to protect the machinery or they had little things that chased rats, so like Jack Russell's. So he loves the boxes, but he didn't really want a curly dog.

And I was telling him how amazing poodles were, because I grew up with sanded and poodles. And that was one step too far in the dog breeding for him. So he said Labradoodle was fine. We know the mum. She lives down the road. She had a litter. We went around on day three, we picked her, right?

So there's nothing discerning in terms of their markings at day three. What you thought she was a golden retriever or a... I did. Yeah. I hope you weren't offended by that. No, I like golden retrievers. But like, you know, it's like going out for a really nice Chinese meal, ordering your dishes, and then you get presented with an Indian meal.

And the Indian meal's lovely, and you like Indian food. But that's not what you went for. I think because of that, I felt like a mother that slightly rejected her baby at first. I was a little bit like, whatever. Also, a fabulously shallow mother. Very shallow. On the strength of her hair texture. But she's won me over on personality, because she's actually, she's amazing.

She's probably the best dog we've ever had. the way she looks if we're going to go down the shallow route but why I like the way she looks is I don't think she's recognisably anything you think I look like a nice person that's got that's got a stray but no she looks like she could be anything as you say yeah but I quite like that she's just lovely and she's she's the most she's the kindest sweetest most enthusiastic person you've ever met you know in the morning when you go in mylo the boxer barely lifts his head up he just goes yep I'll see you soon I'm just finishing my snooze she gets up and she runs over and she wags a tail every

morning it's like you're here so pleased to see you again so she has got that but they do have a nice dynamic with each other it's quite interesting because he's very protective of her and he likes he likes having her around because he had a year living with us without because i should say mylo we haven't had since puppy we got him on um pre-loved because um when we moved to this house we just lost our first boxer yeah and uh who's buried in the garden actually and um so we were all incredibly sad and thought we'd wait a while to get another puppy but Lois and I just couldn't wait and we went for a coffee in Beaconsfield one day and this woman had this gorgeous ball of loveliness on her knee and I said that's the most amazing dog where did you get that dog from who is it you know she said oh the website pre-loved

and I said we're going through a gate by the way sorry yeah we're going to have to go over a style you're all right with that yeah I can do a style um this was the muddy bit i was worried about but you're all right yeah and so we went on this website when we got in and then we saw this dog that looked a lot like our old boxer and was two years old. Gabby's doing the style first. In style. She's showing us what to do in case we get it wrong. And then we found Milo and he was living at the time

where we just moved from in London. Anyway, we went to meet him and I know this sounds a bit big-headed but he loved us straight away. Did he? Did you have him at Hello? Well, he turned round. I said, Milo, he turned around and when his owner called him, he kept coming to us. So have you always had dogs, Gabby? Like when you were growing up with your parents?

Yes. With Terry, did you have, that's your dad. And Christine's your mum, isn't it? Did you have dogs when you were growing up? Yeah, well, we had poodles, standard poodles. We had one that was the, you know, like... So I wouldn't have thought of that. Sorry, to talk about how a traditional footballer's dog, the poodle.

Was that pressure from your mum? I'd say it was the female influence, yeah. Her main prerequisite for any animal, she'd have loved the whole doodle thing, the whole kind of poodle breeding thing, because her main requisite was that a dog couldn't... Hello, hi. Hello. How are you?

The dog couldn't... Maybe you'd have a bag of poo, but no dog. You've just bumped into some fellow dog walkers. Without a dog. I call them fellow dog walkers, but you're right. There was no dog there. But they did have a bag of poo. Which also is very odd because in the country you don't pick up the poo

because the dogs just go off into the bushes. I've had a terrible thought. I know. What if that's not dog poo? I mean, in fairness, you could just wander around with a black plastic bag. for emergencies. But it looked heavy and steaming.

Well, that's why. Maybe it wasn't dog poop. I mean, what sort of animals have you got? I thought it was nice fucking ocean. Maybe there is medicinal use for things like deer poop. Maybe that's what they've gone around collecting deer poop. I think you're being optimistic with deer poop. They did look a bit sheepish actually when we said hello.

Like, we'd call them out. Don't bring sheep into it. I'm concerned about those people. Anyway. So back to childhood dogs. Are you all right with this one, by the way? this is quite an adventure. Well, we've come to a style, and I'm warning the producer,

because I don't think he's one sensible footwear. I always worn him. Did you think he was walking with townies? He always wears fashion shoes, and we've come to a style, but it's like something out of Lord of the Rings. About four weeks ago over Christmas. I was so little.

I can't get over it. And I'm bringing some friends for a walk. There were out 12 of us, and we all went over, and as we got over the top, we must have been hung over or something, because we looked back and realized we could have just walked around the side.

I think he was showing off your school. They were actually fellow country friends. They were from Cornwall. So they're quite, yeah, they're quite used to it. But clearly not as observant, none of us were observant. But no, Terry and Christine, mum and dad, had, great 70s names, may I say. Yes, although they were named in the 50.

She was a fan of the kind of fluffier, smaller, non, what was her? She didn't like dogs that left hair, basically. So they didn't call them hypoallergenit then, didn't they? Yeah, but it's non-shedding dogs. Then poodles fit that criteria. So he had a small, small dog to start off with then they got an afghan hound which was again very 70s yeah um called frosty when i was a little girl and so what i'm trying to imagine your childhood

and was it i imagine you were moving about a lot were you with your dad's career it was it was what you call quite peripatetic i guess in terms of the he if he if he had to move then we were told that day you know so it wasn't like oh i'm going to be moving at the end of the season it would be i'm going because in those days they didn't have the bosman ruling so footballers had to move when they were I love it when Gabby gets technical. Can I just say, she's made us go with three styles. I mean, she's showing off now. You just want to go.

The producer's got stuck on barbed wire, and I'm laughing. I feel like this is a certain thing Madonna would do to one of her crew. Ha ha ha, ha, you got stuck on barbed wire. It's so funny. I put it on YouTube. Anyway. Yeah, so he'd say move clubs, and then two months later, we'd follow. So we'd leave school at the end of a term, rather midterm. So he'd rent somewhere and then we'd move on.

