Although Holly Willoughby is delighted to be advancing her career with a new Netflix show, she’s worried about leaving her family behind when she films in Costa Rica
Isobel Pankhurst
Holly Willoughby has landed a new gig hosting a high-profile show for Netflix, in which celebrities attempt to beat survival expert Bear Grylls. But she’s said to be feeling torn about spending time so far away from her husband, Dan Baldwin, and their children.
Holly, 43, who is mum to Harry, 14, Belle, 12, and Chester, nine, will be heading to Costa Rica to film the show.
With the working title Bear Hunt, it is due to be shown on the platform in 2025 and has been described as an “action-packed competition show where a group of unlikely British celebrities are dropped into the Central American jungle as prey for one of the world’s most fearsome predators – Bear Grylls”.
It is a fabulous career move for Holly, but a source has told new she is feeling an element of reluctance to leave her family.
“Holly will naturally miss her children and husband when she is away – she had lived in a lovely bubble with them while she took time off work, so it will be hard being away,” the source said.
“Like so many mums, she feels that ‘mum guilt’ as she tries to juggle family life with her TV career. It’s something she’s spoken about openly in the past and she also wants to show other mums that she is just the same. She feels it too. But she knows that, ultimately, she is setting a good example to her little ones by being a working mum.”
Holly previously opened up about parental guilt in 2021 during an appearance on The One Show. She said, “I feel guilty about everything so it is totally normal, but what I would say is – and this is what I’ve had to focus on – is where’s the guilt coming from?
“Because I think the problem with ‘working mum guilt’, you sort of think, ‘Well, I’m feeling guilty because I’m not there to drop my kids off in the morning because I have to go to work.’ What I’m feeling guilty about is, in some way, I’m telling myself I clearly don’t love my kids because I love my career more than my children, which is why I’m choosing to do this.
“Of course, that is not the case. I know that’s not the case. I know I love my kids more than anything on this planet. So why am I thinking like that? It’s because I believe that is what everyone else is thinking. You just have to kind of reevaluate, w
