‘I HAVE THE SAME BEDTIME AS MY SEVEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER!’

CHARLOTTE HAWKINS ON HOSTING PET CLASSICS AFTER BILL TURNBULL’S PASSING AND WHY HER LITTLE GIRL MAY FOLLOW IN HER PRESENTING FOOTSTEPS

- JO BERRY

There is something very poignant for Charlotte Hawkins about the annual Bonfire Night Classic FM Pet Classics programme, especially this year.

Originally it was hosted by TV and radio presenter Bill Turnbull, with Charlotte taking over in 2021 due to his poor health. Bill sadly died on 31 August this year following a battle with prostate cancer.

"I stepped in last year because of Bill's health," Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte explains. "Having lost him now, it will definitely be a poignant show for us this year, because I know it was really special for him.

"I sent him an email last year and I said to him, 'You know, I am just borrowing this [show], thank you for letting me borrow it temporarily. I really look forward to having you back. It's really sad he's no longer with us, and we're missing him very much." The 47-year-old has lots of wonderful memories of working with Bill, both at Classic FM and on Good Morning Britain. "He was such a gentleman, he was so lovely to work with. He had such a lovely sense of humour and a twinkle in his eye." She adds, "As part of his health regime, he'd been doing all sorts of yoga and stretches, so in the ad breaks on GMB he quite frequently would get up and do all these stretches, putting the rest of us to shame." A regular presenter on GMB for eight years following seven years on Sky News Sunrise, Charlotte, who lives in Surrey with husband Mark and seven-year-old daughter Ella Rose, is pretty experienced at getting up at 3am to appear on breakfast TV.

The star explains that her early morning regime involves never putting the snooze button on her alarm, plus "quite a few cups of tea in the morning and usually about three breakfasts" during the day.