And the biggest move like that was when we lived in Coventry when I was about eight, or the one that had the most impact, I think, in terms of memory. Were you born in Leeds? Born in Leeds. He played for Leeds until I was four. Then we moved to Coventry. But that's all right. You're four, so you haven't really got any friends or anything.

You just do what your family does. So we stayed in Coventry for about four years, which was really lovely place to grow up, actually. I know it kind of gets a bad press Coventry, but actually it was really nice little school, and we had a really nice time and had a lovely dog called Sadie. We had a really nice time there and then he moved to Spurs

but my mum didn't want to move to London. She did want to move to London. She did want to move but she didn't want to live in a smaller house. Right. Oh, I love the sound of your mum. In the sports car with a miniature poodle. She couldn't believe. I think she wanted to live in Buckingham Palace or nowhere. You know, it was kind of like, I'm going to be in Knightsbridge.

My mum still to this day judges everywhere and where it is from Kings Cross Cross because that's where the train from Leeds goes in. So I'll say to her, well, I'm going to this restaurant and why don't you meet me five minutes before and she'll say, How far is it from King's Cross? And everything is the distance from King's Cross. But my living in Wimbledon now, but how far's that from King's Cross? So she's actually not that leads, but she is very leased.

Then we moved to Vancouver after Spurs. So that was quite a big, you know, change for all of us. And he moved about four months ahead of us, which was the longest we had a part at that point. And I remember feeling really sorry for him one day because he rang me up and said, can I speak to Gabby? and he said it's Mother's Day on Sunday there's some money in the bedside cabinet

next to my bed and it wasn't it was Mother's Day in Canada it wasn't Mother's Day in England and I was crying so much so my mum thought I was ill and didn't want me to go to school and I said no no I'm fine I just got the stomachache because I didn't want to tell her that he'd got it wrong you know those mental kind of things that you have from childhood where you feel so desperately sorry for everybody and you know and you sort of it's when the kind of weight of

the responsibilities of the adult world and truly on your life of it and you understand for a brief moment what it's like to be an adult and yeah and did you would you say your childhood was happy oh yeah it was it was a very um i think my parents that they had us really young you know so my mom was 20 when she got married it was by the time she's 26 she had three kids which just ridiculous isn't it and so they still lived a very young life you know they went out a lot and they lived by the seat their pants they were both working class kids who suddenly had a decent income so you know let's

spend it on a holiday let's do something interesting let's buy a nice house and you know they didn't necessarily always planned for the following year. It was quite an adventurous and... Did you have a sense of, wow, my dad's a footballer. This is quite glamorous or exciting. Yeah, it was different. It didn't... It was all we knew, you know.

So at first, it didn't feel that exciting or glamorous. It was when other people start to tell you that it is. So other boys at school or boys at school and people at school start... Especially when footballers usually live in the location where they play. So when you live somewhere like... Coventry, all the kids support Coventry. So if your dad screwed up on a Saturday, they'd let you know about it on a Monday. Or if he did something good, you know, they'd let you know about it. So most people were reasonable about things and not, you know, to an eight-year-old, they wouldn't be mean. But there were moments where you felt a bit like you're in a goldfish bowl, you know? And also, I could never understand how my dad, wherever we lived, he seemed to know everybody. Because of course, everybody would come up and say hi to him because they see him. So I was like, Dad knows everybody. Do you think it would be different being the child of a footballer now? Definitely, yeah.

In what way? I think my dad earned a good living, but he didn't, you know, it wasn't like the mega kind of money that footballers earn now, and that must affect your life, you know, and how you're perceived. And, you know, people at school might have known my dad was a footballer, but they didn't necessarily think we were rich, do you know what I mean? So there was no kind of expectation that we were going to be the ones funding the parties or, you know. I think also there was less of an obsession then with money and acquiring things and lifestyle.

And lifestyle. That kind of... There was still very much as well. It was a sport in touch with its fans and the game was played quite often by people from that locality. Although I've talked about moving, there was still a connection, I think, the clubs and the locality. So my dad would do tons of charity events and, you know, all those people had been asked to open things and go and do things and be part of the community. So that, I think that element of it's definitely changed. It's so micromanaged now by agents and the like.

And you, I was going to ask you something, and I wanted to ask you about your brother, because you sent me a really lovely message when you read something I'd written about my sister. That was an amazing piece. Well, it was interesting because you sent me a really touching message. It really made me well up, actually. Sorry to get so tearful so early on in the podcast, everyone.

Not what you were expecting. No, but you sent me a lovely message about saying, you just said, I know what it's like to lose a sibling, and I kind of, I understand. And it's sort of a hard thing to explain to people, isn't it really, unless you've experienced it? Your brother died, how old for you? I was 19, just 19, and he was 15, just about to go to be 16.

Yeah. And I think the thing about losing a sibling, you, only you together have lived all that life, you know? And so with my sister as well, my brother was a lot younger than us, my brother Jordan, so he was six at the time. And so the four of us, you know, had, well, the older three, certainly, had moved around all those journeys I was talking to you about, moving cities, moving countries, you know, all those trips, all those holidays,

all those things. That's the three of us together on those journeys. And then, you know, suddenly, first of all, your history changes a bit, doesn't it? But also the dynamic in the family is just, well, you know, it completely changes. And my mum used to say it was like a sledgehammer coming down and just kind of smashing everything smithereens. and then seeing how over time it comes back together. And relationships can't ever really be the same.

That doesn't mean they won't have any value. It'll be lovely, but they can't ever really be truly the same as they were before because everybody is different. Everybody's changed. And you know, someone once said to me, I remember a lot of people, you know, you read things, don't you, when you go through it,

and you're looking to something that will make sense of it. Yeah. And I can remember reading someone had said about bereavement. and specifically the loss of a younger family member. You know, in my case, my sister was in her 40s, whereas your brother was obviously a teenager, but it's still that sense of going before your time. Yeah.

