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19 Jun 2021, 14:44
The presenter joined the Graham Norton Radio Show with Waitrose to talk about her podcast, which deals with middle-age. She also shared her predictions for Euro 2020.
The Mid•Point podcast, which is now in its third season, sees Gabby talking candidly to celebrities about middle-age, looking at their challenges and expectations. Gabby told Graham that the podcast wasn’t born from any kind of midlife crisis. “It was more a realisation. I was 46 at the time and I suddenly had a visual, kind of Eureka moment, ‘Oh gosh, yeah, you are ageing.’ Because inside you’re doing lots of stuff and you have lots of energy. I’ve got twins who are 15 and they remind me that I’m getting old, by the things that I say, and obviously my music and my taste in many things, apparently.
“So that’s one factor. And then there’s all these other things, where you start thinking, ‘Should I be aware of what’s going on inside my body, and what’s going to happen to me?’. I thought, ‘I’ll have a chat with people I know who are a similar age’. And then I never did anything about it, because I was busy. Then lockdown happened, and I thought, ‘I’m going to just get on with this.’”
Gabby told Graham that she was keen to speak to both men and women on the podcast. “That was important to me. I didn’t want it to be just about menopause. I wanted it to be about how we feel about ourselves, because I think 40, 50, and 60 even is so different to how it was 20, 30 years ago, and what people are doing with their lives. So these conversations just started.
“The first one I did was John Bishop, and not because he’s a good mate and I knew he’d be a good talker. He didn’t earn a penny from comedy until he was 40, and I love the idea of doing something radically different in your midlife. It’s what he wanted to do, but he was selling pharmaceutical drugs before that.
“So, it just kind of snowballed from there and everyone that has been on has had... not some kind of epiphany, but they’ve all got something interesting to say about that point in their lives.
“The Economic and Social Research Council says that midlife is, wait for it… 38 to 58! That really shocked people in their early 40’s who don’t think they are middle-aged.”
So far in this season of Mid•Point, Gabby has spoken to comedian, writer and presenter, Ruby Wax, and former rugby player Gareth Thomas. She told Graham about another guest who will also appear this season. “I had a really interesting and candid chat with Penny Lancaster, who will come into this series. The reason I spoke to Penny is that she is now a Special Constable in the City of London Police, at 50, while being married to one of the world’s biggest rock stars, which is such a wonderful juxtaposition!
“But also, she was so honest about what she is going through physically, and described a domestic scene where she started throwing chicken pies at the wall, and Rod Stewart had to take the kids out of the room. And she was kind of like, ‘I don’t know why it was. I was full of anxiety.’ That happens to a lot of women when they go through menopause.”
The podcast draws on the advice of experts, such as sleep gurus, nutritionists, and doctors, as Gabby explained to Graham. “That part of it is really fascinating actually, because it’s interesting to see the guests get so engaged. On Gareth Thomas’ episode, we had this wonderful woman, Frances Edmonds, who has written this book called Repotting Your Life, which is all about how you can get stuck in middle-age and you just get into patterns of things which aren’t quite healthy for you. But instead of making huge, dramatic, midlife-crisis-type decisions, it could just be a little bit of manoeuvring you need, and how to make those changes, which really resonates with people.
“We have relationship experts, we’ve even had a business expert… all kinds of areas. hormone doctors, fitness experts. To be honest, it’s completely self-serving. I just get this free advice!”
As well as interviewing guests for her podcast, Gabby is of course very busy at the moment as one of the BBC’s presenters for Euro 2020. Graham took the opportunity to ask her who she thinks is going to win the competition. She said, “At the moment I would say France or Italy. Come back to me if neither of those win because I’m fairly sure it will be one of those two.”
Season three of The Mid•Point is available now.
For more great interviews listen to The Graham Norton Radio Show with Waitrose, Saturdays AND Sundays from 09:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.
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