Gabby Logan has revealed she told her husband and children she was going to leave them during a menopause “meltdown”.
The presenter, 51, who is fronting the BBC’s Euros 2023 coverage in Germany, has been with her husband, former Scotland rugby international Kenny Logan – who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2022 – since 1999 when they met in a bar and were married two years later.
Logan said she realised she was perimenopausal when she was 47 but was unprepared for the emotional side of reaching “the midpoint” of life that began to affect her relationship.
Logan admitted she told her husband and their two teenage twins, Lois and Reuben – who were 14 at the time – she was going to move out of their family home and get a flat for herself in Beaconsfield.
Speaking to The Times about her new book, The Midpoint Plan, Logan said her new life plan had been “totally random” and brought both her children close to tears when she sat them down to deliver the news.
“It was over something small, like the kids not clearing up after breakfast,” she said. “That was probably my lowest point, my mini-crisis. It was the time when I was feeling, this is not me and this isn’t how I cope with things.”
During the menopause, women experience changes in hormone levels, which can cause mood swings, low mood and anxiety.
To manage her symptoms, Logan was prescribed hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which boosts oestrogen levels and other hormones and helps to alleviate the impact of hot flushes, anxiety, joint pain, disturbed sleep, night sweats and vaginal dryness.
“I expected that things would change physically as you get older, but I wasn’t prepared for feeling so unenthused, anxious, snappier and short-tempered,” Logan said.
“I had a lot to be grateful for, but that compounds it because then you’re thinking, well, what’s wrong with me?”
Logan revealed she tried to “keep a lid on it” with her husband and children after threatening to leave them. However, the BBC presenter admitted there had been a “couple of incidents” at work.
“There’s one guy I’d always had a great relationship with and he said something really benign and I was, like, ‘Oh, just f*** off,’” she said.
“I still feel terrible about it. Luckily I didn’t go around telling my bosses to f*** off or that would probably have been the end of me.”
Last week, Logan revealed she’d taken up the new hobby of playing the recorder at 51 to “keep on testing” herself.
“[Mid life] is a period of life that should be embraced,” she added. “There’s loads to be excited about.”