And I read someone saying, you'll walk again, but it will be with a limp when you experience something like that. And I think you then have this family set up where everyone's got a slight limp. Yeah, yeah. And everyone's sort of trying to sort of get through it, but it's, as you say, it's never the same again.

And I'm just nervous. What's going on in a field? There's a man in a field. We could just walk around the woods that way and go back the way we came. I think we should avoid the man in the field. Because I tell you what, as well, there's these electric fences which the dogs don't like. Maggie, Milo, come this way. We'll go back down the bottom field. Come here. What's that noise? Is that an agricultural noise? I think it is, isn't it? Just for the record, there's an agricultural noise.

Yes, I'm enjoying the agricultural noise. Yeah, so it's very, and my mum also, he said somebody, it was actually something that she'd experienced when she was having more children, Because somebody said to her, she was worried about how she would love my sister when she was, when she was a baby. And the same thing applies at the other end of your children's life. She said, it's like a complete love every time. You know, it's a whole new love for each child. And then when you lose a child, it's then like a limb has gone.

You know, that's what she said. Because it's like you've grown all these different limbs of love almost. And that's how you've balanced yourself. Yeah. And then you're out of balance because you've got used to that kind of, you know, that equilibrium, if you like, and everything changes. Well, your whole identity changes. I know now my mum used to say after my sister died people would say how many children you got and my mom would say she'd pause and think well if I say one as in me the one surviving child I'm lying and I'm denying the existence of someone else of my sister's life but then if I say too they'll say oh how old's your other daughter yeah and then you have to have a comment you have to say well she's dead with the person you're buying the groceries from you feel that you're giving that person more than they bargained for and their question was not expecting them to lead to that discussion was it but I you know my mum was always very much said four children and because

actually most of the time people then didn't go through want to go through each one individually but then she said I just couldn't say three because you know we were we were a family of six I had four children that was that was the you know and do you think your parents I mean your parents they split up didn't they yes and do you think that was because of the pressure of the yeah I'm easy it was it was a long ripping off of the plaster you know it didn't happen immediately It was on my 30th birthday that he actually moved out. And so it was 10 years, just over 10 years afterwards.

But it was definitely the major, it was like the 80%, if you like, of the reason, I think, because of the way that their relationship changed. And 75% of couples don't survive a child's bereavement. Is that right? Yeah. And I'm not surprised because how you think about yourself and how you deal with that? And everybody deals with things. Maggie thought she had that partridge in her sights.

The dog that looks like nothing secretly thinks it's a guise. So she's going on, oh, I'll go get that. Whereas Milo, look, what's that? What's going on? If I could just describe Milo's facial expression now, it's, what's going on? Why's everybody's so excited? What's that noise?

What's happening? Milo really should have stayed living in London, shouldn't he? Milo's great. Milo's like the one at the party who's always like, hey, where's everyone gone? He's Joey from friends, I say. Yeah, he is Joey from friends. There's a mutual we going on here.

It's rather touching. So do you think, just to get back to that subject, do you think that you, what was your coping mechanism? coping mechanism when you were a teenager then? I threw myself into everything. So I just said yes, everything. Just, just, I wanted to live two lives, you know, at least and be as proactive, productive, as, you know, as dynamic and as busy as I could possibly be. Maybe a bit of that was also, if I did the load and was busy, I didn't have to think too much. You know, you get, I got robust of manic energy. I sort of do stuff. I must do stuff. I must do things. So,

Milo, Milo. I'm pretty sure that dog's all right, but... Oh, is there another dog? Milo. I think it's fine. Milo! Oh no, mylo! Oh no, oh God.

Milo! Milo! You're okay, you're okay. Milo. Come here, come here, come here, come here, come here, come here. You're right? You're right? No.

No, no, no. Sorry. Maggie's fine, she's fine. Maggie. Maggie. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Come here, come on. What's your dog called?

Do you mind if I just give them a stroke so that Milo can see me give him a stroke? Hey, Maggie, come here. Oscar. Stop barking. Do you want to go ahead and we'll just hang back? Okay, yeah, I think it was verbal, yeah. So that's the thing like that.

You're like that one. When they get all kind of barking and they get angry. Yeah. Oh, I feel quite. That was quite scary. That was like West Side Story. I mean, I've never seen such a gang fight in my life. I think he wants him to play. And then he's like going, like that barking stuff that kind of,

she was fine, but sometimes people hear the barking and they think it's a fight where she was quite reasonable, wasn't she? And she knew they were just like being noisy with each other. I'm not going to lie, I think we've come out of that fight the best. The dogs were controlled. They were looked after. I get this impression of you is that blonde girl who was always picked first for all the sports teams and got straight A's. No, I said to Lois the other day, we were talking about, because she was saying to me the other day,

it's so funny how you see things that she says, I'd look back to my childhood more, you know, and she said, I'm decided. Lois is how old now? Lois 11. And she's there, we haven't mentioned Ruben yet as well. No, she's twin, twin, I've got twins, Rubin and Lois are 11. And Lois said, I've decided, I was chatting to Avia the day, and I'm not a leader, but I'm not a follower either. And I said, I said, actually, do you know what I used to feel a bit like that school?

I didn't want to be the leader of the gang. Right. Or I just like doing what I like doing. And I wasn't kind of that bothered about being the most popular. But I wanted to be as good as I could be. And I wanted to get good grades. Were you competitive, though? We were really competitive family, which I suppose is, you know,

what has led to, you know, wanting to do well in sport and all those things. We were not pitted against each other. But my parents definitely didn't do anything to, diminish the way that the three of us would compete against each other in sport or whatever we were doing. There was a competition going on. Who could keep a crisp in the mouth the longest? Just the most ridiculous things. Did you ever know, did you ever think, oh, I don't want to compete? I just feel like I want to be a bit fragile and cry. Yeah, because do you know what, my mum wasn't really like that. So what she was quite good at, which sometimes I found a bit frustrating, was she didn't

reward success. So everybody was treated the same. So there was no kind of, oh, well, well, done darling you've you've achieved more than the next it was everybody doesn't as long as you put the effort in everybody was given the same kind of kudos you know so she just said just put as much effort into things as you can you'll all be different you'll all achieve differently academically you'll all do different things in life and so she didn't really um have a pecking order or anything like that so I suppose that created then an environment where well actually if you're doing it you do it because you enjoy it rather than um because you're going to get some great reward at the end of it so So while it was quite competitive and kind of alpha,

my mum wasn't from that background. Do you know what I mean? So she didn't actually nurture that. She valued other things. So she wasn't a soccer mom. You know, she wouldn't stand there on the touchline or be kind of really involved in a sport. And were you like a tomboy?

