By Katie Daly,Sophie Vokes-Dudgeon

Copyright hellomagazine

Gabby Logan is no stranger to change, having taken over from Gary Lineker as a presenter of Match of the Day in August, a role involving weekends away from her family home in Buckinghamshire to the studio in Manchester. But it was waving off her daughter, Lois, 20, as she headed into her second year at Loughborough University last Friday, that has been the sports presenter’s trickiest adjustment. “First year I felt she was hardly away, so this year will be a long year because the second year is always hard anyway,” Gabby, 52, tells HELLO! as she sits down for this new exclusive interview. “It will feel different this next month, because [Lois’ twin brother] Reuben won’t be living at home like he used to, because he was at Northampton [Saints rugby team] before, and he used to come home more.”

Having an empty nest is a feeling Gabby, who is married to retired rugby star Kenny Logan, remembers well from when she dropped Lois off on her first day at university last September. “I cried when she went,” the BBC Sports broadcaster admits. “Kenny was away, so I did all of that, and we were all fine until we got outside and gave her a hug. Oh my gosh – the tears! She was brilliant, though, and she made a really smooth transition.”

Gabby’s empty nest

And it’s not just Lois Gabby has had to say goodbye to this past weekend. The sports presenter also had to endure the “very hard” situation of having to say goodbye to her beloved boxer dog Milo, who had to be put down the very same day, just ahead of her big job presenting the Women’s Rugby World Cup on the BBC on Saturday. “When I found out the eldest dog had to be put down, I said to Kenny, ‘I can’t do this on my own, we’re not going to get the whole family together for its, so I need at least you and I. We’re going to have to have a gin and tonic and a bit of a cry.”

Having a fully empty nest is a first for Gabby and Kenny, whom she married in 2001. “It’s going to feel a bit weird,” she admits. “We’ve pretty much got October where there’s going to be no kids at home,” she reveals. And it’s not just her own schedule Gabby is concerned with while mitigating the emotional impact of a quiet house.

“I’ve got quite a lot of travel with Champions League,” the former rhythmic gymnast explains, “But I’m going to have to watch out, make sure Kenny’s occupied. He’ll probably come up to Manchester with me and see Reuben and hang out. But it is a transition that you should be prepared for.” Embracing the ‘back-to-school’ season amid her job upheaval, Gabby is even more grateful for the past summer spent with her children and husband.

Her daughter Lois spent nearly five months back living in the family home, “Last year was her first year, she finished her exams in May – so we had her home nearly five months, which is great,” Gabby says of her reunion with her daughter. “I always say she’s so easy to live with; she’s just so helpful, dropping off parcels, getting my dry-cleaning. It was amazing.”

“When Reuben left, it wasn’t quite the same,” she laughs. “I’m joking, but it was almost easier without him there, I could hoover his room…I found out where all those pots had been hiding. Why are these in your bathroom drawer? Lois is very good at keeping in touch. With boys, you’ve got to be a bit more on them. They will send a message, but you’ve got to nudge a bit more!”

Quality time with Kenny

But while empty nests are difficult to adapt to, Gabby admits that there have been some upsides to having more solo time with her husband. “We did some lovely trips this summer because Reuben was playing for the under-20s World Cup, so we went to Verona, Milan, just quick trips, two nights to watch the match,” the proud mother of two recalls. “It was so nice because we had the purpose of being there to watch the game, but we didn’t get to hang out with him, because he was with the team. So we’d watch him, give him a cuddle afterwards, and then we’d go back to the lovely hotel, have dinner together. I’m looking forward to spending more little trips like that, just the two of us.”

Another thing that Gabby and Kenny like to do together is keep fit. “We’ve always done a lot of training, he’s always been into it, says Gabby, who first got into personal fitness and conditioning in her 20s. “But I got more into it when I married my husband, his job was predicated by him being strong, it was part of his superpowers,” she laughs.

“For a while, I got more into other things, cycling, pilates, and a bit of weights. But in the last few years, especially during the menopausal and peri-menopausal period, I realised weight training is vital to keep everything strong and I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Gabby is keen to encourage other mid-life women to take up weight-lifting and has teamed up with Menopace to promote their fitness tests that establish your base level and help women to improve their strength, balance, and endurance.

“The tests we did today are a really good way of measuring where you are – really simple things like a wall sit and a hang. And our grip, for example, is so important in terms of showing our strength. These tests give you a sense of where you are and if you have any sense of wanting to improve that then it shows you how to do so with exercises. It’s so important to start doing more,” she says. “This idea is that you can slow down in midlife isn’t right. You need to do more, because otherwise, if you stop, that is when you’re going to start to feel succumbing to aches and pains. I want to still be playing tennis when I’m 63.”

Gabby’s healthy lifestyle

Eating consciously also keeps Gabby on track. “My mum’s family has slightly raised cholesterol, my good cholesterol can be brilliant, but I have to think about that and be purposeful,” she says. “While I’ve never had to worry too much about weight, I do think about what I’m putting into my body. But I enjoy that, and I look for recipes that are going to give me that balance of nutrition.”

She is also keen to drown out the pressures of diet culture. “You start feeling the emotions of guilt,” she says of “eating rubbish” if you fall off the diet early in the week. “By the time we get to this age, we get more confident, more wisdom, and we just don’t beat ourselves up in that way.”

The future for Gabby

Having entered a new era with her hosting duties at Match of the Day, Gabby is looking forward to the future – but never too far. “I don’t want to think too far ahead, because, in sport, you know in three-year cycles what you’re doing. I know what I’m doing for the next three years, and I’m happy with that,” Gabby says, adding that she has considered moving house during the next phase of life.

“Whenever I look at property porn, I always put Edinburgh in. But it’s totally impractical, I’d spend my whole life on a plane, coming south or going to Manchester,” she explains, adding that although she toys with the idea of selling up, she’s aware the kids might not be ready for that just yet. “I feel as we’re close enough to London that if Lois did get a job in London, she’d want to be living back at home. And there’s a period where I think you’ve got to take their emotions into consideration if you can, not just wrenching things away. It’s not up to them, but you can consider them for a while.”

Gabby’s Second Act inspiration

What’s clear for Gabby is that wherever she may end up, her husband remains her constant – and a source of inspiration as he has transitioned out of life as a professional sportsman and into building a sports marketing business. “He’s already had a metamorphosis, moved from one career to another, I’ve seen him change and took some lessons from that as well,” Gabby says. And she’s also determined to keep pushing herself to step outside of her comfort zone – something that can become harder to do as you age.

“I try to do that on a daily basis,” she says, “I did this bike challenge this summer with Kenny and 30 guys – they raised nearly a million pounds cycling around Ireland for MND. And I couldn’t do all of it, because it was the Women’s Euros, I said I’d do the last day. It was just 70 miles, but it turned out to be the biggest climb, and I had to really dig deep, mentally, because it was so hard. And those kinds of days, I feel so alive. While you’re doing it you think, why the hell am I doing this? But you feel so good afterwards. That’s the reward.”

She also took on the challenge of a half-marathon with daughter Lois last year. “It was so hard fitting all the training. I remember coming back from the Six Nations match in Edinburgh, and it was too dark to run outside, so I had to do 18k on a treadmill. That was a mental exercise! But when we did it, it felt so lovely, doing it with her. It was tough, but again it felt like filling up that pool that needs nourishing. I think purpose is a really important and significant factor in happiness. If you lose that in midlife, you can start to lose your way.”

This Menopause Awareness Month, Gabby Logan, broadcaster and Menopace ambassador, along with menopause strength expert Annie Murray launch the Menopace Strength Test to help women assess and improve their physical strength when approaching and during menopause.