Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte Hawkins has been married to her husband, businessman Mark Herbert, for 18 years. The couple share a daughter, 11-year-old Ella Rose.
The couple married after dating for five years, and remaining happy and strong within their union for a total of 23 years must take a lot of work - and Charlotte has offered rare insight into the "rules" she swears by to keep their marriage strong.
According to The Mirror, Charlotte uses "conflict management" to maintain a strong partnership. "You’ve got to treat each other with respect, be each other’s best friends," she shares, saying that she "rarely has disagreements" with her husband.
Charlotte continues, "When you know you’re in it for the long haul, you want to make it work. It’s best to talk about things as soon as possible," wisely suggesting that when couples "bottle everything up," their feelings can come out "in a massive blow-up."
Continuing to share another rule for her marriage, Charlotte continues, "Doing small things that show you care is also important. Sometimes couples can slip into bad habits, or even how they treat each other."
She believes, "As with everything in life, little acts of kindness can go a long way." Balancing a marriage and motherhood is made even more challenging with the presenter's unusual schedule.
When her alarm goes off at 2.30am, most people are only halfway through their sleep for the night, and charlotte reveals it "does have an impact" on her life.
"Sometimes you don’t even know what time of day it is. You go for a little nap and then you wake up thinking, ‘What time is it? What day is it? What have I missed?," she says.
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When it comes to her daughter, Charlotte has another "rule" she closely adheres to - Ella Rose doesn't have a mobile phone, and therefore no access to social media.
Pleased to hear about potential government bans on social media for under 16s, Charlotte says, "It’s too much for children at that age and they don’t have the capacity, I don’t think, to be able to deal with the complexities and potential issues that come from that."
Stories from friends and the work she does also reinforce her decision not to allow her daughter to have her own phone - and make her glad she didn't have an online world to contend with when she was younger.
"I know friends whose children have been bullied on social media, and it’s just not worth that risk," she shares, adding, "I look back at my childhood and think, 'My goodness, I’m so glad I didn’t have it.'"
Speaking about the ways in which her job makes her wary of young people having online access, Charlotte shares, "We cover so many stories about parents who’ve lost children because of things that have happened online, and it’s just so heartbreaking."
She continues to explains that she's "staggered by the amount of nastiness out there," that she believes to be "getting worse."
The presenter explains, "People feel they can say anything to anyone. I have no doubt that they wouldn’t say that to someone’s face," concluding, "Good manners and trying to be a good, kind person is so important. We’ve all got to take responsibility for how we treat people."
