Susanna Reid has opened up about her upcoming documentary, describing it as the "toughest challenge" of her career. The Good Morning Britain host is set to star in ITV's Children Who Kill this week, and has spoken out about the hard-hitting programme, which sees her go into the American prison system to meet prisoners convicted of murder when they were themselves children. Susanna described her interview with inmate Joshua Phillips in particular as "extremely distressing". "I've never been as distressed as I was filming that documentary. I've been affected by all the documentaries I've done but the thing about this is the child who was killed was so young," she told the Sun. "I was in tears doing the interviews – and I found everything about meeting Phillips upsetting, distressing and heart-breaking."
Susanna Reid met with Joshua Phillips as part of ITV's Children Who Kill documentary
The 47-year-old – herself a mother to three sons with her ex-husband Dominic Cotton – further revealed that she had to take a break from work to clear her mind after filming was complete. "I did find myself with a kind of emotional cloud a lot of the time," she added. "It took quite a long time after I got back from the States to clear my mind – the first thing I did was hug my kids a little tighter.
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This is not Susanna's first time fronting a real-life crime documentary. She previously fronted The Murder of Becky Watts – Inside the Investigation, as part of ITV's Crime and Punishment series. Other shows featured in the series have included Sir Trevor McDonald's An Hour To Catch a Killer, and Ross Kemp In Jail: Inside Barlinnie, which saw the ex-EastEnders star immerse himself in prison life at HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow for seven days.
Children Who Kill will air on 15 February at 9pm on ITV.