The GMB star says she doesn’t mind getting older in the least and is loving every moment she spends with her three grown-up boys
Susanna Reid wants to spend time with her sons and her elderly parents while she still has the chance(Image: David Venni)
Susanna Reid barely touches a drop these days – but that doesn’t stop her from going clubbing with her three sons in Ibiza. The GMB star says she wants to make the most of every moment she has with Sam, 22, Finn, 21, and 19-year-old Jack before they move out for good.
“I’m not really a pub-goer, but I go clubbing,” she declares, explaining that on a family holiday to Ibiza last summer, the trio properly partied. “I went clubbing with them during the day and had the most amazing time, “ she laughs. “I stopped drinking in 2018 and I’m now predominantly teetotal. I have a Buck’s Fizz on Christmas Day, I had half a glass of champagne on my mum’s birthday and I have adrink once every couple of months – including a couple in Ibiza – but I don’t have pints at the pub like I did in my 20s. Being virtually teetotal hasn’t damaged my social life. In any case, in Ibiza, music is your drug.”The TV star says loves nothing more than hanging out with her offspring. “At some point, my boys will scatter to the wind. I used to imagine being sad when they leave. Now I just feel they are developing their own wings to fly. I want to be around as much as I can because they really are about to go. I’m enjoying my diminishing time with the children.”
The GMB star, who did Strictly a decade ago, says she now turns down outside work to preserve her work-life balance(Image: David Venni /futurenet)
Susanna, 54, split from their father Dominic Cotton in 2014, after a 15-year relationship. Since then she has admitted to taking some relationships further than the dating stage but has worked hard to keep her romantic life out of the headline. She says that right now her priorities remain her family. “My parents are in their 80s – it’s my father’s 90th birthday this year – and I want to spend time with them as well,” she explains. “I’m part of the sandwich generation, but it’s not a weight at all. It’s a privilege. I need them too, very much. We’re a very close family.”
Susanna now has more than 20 years of breakfast television experience to her name, having co-hosted BBC Breakfast from 2003 to 2014 before joining Good Morning Britain alongside Piers Morgan in 2013. She took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2013, but now says the key to the “perfect balance” between work and home life is not taking on any additional work for the foreseeable future. She laughs: “My God, the amount of time I’ll have when the boys leave home – I’m going to have to go to Ibiza on my own!”
Susanna says she only has the odd drink these days but dances in Ibiza where she finds that ‘music is your drug’(Image: David Venni /futurenet)
When it comes to getting older, she isn’t bothered by big birthdays – in fact, she embraces them. “I love ageing,” Susanna declares. “Some people see age as a significant totemic number. To me, my 50th was the day after I was 49. When you turn 50, you don’t suddenly leap forward in time. Cliff-edge numbers mean zero to me. I just think, ‘I’m here still.’ Ageing is a blessing because just consider the alternatives.”
Regarding her TV work, Susanna is happy where she is. “I love working with Richard Madeley and Ed Balls – my two TV husbands,” she laughs. “You can ask Ed anything about politics – he knows everything. Then Richard is a proper daytime legend. Sometimes when famous people come in, they’ve got stars in their eyes because they’re being interviewed by him.”
She left a bit shocked, however, by comments made about her coverage of the US election. “It surprised me when people said ‘Susanna looks so bitter that Trump’s won.’ I wasn’t bitter at all,” she insists. “I thought, ‘I knew this was going to happen.’ I had Piers Morgan’s voice in my head going, ‘Remember what happened in 2016!’ If I had the chance to interview Trump, I’d ask whether he is going to make an amendment to the constitution so he can serve more than two terms – if you got any line out of Trump on that, you’d have a worldwide exclusive.”
Susanna now has more than 20 years of breakfast television experience to her name, having co-hosted BBC Breakfast from 2003 to 2014 before joining Good Morning Britain alongside Piers Morgan in 2013. She took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2013, but now says the key to the “perfect balance” between work and home life is not taking on any additional work for the foreseeable future. She laughs: “My God, the amount of time I’ll have when the boys leave home – I’m going to have to go to Ibiza on my own!”
Susanna says she only has the odd drink these days but dances in Ibiza where she finds that ‘music is your drug’(Image: David Venni /futurenet)
When it comes to getting older, she isn’t bothered by big birthdays – in fact, she embraces them. “I love ageing,” Susanna declares. “Some people see age as a significant totemic number. To me, my 50th was the day after I was 49. When you turn 50, you don’t suddenly leap forward in time. Cliff-edge numbers mean zero to me. I just think, ‘I’m here still.’ Ageing is a blessing because just consider the alternatives.”
Regarding her TV work, Susanna is happy where she is. “I love working with Richard Madeley and Ed Balls – my two TV husbands,” she laughs. “You can ask Ed anything about politics – he knows everything. Then Richard is a proper daytime legend. Sometimes when famous people come in, they’ve got stars in their eyes because they’re being interviewed by him.”
She left a bit shocked, however, by comments made about her coverage of the US election. “It surprised me when people said ‘Susanna looks so bitter that Trump’s won.’ I wasn’t bitter at all,” she insists. “I thought, ‘I knew this was going to happen.’ I had Piers Morgan’s voice in my head going, ‘Remember what happened in 2016!’ If I had the chance to interview Trump, I’d ask whether he is going to make an amendment to the constitution so he can serve more than two terms – if you got any line out of Trump on that, you’d have a worldwide exclusive.”