Or did you have guy friends or female friends? Were you more? I definitely had both. But I wasn't in the big girl gangs. Do you know what I mean? I had probably like in middle school, which is 12, 13. I had one really close friend.

Yeah. And I did like the boys that were in my class there. I did enjoy. I'm hearing you Gabby-Loh again. I did enjoy their company. But then when I got to high school, I got a really cool group of girlfriends who were really supportive of me doing gymnastics, which was really uncool.

You know, I was going off wearing leotards at the weekend, prancing around, and they were going off to the Irish Centre getting drunk. And they were so lovely about me doing. Because you did gymnastics for, was it? for Wales or something yeah and great Britain so I was always training and always competing do you think that gave you more confidence though like physically as well absolutely yeah like I always think of you as one of those strong not skinny

people no no no I'm not skinny I'm not skinny no I'm not skinny no you are but I think you've got an incredible figure but I think also I think of you as someone I think of when I think if you want a heavy box moving I'll give Gabby a call that's what you think isn't it I think if I think if I think of you everything will stay in place and it won't move I suspect you've got thighs like you say in bold. I think doing sport when you're at that age, and I'm really passionate about this,

it's one of my kind of big, if I could change the world topics, is so empowering for girls, you know, because I think you see your body in a completely different light. It's not about how it fits into a dress or what it looks like for a bloke, or even how it looks like for your female friend. It's a tool, it's a portal, it does other stuff, and I think it carries you through.

tricky period of your life in a different way. It doesn't matter if you know you're not in a size eight dress but if you feel strong and healthy then you're you're just already in a better place mentally aren't you because you know you have a your self-esteem I think is better and you you know did you have you always been confident though like about how you look no because there are in years I chose a sport where had to wear a leotard and um but when I was worried about was I thin enough it was more about gymnastics terms you know is my body going to be able to do those things into the media pressure yeah yeah so and also I didn't grow up with social media though I was saying something the other day they're never going to have those

pictures where you look back and laugh at your hair or your make of your skin or anything because they're just airbrush it out of existence don't they I want to talk to you about you getting into the job that you did and TV and what was your first you didn't go straight to sky did you oh no I was so in that manic period that we were earlier when I was 19 I went off to Durham to do law yeah and in the in the gap year that I had I had many see already it's like oh yeah you know that really hot blonde girl and she's really good at gymnastics and all sport and she did law I think I would have been quite jealous of you Gabby when I was growing up I think I

would have a real problem with you and then yeah but I was also the person in the class that used to put tip X on the tongue when the teacher turned around to try and make the class laugh I was telling Loseil oh I knew with a comic as well well screw you no I was My girlfriends thought I was... That's for us short little ones. You're not good at sport. We rely on comedy, okay?

Don't steal off us. Well, I think I didn't have... At that point in my life, I didn't have the... What's the word? I wasn't self-conscious when I was a teenager at all. And I don't know why, because I wasn't bothered about the boys liking me at all when I was like 13, 14. And so that's why I did things like that.

And my friend Anne-Marie always was like, I can't believe you just did that. Did you see the way that Marcos Diaz-Sanchez was looking at you when you did that? So... I don't care. And so I think at that age that was quite good to not have, you know, that kind of self-consciousness because you don't see yourself fitting into any particular box.

You know what I mean? You just go, oh, just try things and do things. So when I went off to do law, I thought, I want to work in broadcasting as I've been on Blue Peter as a gymnast. And I thought, oh, God, this is really great. The cameras, the lights. Everything was so exciting. Live TV was exciting. Which, of course, it is.

It's incredibly exciting. And I said to the producer, I'd like to be a television presenter in that 15. year old kind of very self-assured way and he said um oh we'll go to university and then come back and see me later on um he wasn't very helpful in terms of career you know kind of ladder how i was going to get there so i went off and did a law degree and in my gap year i met a radio boss from newcastle who ran the local commercial radio station metro fm and he said when you come to durham come and see me and we'll try and yeah i'll get you some training and by the christmas i was doing news bulletins and then by the end of my first year i was like a swing jock so whenever the jocks were I would come in and take over their shows.

So it was like having a three-year apprenticeship while I was at university doing the degree. And when I graduated, they offered me the Monday afterwards. We'd like to start as the breakfast show presenter, which on any commercial radio station is a great show to have. And I thought, right, well, I'll give it a year. Sign a year's contract. And then if not, I'll go to law school.

And before the end of my first year, Sky had come in and asked me to go and work for them. Working at Sky in the mid to late 90s, you know, there was two men and his dog watching. And I got to just practice telly, live telly, every day. I was doing two live shows a day, yeah. It's like being on the nightly show now. And so it was kind of a, oh, well, I did that wrong and that was wrong,

but it's okay because it was Sky Sports Centre, which was the thing that happened before, you know, Sky Sports News, which is on 24 hours a day, that didn't exist then. This was the shows that happened before. Did you think, though, back then, it was particularly harder, I think, you know, because we have come on a lot in the last 20 years, haven't we? Definitely. I think what was harder, you know, and I don't, I try not to be too hard on myself about it, but I do think there were bits of me that tried to be, I don't mean lad et-ish, but, you know,

tried to be more male in my behaviour to fit in. And I look like, you know, just the kind of, the boyfriends and the drinking. And genuinely, I think Kenny saved me. Really? Because I was, I really didn't like myself about two months before I met him, because I was thinking, I don't enjoy, I'm not enjoying this, you know what I mean, I'm not enjoying kind of being blokey. And, because it wasn't really very, it wasn't really very me, you know, I kind of, the banter, you know what I mean, it was getting too, it wasn't, it wasn't really fun anymore. It just felt a little bit mean and aggressive. I think a lot of women felt that in the 90s.

