Louise Minchin has revealed how much of a struggle lockdown has been for her and her family during a candid conversation on Decathlon's The Power of Ten podcast.
Speaking to Olympic skier Graham Bell, the BBC Breakfast star reflected on the past 12 months as she opened up about how her love for fitness helped her kick back and relax.
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On not being able to see her loved ones, the 52-year-old said: "It's been difficult, hasn't it. And I, you know, miss friends desperately, miss family desperately, like everybody else."
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Elsewhere in the chat, the star also shared a secret regarding her early starts on BBC Breakfast, confessing: "I have a sleep in the afternoon, which is an hour and a half."
The respected broadcaster added: "I know I have to do that because otherwise I wouldn’t function because I go to bed about nine thirty at night."
Louise then went on to talk about her enjoyment for her job but acknowledged the stress that comes with it, adding: "I love my job, and I'm really passionate about doing my job, but it's really stressful… being super… really concentrating for three and a quarter hours. I think that's where the stress comes from."
© Photo: Getty ImagesLouise is a regular on the BBC Breakfast sofa
She continued: "Obviously there's a lot of things going on and a lot of different pressures. For me it's about giving my brain a space where I don't think. I used to go for runs when I first started this… I would take a knotty problem and just go for a run with it. And I've actually really moved from that to just going for a run, or a swim, or a bike ride and not thinking."
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Louise also revealed the positive impact that exercise has on her mental state: "For me, it's the mental health, it's the physical… every single day it [exercise] makes a difference to the way I feel mentally and physically," she said.
Talking about the impact that the pandemic has had on her working life, Louise admits that her fear of doing her own make up has now become a reality. She confessed: "I don't know if you have work nightmares, but my recurring nightmare used to be that I'd get into work and make up weren't there… so God forbid, I'd have to do my own makeup. And then from one day to the next, that actually became my reality."
She added: "Yeah… so I taught myself and I've learnt a life skill… hair and make up, over the eight, nine months [of lockdown]."
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