Bill Turnbull: Louise Minchin pays tribute

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Louise Minchin, who celebrates her 54th birthday today, had been a principal force on BBC screens for two decades when she announced her departure in June 2021. The acclaimed TV presenter revealed her struggles with “empty nest syndrome” as her second daughter planned to leave for university, and her husband’s wise words which influenced her decision to leave the BBC.

Minchin and her husband David have two daughters: Mia, 20 and Scarlett, 17. The reporter explained that the heartbreak she experienced when her first daughter left home was “so painful I’ve got strategies for when the next one goes”. 

In an opinion piece she wrote for iNews earlier this year, Minchin lamented that with her youngest daughter writing her A-levels, there were now moments she would never experience again. 

While she exalted in the thought of “no more school runs, no more stress over exams, no more holidays with dates dictated by term times” but dreaded having an empty home. 

According to E Celebrity Mirror, Mia is currently studying at the University of Manchester and her little sister is due to follow in her sister’s footsteps. 

Minchin admitted throughout her daughter’s lives she had “dismissed” the idea of empty nest syndrome, saying that an empty house “sounded like an opportunity: the reopening of a door to freedom”. 

However, Mia’s departure three years ago left the reporter surprisingly “devastated”. 

While Minchin had anticipated missing her daughter, she had not expected the intensity of her emotions, writing: “It felt like a form of bereavement, a palpable sense of loss.”

The reporter couldn’t even walk past her daughter’s bedroom without feeling “a stab of sadness”, and the silence that was once filled by Mia’s blasting music “felt oppressive”. 

Minchin grumbled that she had received endless and overwhelming advice while she was pregnant but no one had warned her about this change.

The devastating pain of Mia leaving had taken Minchin by surprise, but she believed she would be a bit more prepared for when Scarlett does the same.

She described it as a “horrible secret that no one shares” and to combat this, decided to share her three coping strategies.

Firstly, the reporter has learnt to appreciate the messy piles cluttering her youngest daughter’s room. 

Secondly, she reminds herself: “I am still and will always be their mum, and they will need me just as much, but on an ad hoc basis.”

Lastly, the former BBC star has also planned “distractions” for when Scarlett leaves, including a holiday for her and her husband that is not during school holidays. 

Minchin and David got married in 1998, the same year she joined BBC Radio 5 Live, marking the start of a long career with the broadcaster. 

Earlier this year the reporter also revealed that it was a piece of advice from her dearly beloved that edged her towards leaving the BBC.  

She announced her decision in June 2021, leaving with an emotional goodbye as Sally Nugent took her place on the breakfast news show in September. 

Minchin insisted that her departure was unconnected to a recent stalking incident she had experienced, citing the unsociable hours as the real reason.

She explained that getting up at 3:45am to be at work on time was not something she had ever grown used to over the years, and could not picture going through another season of dark, cold winter mornings. 

“I lived in a cycle of tiredness” she recalled to You Magazine, and “felt it had come to a natural end” as she approached her 20th anniversary at BBC .

Minchin noted her husband always told her: “You’ll know when it’s over” and in that moment she realised while she still enjoyed her work, she needed to “get some sleep”. 

Following her departure, Minchin appeared on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! and shared her and David’s incredible lost story with her campmates. 

She revealed she had first developed a crush on David at 13, in a passing moment on a beach while she was on holiday, simply calling him “the guy in the Kinks T-shirt”. 

The couple would only end up meeting properly over a decade later, when Minchin realised she was friends with his younger sister. 

However, the then-28-year-old journalist was in a serious relationship, but casually told David about her innocent childhood crush, to which he replied: “When you chuck your boyfriend, give me a call”. 

She did exactly that and less than a year later the couple were married. 

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