Meet your cover star
As she celebrates a decade on the show, Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte Hawkins talks to Georgia Green about women taking charge on screen, being in awe of her friend Kate Garraway and her next big ambition
After a decade of 2.45am starts, you’d have thought that Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte Hawkins might be tiring of the somewhat punishing schedule – but far from it. Despite joking that she’s ‘furious’ about her former co-presenter Ben Shephard’s decision to depart the show in February, she’s filled with excitement about being part of the new all-female lineup of presenters, which includes Kate Garraway, Susanna Reid and Ranvir Singh.
When she’s not waking up the nation, Charlotte fills the airwaves on Classic FM. She has also appeared in a Hollywood film, Burnt, alongside Bradley Cooper – and reveals she has hopes for more acting roles.
Her busy work schedule is balanced by her home life in Surrey, where she lives with her husband, Mark, and their nine-year-old daughter, Ella Rose. Family walks, bike rides and growing vegetables fill her spare time – although her journalistic prowess is rubbing off on Ella Rose who, at the age of seven, interviewed musician George Ezra live on TV. Charlotte tells us more about life on – and off – the screen…
EARLY BIRD
GMB turns 10 this year, and it feels really special to have been on it since the beginning. It’s a privilege to be on people’s screens first thing in the morning. There’s something unique about breakfast TV – all over the country people are waking up and having their first cup of tea or coffee, and we’re there telling them what’s going on in the world. That’s a really special relationship to have. I love it when people come up to me in the supermarket to have a chat – it feels like being part of an extended family.
We’re a very close-knit team of presenters. We have to be there for each other and that’s never been more important than now. When Kate [Garraway] lost her husband, Derek, in January, everyone pulled together to support her. She’s been through an extraordinarily tough time, and I know from losing my dad in 2015 to motor neurone disease that when you lose GMB photography ITV Daytime Charlotte wears (right) Dress, Celia B. Ring, Sif Jakobs Jewellery. Heels, Deichmann someone you love very much, it’s a constant pain. You wonder what the way forward will be, and it’s not a question of getting over it, but learning to live with it. It’s going to take time for Kate to heal, but she knows we’re all here for her.