I always felt that. But it didn't articulate it really. And I think I probably was sub, it was subliminal, it wasn't a conscious thing. I wasn't thinking, right, I've got to do this. This is how I've got to be. You know, you just morph into your environment a bit too much, don't you? And it was, I don't care what, you know, anybody said. And I think people at Sky would admit it.

It was a very testosterone-filled place, you know. And people said things that just would not even come out of people's mouths now. Not guys. Yeah, you know. And what would you do when that happened? I'd try and kind of like, you know, brush it off with a swagger and kind of sashay down the corridor. But after I think, that's, you know,

I'm always remember this guy who was a presenter in another sport. shouting out you got a great ass but when you're older it's going to be down by your knees oh I've given his accent away now but um good but good name and shame Logan and I remember going I don't think it will and after I thought I shouldn't even said that I should have just stuck two fingers up at him and walked on but you've got to come back with some always had to come back with something yeah and did you feel you met I remember in that time I don't know if you did any of this but I know there was a lot of if you're a female TV presenter I felt part of the contract was that you had to be in hot pants

and a bra and loaded. Yeah, well, did you ever do that? The only thing I did was, I didn't do loaded. I did a GQ shoot and I didn't do hot pants as such, but of course the skirt was really split

and the kids have seen the pictures and they just think they're hilarious. They think they're the funniest, most disgusting pictures I've ever seen. You know, there's a bit of me going, like, you know, slightly looking back to my kind of former self, Miss Hammersham style,

as I've read. around in my gown. That was me. But they just think they're disgusting. And actually, they do look so dated. You know, they look so just really unattractive and massively of its time, I guess, those kinds of pictures, aren't they? And I was covered up. I didn't, you know, I didn't succumb to the pressure, by the way, from the photographer,

who told me that I should really just pull my top down, because that would be much more artier, much more Gwyneth Paltrow, his exact words. What she did was? She just moved a top down a little bit. And it was just so arty. So I did succumb a little bit to that. And I looked back at kind of things that I remember going to the GQ Awards, actually, and what I thought was quite a nice short dress and over-the-kneed boots.

It turned out to be quite see-through once the cameras were on it. And it wasn't terrible. But I think, you know, you go about, I think I just let myself down a little bit there. But you live and learn, don't you? Well, I don't think you let yourself down on the dress front. But I think what happens, I think you're right about that era. I totally get that where I can remember, I thought it was expected of me and very cool to refer to other women as birds all the time

and say they were fit and slightly objectify them. Yeah. Because I felt I had to behave like a man in order to be accepted. Yeah. You are one of the most successful sports presenters in the country, aren't you? It's an amazing achievement. Obviously, Sue Barker had been working before me. And yeah, it's funny because you kind of,

Don't ever think about that, do you, when you do anything? You don't think, oh, I'm going to be the trailblazer. I'm going to be a pioneer. I'm going to go and you just get and have an interest in something. Hi, chickens. Hi. Six of them. Yeah.

Just casually. You've got some eggs. Oh, I love. I love some eggs. They'll be inside already. Okay, I'll get some of those later. So, no, I just, I think if you enjoy what you do and you have a passion for what you do, then you're not going to go too far wrong, are you?

If you work hard at it, you're going to be, you're going to be okay because you love what you're doing. We could have had a dip. Oh, I love the pulp. What would you say no to? I think early on in my career, I had a very good boss at ITV who made me say no to tons of stuff that I would, Emily, have jumped in with both feet. What sort of thing? Any show I was offered I would have done. I was like, you know, yeah, let's do it. I had no kids and, you know, no partner even at the time. No regular partner. And so I was like, whatever. I love no regular partner. Little hint at the Gabby Ladet days. slightly you know random there used to be there used to be a bench here I mean you know

I would pay a lot of money to stay somewhere like this we don't need to chickens you don't need tennis court swimming pool and the net's not up yet because um it was uh it was down for the winter sitting down on the steps sitting on the steps have we seen Kenny's digger um this is by the way we didn't put this up what's this was um we call this this the gazebo they left it here the people before this is like this is like like an LA wedding this is what it looks like you know when they have the LA wedding outside on the white chairs well I think it feels a very firm-bodied young woman married an old man with two angry stepchildren in the background so anyway so when you met Kenny I'm

this is what I've all been leading up to so um oh wait the Hunter Wellies have got caught on the gazebo bench how is Lois gonna get married oh I think this is gonna go I'm not that fat no it's just the leg it's fine I'm nervous Gabby it's no it's no look it's just a When you say it's just the leg that holds the whole thing up. Where's where our bench is gone? Honestly, we had about five benches. Did you see it? Oh, there's one in that garden over there.

That garden over there. This gives you a size. No, no, no. That sounds terrible. That garden over the way. What a love about Gabby is, how down to worst she is. You know that garden over there? Kenny calls this rather grandly the rose garden that's got no roses.

You know what's really sweet about you? Is it you been with Kenny? How many years? 16. And I think you've got mentionitis. You know, when you first meet a guy and you really love him, and you go, oh, and then the thing about Kenny, and then I was talking to Kenny the other day, and Kenny did this. Oh, no, that's terrible.

And it's the most adorable thing I've ever heard in my life that you've been married 16 years. You've got two kids, and you've still got meningitis. You just so really hear it, and I think that's a real sign that someone's happy. Oh, I think I am. So my friend's birthday party, and I was a bit, I just want to go home, I'm glad enough of this. Like two months before I'd have been out till six, you know.

