Photo credit: OhSoAmelia
If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you would probably have noticed my timeline's flooded yesterday with lots of over-excited chatter and photos from my morning at ITV Studios.
The opportunity presented itself a couple of days ago to go on This Morning to discuss the topic of Sex After Childbirth.
I had done a tiny interview in Take A Break magazine at the start of the year on the subject, and had blogged about it previously....and so the research team from This Morning got in touch and invited me on to the show.
I was supposed to catch the 6.30 am train on the day of the show so that I would arrive at 9am, and a car would collect me from the station....getting me to the studio at around 9.30 am. This gave me an hour and a half for hair, make up and going through the prep before the live interview.
Unfortunately, when myself Jon & Tyne arrived at the train station....the word CANCELLED was flashing under my train listing.
Perfect!!!!
A panicked phone call to the research team later, and it was decided I would catch the next train an hour later....this would mean I'd be arriving at the studio with only an hour to spare which was tight but do-able....but it did mean I had to get into my On Air clothes in the train toilet cubicle! Glam!
We arrived at Paddington at 10:05 and found our car.....unfortunately we had the worlds slowest driver.
At 10.35 I started getting tweets and texts from my friends, saying that This Morning had announced me as "Up next" on the show....at this time I was still in the car on my way to the studio with no make up on!! You can imagine the panic!
I arrived at the studio at 10.40...due on air at 11...everything that happened next is a whirl in my mind!
The security guard ran us upstairs, I was rushed straight into the make up room where I had a make up artist and 2 hair stylists with straighteners each working on me all at once, there was a producer at the door yelling "We need her in 5!" and Dr Dawn Harper who was on the segment with me was sitting next to me, reading out tweets and Facebook comments to me about the segment.
All very chaotic.
Then it was time.
Before I knew it I was having my mic fitted and sitting next to Dr Dawn on the sofa.
Eamonn & Ruth came in and sat opposite us....they both said hello, Eamonn shook my hand....both were so friendly and pleasant, not at all intimidating.
The interview went by in a flash.
I have yet to watch it back and I`m not sure if I will....I don't like seeing myself in photos so I can't imagine seeing myself on TV will be any better!...and I have no recollection at all of anything I said!
I do think it was an important subject to cover....one thing that struck me from viewers comments was the general opinion that women are the ones doing something wrong if they're not keen to jump straight back into the sack after a baby. One viewer commented "How can these women deprive their men for a year and expect them not to cheat?"
I am astounded by some women's lack of self respect and the lack of value some people put on to both their partners and their relationship.
If you think so little of your partner that you assume he will cheat if you don't "Give him what he wants"....why are you with them?! Do you really want to be with someone like that?! And is your relationship of such little substance that it would fall apart without the physical side in such a short period of time?
I think there are much deeper issues there to be explored....and that's a story for another time.
Once the interview was over, I was taken out into the Green room where Jon and Tyne were sitting along with the rest of the people on the show that day.
Tyne was busy playing with the shows nutritionist and Jenni Falconer!
He loved the runners too, and they were so lovely with him....particularly Phoebe who took a particular shine to him!
Our car was booked for the shows end at 12.30, and after much deliberation in my mind I decided to be brave and ask Phoebe if there'd be any chance of getting a photo with Ruth & Eamonn.
I expected to be told no, but she said of course and took me back to the set.
I stood watching as they filmed their Piece To Camera's for the next days show....they were hilarious to watch as they bantered with each other between shots, and bickered in jest.
Once they were done, they invited me over for photos.
They were both so lovely and welcoming.
Eamonn asked where I had traveled from and when I mentioned Newton Abbot they chatted away to me about how well they knew it and how they love Devon.
I mentioned that I had seen some harsh comments about the subject matter we had discussed on Facebook, and chatted with them about social media trolls....Eamonn in particular was very passionate about the subject and described some problems he'd had with nastiness online in the past.
Then Eamonn asked how This Morning had found me, and I told him about the magazine feature and my blog....straight away he said "Oh you have a blog! Have you got lots of photos from today?"
I said I had some, and he said some was not enough!....he said we had to take lots! First he suggested a selfie of the two of us.....
And then he took me around the studio, suggesting places for me to pose as he snapped away taking lots of photos of me!!!
I can't tell you how odd it feels to be in presence of a TV personality and have them be the one taking photos of you!
All of the photos below were taken on my Iphone by Eamonn Holmes! (There's a sentence I never thought I'd say!)
I must have spent a good 15 minutes with him taking photos, he then walked out with me to the lift where we ran into Jon and Tyne....both he & Ruth made a real fuss of Tyne (And I did find Eamonn's greeting to Jon of "There he is! The horny beast!" pretty hilarious as Jon blushed and looked awkward!) and they happily posed for photos.
And that was that....a hug from Eamonn and we were on our way home after a whirlwind, crazy but oh-so enjoyable morning on set and behind the scenes of one of Britain's most loved shows.
Amazing.
I had such an enjoyable morning, and I have to say that it was made all the better by the outpouring of support and kindness from my friends...particularly all the people who sent me tweets, facebook messages and tagged me in Instagram and Facebook pics.
I've included a selection of those messages below, and I would like to thank all of these people and anybody who got in touch with me that day for your kindess. It really meant a lot.
As most of my readers will know, I do suffer with panic attacks and anxiety and don't consider myself to be a very confident person - I will be back next week to discuss how I overcame my anxiety to appear on the show, and sharing the tips I found helpful to do this.
The show is available on Itv player for anybody who wishes to see it for the next 5 days.
The tiny amount of footage I took (And it is TINY!) will be on my vlog next week....so if you'd like to see it please subscribe to my YouTube channel here.
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