This is one of my favourite pictures, as Judy, Jack, Chloe and I look quite embedded in the landscape - or seascape, as it were. It was taken around 1999 when we were at a beach called Talland Bay in Cornwall, a beautiful cove between Looe and Polperro. Jack would have been 13 and Chloe 12.
We discovered this area in the mid-80s, just as Judy and I were getting together. We were a little worried about how Judy's twins from a previous marriage, Tom and Dan, would take to me as their stepdad. Judy and I wanted to marry, but as the twins were only seven at the time, we knew we needed to take it gently. They knew me as a visitor to the house, but not as a daily figure in their life.
A rewarding role
So we decided to rent a cottage in Cornwall for a week, and we could all get to know each other more. It was an absolute triumph. It was August and the weather was gorgeous. It was like being in the Mediterranean. The sun shone from a cloudless sky every day, we had this gorgeous little cottage and we all got on famously. They seemed to like me and we realised it was going to be OK.
That was the start of our love affair with Cornwall, really, and in 1988 we bought a house near to where this picture was taken. So, while the twins might not be in this picture, as they were at university, they are very much part of its story.
I love being a dad, I knew I would. When Jack and Chloe were very little it was hard work, though. These were our peak career years, when we were very much building This Morning. Leaving home early on a weekday morning, we would leave the kids with the nanny, drive from Manchester to Liverpool, then back after filming so we could pick them up from nursery and give them their tea. That was tough, but it was also very rewarding.
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