And it got to like half a bus one. And I said to my girlfriend, she would share a cab back to where we were, I was living in West London. And she said, oh, I'm just popping here for a quick drink. Bouncer wouldn't let us in. Said it's 10 to 2. What do you want to come in at 10 to 2 for?

No, nobody goes out. She said, because we're laddettes. We've got hot tops. I don't know. It's 1999. So luckily, somebody I knew was walking behind the bouncer, who was quite a wealthy bloke, and he obviously had the bouncer's ear and said,

let him in, let him in. So we got in. And next thing, she's pointed to the, group of lads saying, oh, I know those guys. I worked with them this week, she was a producer at Sky. She said, oh, I know those guys. I made a VT with them. And they were all Kenny's team-match from Wasps.

So started chatting to them. She started chatting to them. And then this Scottish guy turned around, who I'd previously been out with, and asked me for what's to drink. And he went up and got me a drink. And when he came back, he had two glasses, and Kenny just took both glasses off him,

and kind of elbowed him out in the way and gave me one and kept one for himself. And so that was it. And then it transpired. We lived half a mile from each other in Chiswick. Oh, handy. for the first nice shenanigans. And then it was really nice because he was playing for Scotland

and he had to keep going away to play for Scotland for a week at a time. And did you really think I'm really into him the first time you met him? Do you know what was really weird? I remember thinking I loved his voice and I listened to his voice and I was thinking, oh, I love the tone of his voice and I could listen

to that voice for a long time. I read something once. I remember reading about it at the time or I saw Kenny talking about it. He told a story which I found it really moving, I remember when I read, that he said, when you discovered he couldn't read? Yeah.

And what happened? He was reading an article or something. And there was an article about me. It was like a double pageer in the mirror or something. And I think I'd actually consented to the article. It wasn't a horrible piece or anything. But you know, with those kind of pieces, you don't know whether a journalist is going to go one way or the other.

And so I read it. And then I showed it to him and I said, oh, what do you think? And I could see his eyes darting all over the place. And he says he was thinking, how long do I have to pretend to be reading so that she thinks I've read it? And he's, oh, it's good. good, you happy?

And he did that. And I said, you didn't read that. And he went, and he looked really, his reaction wasn't like, I didn't read that because I couldn't be bothered. He just looked really scared. And I said, he was dyslexic. And he just, again, he looked even, you know,

even more fearful. And he just thought that I was going to go, right, that's, he said, you were so clever. And, you know, you got a law degree. And I was thinking, well, she finds out I can't read. That's, that's it. She's not going to want to go out with me. And which, of course, wasn't, you know,

wasn't the case. And then from then on, knowing that, obviously helped me to understand him even more. But also, I didn't rush into it, but I thought, I want to help him. Do you know what I mean? I want to help him because I knew he was clever, and he had a really good, you know, witty, quick brain that could see situations and wasn't, you know, he was interested.

That was the thing. He was interested in so much. Yeah, and he just wanted to know about everything. And so I then saw this thing on the Trevor McDonald programme, like it doesn't even exist now about this educational program that helps stimulate the cerebellum, and it's a physical literacy thing, which he's still involved with.

and he went through that program and he ended up not only did he then find reading easier and writing easier and he improved his sport improved his peripheral vision so his coach thought he was on steroids his coach said to him at Wasps in Scotland

said, Kenny I'm going to ask you straight what have you been doing because I can't believe the way you're playing at the moment and so... Yeah, it was a really life changing thing for him You seem quite, just spending time with you today like you seem quite a calm, placid person are you a kind of diffuser of situation?

I think we both have the ability to do that. If something's going wrong, he's really mechanically minded. If something's going wrong mechanically or technically, and I get a bit, whereas I can sometimes see the detail, the bigger picture, do you know what I'll go, okay, you need to do this and don't worry about that. He's not a panicker though, so it would be wrong for me to say that I defuse things. He's an ideas person. He's always coming up with ideas.

He just needs people to, and his business, he needs people to do the detail for him because he's always got the big ideas. So he's very positive and he's got a really great outlook on life. And he's probably, you don't know him. If you meet him the first time, you probably think he's got so much energy that I think it can make people feel a bit exhausted. You know, sometimes I have to go. He's like Milo, the boxer.

You're the Labradoon. You have a pretty busy schedule, don't you? Because you're doing, you're presenting. I mean, how many days a week, on average, are you? This week, I'm in Liverpool tomorrow for the Premier League show. Thursday, I'm doing an event for the Premier League, fun enough. And then, but just like every week so different. That was interesting to me.

So this weekend I just got on with my first weekend off this year. The weekends tend to be busy with work. People always used to be surprised that I'd work on Boxing Day, and I'd always say, well, the thing with football, it tends to happen when you have your downtime. So if you think about Saturdays, although now football is blinking ubiquitous, isn't it? It just happens any time.

But I work a lot on bank holidays and things like that. But now I'm not doing so much regular football at the weekends. I'll do Six Nations or athletics or so I reckon I've gone from working 48 weekends a year to say 30, which is much better because then I get to do. But when you're doing something like Olympics coverage or something like that, I mean it's handy if it takes place here but it doesn't always does it. That was so well-timed. Yeah, that was handy for you.

Yeah. But it does mean sometimes you're away for large periods of time, doesn't it? If I'm going away somewhere like Brazil for three weeks for the Olympics or the World Cup or something, then I'll try and obviously that summer not be doing loads of big trips. I used to feel really bad about, you know, I went to Beijing for the Olympics when they were three, and that was the worst, because the first time I never left them for that period of time. Was that difficult? Oh, I felt wretched.

I felt dreadful. Of course, they didn't. They had a fantastic time. And when I got back, the day I got back, I said, right, I'm going to take you to Legoland. And we were driving down the 316. And we passed Twicken them and said, there's the bird's nest where mommy's been for the last three weeks. You think I've come a mile down the road. And so they had no concept of where I was.

You should just lie and say you were there. Yeah, that's right. I was there for three weeks. Those things get easier. I think the kids love it. So I said from the other day, I said, I haven't one of those like midlife crisis. I was up once on the evening, decided to Google bar conversion courses, because I'm now going to fulfill my ambition to become a barrister.

