Helen Skelton quits Radio 5 Live to spend more time with her children | Radio 5 Live

Presenter Helen Skelton has broadcast her final show for BBC Radio 5 Live “for now” to spend more time with her children.

The TV and radio broadcaster has hosted the Sunday morning programme for the past year after taking over the slot from former Love Island host Laura Whitmore.

During the last show, her fellow 5 Live presenter Steve Crossman admitted he was emotional that she was leaving, to which she replied: “I know, I don’t want to but an eight-year-old will be happy about it.”

When later asked how she was feeling, she added: “I’m not all right about it but you know, needs must. The juggle is real. An eight-year-old with a sideline needs me.”

At the end of her show, she said: “That’s it for me on Sundays for now. Thank you for your company over the last year, I’ve loved every minute of our time together on this show … Thank you to all of the team, thank you to all of you. Maybe we’ll meet again soon. It’s hard to know what to say without getting emotional.”

Crossman praised Skelton, saying it had been “so wonderful” working with her and that she would be “massively missed”.

Skelton co-parents her three children with her former husband Richie Myler after they announced last year that they were no longer a couple.

The Countryfile and Blue Peter star wrote on her Instagram story at the time: “Very sad to say that Richie and I are no longer a couple. He has left the family home. We will be doing our best to co-parent our small children.”

Skelton and 33-year-old rugby league player Myler have three children: an eight-year-old son Ernie, six-year-old Louis and daughter Elsie Kate, who was born in 2021.

Last year, Skelton competed on Strictly Come Dancing and finished as a runner-up with her professional partner Gorka Márquez. The presenter previously said that she had “found her confidence on the dancefloor” while competing on the show.

She contributed to the BBC’s 2016 Rio Olympic Games coverage and has previously worked on Newsround and Blue Peter, as well as appearing on Strictly Come Dancing last year. She has also worked on the BBC’s Countryfile and its swimming coverage.

She has spoken out about the gender pay gap in broadcasting in the past. In 2018, she said the industry was “inherently unfair”, and she was not happy with what she and female colleagues had been paid. She said: “But I signed that contract because, the minute you don’t, there are 10 people behind you that will.”

She warned that coverage of the pay row needed to remain relevant, otherwise the public could switch off.

She said: “We have to be very careful that this doesn’t become a whingeing old boring argument. It needs to remain relevant. We need to – and I know this sounds awful – keep the argument sexy. We have to keep it in the public eye.”