Are you? No, this is what I was thinking. I was having a Sunday night, gin and tonic moment. And I said, I'm going to be a barrister on Monday morning. I now to talk to the family at breakfast. I said, I'm decided I'm going to go to do two-year bar conversion. And both kids are you mad? That's rubbish.

That's a real molo plan, isn't it? Did you wake up the next morning and think, no, might you do that? No, it lasted about 24 hours. I was thinking, that'd be great. And I could see myself cycling into the inside floor. The fantasy. Going, yeah, I'm going to just go do, I think, I look, you know, I'm not, everybody does it, don't they?

Would you do anything else, though? Besides that. No, not beside. I'm assuming this isn't going to happen. I think you've got quite a nice career. I think I used to think that I'd be off telly by this age. I genuinely, when I first started at Sky, one of my bosses told me that

if you're not doing life football on my channel by the time you're 28, you won't be doing it at all. And I mean, that's what I was saying before about things that people used to say that they get away with. I can be making millions out of those comments now. And so in my head, I thought, oh, I've got a finite amount of time to do this.

Why? Because you're female, do you think? Yeah, I thought that, you know, that nobody would want me on television over the age of 40. This is when I was in my 20s. It's interesting because I think the landscape has changed so much that maybe 20, 30 years ago

the idea would have been that you got to a certain age and, you know. Yeah, and I think it helps also. I genuinely haven't been employed because I don't look a certain way. You don't trade off that. So I think I can do my job. But that also took a while to feel more confident about and knowing. And I'm so subscribed to the, call it what you like, but the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours, whatever it is,

that, you know, Matthew side bounce, all those kind of philosophies about the more you practice and do something. and I just feel so much more confident about what I do now. And I love doing it when something goes wrong on air and things happen because that's where I feel like you come into your own, you know, and you have that the coping, you know, mechanisms that you have to employ and all that. And that's what I love about live school. Yeah, but you get adrenaline rush or that type of a person.

I don't, at the start of the show, I don't get that massive, I'm not hugely nervous at the beginning. It's only when things go a little bit off balance and, you know, aren't quite as smooth as they should be. Or a big show is something like sports personality. which is just a mega show with hundreds of people involved and a live audience of 15,000, you know, 12,000, whatever, as well as the 9 million at home.

Those kind of shows, you just feel like that's what you work all year for. You know, that's your kind of... So you're able to convert nerves into positive performance energy? I suppose that's what it is, yeah. It's not being handicapped or being restricted by your nerves. And that's what we're all, I suppose, when you're in sports and when I was a gymnast, that's what you were desperate. to try and achieve. And actually, I look back now and think, I wish I knew a little bit more about

performance, what I know now then, because I just, I was a bag of nerves when I was a gymnast. You know, I spent hours praying to some God that I decided was going to help me through this routine, not my training, you know, it was all going to be, I remember promising God. But you had no control over it. No, I promised God before I went on the mat in one competition that I'd go to Africa as a missionary for a year if you'd let me get through the routine without dropping a ball, which I feel terrible. about now because obviously I haven't been for a year although I did do a film for comic relief. Doesn't count, Kevin. But I wasn't even like a church going person

but I was brought up Roman Catholic but I wasn't going to church at that point and I remember going please if you just let me get through this routine today. That's interesting that that's how bad your nerves work. Yeah. So your sporting experience you've actually been able to utilize that I am your therapist now. Yeah. You've actually been able to utilize that in your career now as a presenter which is interesting. Yeah. You work well with adrenaline. Yeah. And I obviously did to a certain extent because obviously I got through to a certain level of what I did, but I didn't enjoy it. You know, it was almost like a sick making that whole experience,

whereas I don't feel like that about what I do work-wise. I look forward to it, you know, and I get excited about a big show or a big event that we're doing and spending time with you today, I would say you're very much the person that you present. I mean, I haven't seen you when you're pre-menstrual and kids have made a mess. But no, you seem, very much you are just the person that you see on the screen. It's funny because the kids always take the Mickey out of me and say that my, they go, go, do it in your broadcasting voice. They go, do it in your tele voice.

No, do it in your televoice. And then they're so rude. They're like, oh, listen to that voice. Oh, no, not that voice. Doing your normal voice. And then for about, for a while I went through this thing when they were about five where I'd keep talking in a Russian accent. And I told them that I was actually Russian

and that I've been pretending to be English for ages. And they said, look, stop being rude to me about my televoice. This is how I'm going to speak all the time. I just want to mention something. It's one of my favourite clips ever, which is something I've seen on YouTube, which is a clip of Gabby in The Rose of Trailly, which I believe you won?

I won the Leeds, and I was never going to win the international final, Emily. Only really girls from Cork who marry ex-Priess. The Rose of Tralee is, well, do you want to tell what it is? So if you ever watch Father Ted,

it's the lovely girls' conference. position. Yeah. It's a beauty pageant. But it's not a beauty pageant because there is no swimwear and there is nothing. It's absolutely nothing to do with the female form. It is about talent. You have to have a talent.

And mine was delivering a poem. Most of the girls played the piano. So why did you take part in the Rose of Trinley? I didn't. What happened was my friend. You did. All my friends in Leeds were either Polish or Catholic because I went to Catholic schools. And so we either lived in the Polish centre or the Irish Centre at the weekends.

So most of my Irish friends, their dad's, came over from Ireland and set up plant hire companies. That's kind of pretty much what they all did. And my friend, Amory's dad, had done very well for himself. And every year he sponsored her girl for the Leeds' rolls. And he said, sure, Gabby now, your granddad's from Cork on my mum's side. He said, is that qualifies you for the rules of Chile now? I'll give you 500 pounds to enter.

And so I only had to enter for 500 pounds. So I borrowed a really glitzy dress off one of my mom's most fabulous Jewish friends who had a collection of Mason. I've seen the dress. And I won the Leeds thing. And I was like, oh, what does that mean? Well, you have to go to Ireland for two weeks and take part in the big international pageant. And I was 18. I just started my gap year. I was the youngest of all the roses.

And it was like being thrown into the most incredible, I mean, I can't even begin. The whole thing is like you're taken to hospitals and made to touch the sick. And you're taken into towns and wave at the people. And you're driven through Ireland as if you're a royal. So it was the most brilliant two weeks of madness. Every night there were these banquets and functions. And it was sponsored by Erlingus and some other massive Irish kind of, you know, and... Well, the footage I've seen of you, you've got a red dress, which looks like something out of the Colby's with huge shoulders. And did I look about 48?

Because I was 18. It looked like there's quite a lot of hair products. It's Gabe Byrne, who's interviewing you. And what really struck me when I've watched it is, forensically, as I do a lot. No, but when I've watched it, I thought it was fascinating because you seem very self-assured, I thought, and very confident of your direction in life, which you don't normally get for people that age.

I actually said on it, didn't I? I want to be... I'll tell you exactly what you said because I've remembered it. Gayburn says to you, he's talking about your gymnastic, you know, the problems you have your back or something. Yeah. And he says, oh, a very sad thing happened. And you say, well, sadish. Did I guess? I say saddish.

I thought it was quite rude, actually, to poor old gay burn. That's so funny that I should say that. I put it into context, because you know what, my brother hadn't died then? Because I could imagine myself saying that a year later, like get a grip, you know. I think you were just confident. And I think you, and you said very clearly, you said, I'm going to be a, I'm going to be a work in TV. You said, I've done some work experience for today, newspaper, but they're all a bit laddy. It's brilliant.

Did I say they were laddie? That's so funny. You knew who you were. You were like very super confident. Well, my dad decided, because my dad's very shy, so for his speech at my wedding, he made the most brilliant sequence of videos. He made a tape, basically, and just narrated it so that nobody had to look at him. And that was one of his favourite bits to use. And how's he doing that?

Because I know he had a bit of a tricky time. Yeah, he's all right. He's okay. Good. I wish he was, I don't know, I wish he, he's, he's, he's life obviously, you know, through my brother dying, I think he was one of those people that saw life as being the glass half-euvre. empty and my brother dying confirmed him everything whereas I think my mum when probably why they ended up splitting up she was very much like let's find the meaning in this let's find the reason and and so he has um he's he's

naturally quite a sad and so he's lovely you know it's like I don't want to be because everybody that meets him thinks he's adorable and they love him but I I'm sad for him because I feel like he's not done as much for his life in the last 20 years that he should have done and that makes you feel sad doesn't it as a child you know you people and he's he's his birthday today he spoke to him this morning and he's you know he's he's he's lovely he came down for Christmas this year and kids adore him but he's not really massively in their lives I think if he lived close by they they would get so much out of him

you know and he'd be a great granddad but um yeah he's where he is so he's so loved by people you know when people in football talk to me about he's so warmly it's an injury that's just so hard to recover from that particular one, isn't it? And I think loss of a child, it's just, you know, it's, um, I know with my parents, I mean, they died pretty soon afterwards. And I know, I know, I don't know, you know, it's too much for coincidence. You know, my mum got motor neurone disease suddenly and then died and my dad suddenly had a stroke. It's like, I think it's just, you know, I think it is a, um, as you say, an injury or it's a, it's a mark that, you know. We do appreciate what we have. And I think

you've got to live every day, haven't you, with that appreciation. And you don't know what can happen and you don't know what's around the corner in life and that's the one thing that we learn through our experiences and and you can't um i think that's true you can't kind of plan too far in advance can you you just got a carp a dium logan exactly what about i don't know if we're allowed to say this on the podcast but there's a there's a posh neighbor around here that i don't think we're allowed to mention who it is gabby go on as we walk in tell us who lives here it's so exciting so mary berry lives in the village and um the only cook in the village well Well, you say that. I saw your cooking. She's been around for dinner. I had around for dinner two weeks ago. I had to cook for Mary, Barry. You didn't.

Yeah. Well, I'd been around to her house. And so, of course, I had to do the invite back. And she knew the people that lived here, three people before us. What was the food like that she cooked for you? You've got to say it's nice. Traditional? Beautiful.

So not. Shepherd's pie? No. Guinea fowl and Tarragon sauce, which I would say about as traditional as you can get, is it not. She did do a recipe for my own book, which was a salmon moose. Do you know what the thing she's got that I'm most jealous of? What?

Not her ability to make a French tart in the blink of an eye. She has, I don't know I'm allowed to say this. She has a walk-in fridge. She has a fridge that you can actually, you could actually sit down in. It's bigger than an average larder. And she, I love it to fix. Well, I've seen your larder.

Your larder is basically the size of bark shirt. She said, she said, I said, that's amazing. She said, do you know what's brilliant about it? And she said this without any kind of sense of, you know, the no grandeur or anything. She said, you know when you get four or five bouquets and you don't want to put them all out at once? You can just put three in the fridge and put two out. Mary doesn't realize that not everybody gets five bouquets. I made the kids kind of not be around while we had dinner.

And then they, of course, came in and wanted to chat to her. And she was so lovely with the kids. She's got such an amazing energy. And she wants to know everything about everybody and what everybody's doing. And the next day, Reuben said, 11-year-old boy, bear in mind, he said, I really like Mary. She is up for it. But she kind of is.

I know that sounds an unlikely description of Mary Berry. That can be her next book. Mary Berry Up for it. She's just signed a new three-year deal with the BBC. I love her. She's so pretty. She's got such a kind, pretty faith. Oh, Gabby, I've really enjoyed this.

Oh, it's been really lovely. What a perfect day as well. I love the way you did that. It was like you were wrapping up a nice sporting interview. What a perfect day. Anyway, back to Gary in the studio. You can see highlights later on BBC 2. And, of course, the red button coverage continues.

We'll be on the... I really hope you enjoyed Walking the Dog. Thank you for listening. And don't forget to subscribe on iTunes. Otherwise, no treats for you. Zero.