Gabby Logan shares how she was left ‘devastated’ by daughter’s past ordeal: ‘You think everything is fine’
Gabby Logan shared how her daughter had left her “devastated” with a sad revelation when she was a child, with the BBC Sport presenter reflecting on the challenging period on her podcast.
The 52-year-old presenter shares two children, twins Lois and Reuben, now 19, with her husband Kenny Logan, and on Thursday opened up about the moment her daughter Lois confided in her about being bullied at school.
Speaking on her podcast, Mid.Point, Logan recalled a sad period in her daughter’s life as she chatted to childhood psychologist Dr Tara Proctor.
As Proctor mentioned the difficulties teenage girls can face in school, Logan explained: “My daughter was trying out a school that she thought she wanted to go to for the day, and she said to one of the girls she was put with, she was about 11 at the time, ‘So who are the girls that I should avoid, who are the tricky girls?’ and this girl looked at her and went, ‘My group’.
“And when she told me that I thought, ‘That self awareness at 11, 12 years old, that you were the group that caused the problems is quite remarkable actually.’
“But there is that kind of attraction, for some reason, isn’t there?” The mother-of-two went on to share why her daughter had asked the question in the first place.
“The reason was, I have to say, she’d experienced some bullying when she was a little bit younger, and I think her antennae were really up, her radar for a few years were really up.
“When that happens I think it does make you… Because she had been that child that was attracted to the group that seemed to be the sassy group and with it came all kinds of issues and problems.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Gabby Logan recalls moment ‘all came crashing down’ as BBC presenter reflects on tragic family lossGabby Logan makes health admission as she details why she’s ’embarrassed’ by behaviourBBC’s Gabby Logan wades into Clare Balding debate as Olympics presenter sparks ‘classism’ row
“As a parent, I had no idea until she came home and told me what was going on, obviously, which is also devastating, isn’t it?
“Any parent who has had a child in those situations – because you think that everything is fine – and obviously what you want is your child to share as soon as you possibly can, so that you can advise them without jumping in.”
The conversation led Logan to ask: “When do you intervene in those situations?” with Proctor responding: “We want them to share.
“When we think about what stops them sharing is us intervening, they think we’re going to come into the school and make a fuss because it does bring out a passion in us, you know.
“You’re talking about something that happened a few years ago and I can see that you still feel it, ‘how dare they be mean to my little girl?’
“When they come home from school and tell you, you can get up in arms about it, and sometimes kids want that, they want you to go in and sort it out.
“But it’s a really difficult one and the word ‘advise’ is a tricky one too. I would say that one thing nobody has said to me in therapy, no young person, no adult, is, ‘I wish my mum had given me more advice.'”
In September, Logan shared a moving post dedicated to her daughter as she flew the nest to start university.
The presenter shared with followers a snap of herself with her arm around her daughter, seemingly in her new bedroom.
She wrote in the caption: “So today was the day. And to all of you yet to drop off at University I am not going to pretend it’s a breeze.
“It’s a day full of wonderful emotion, a few tears and lots of laughter with the end of one aspect of our roles, but the beginning of a new relationship where we parents have to shift our innate desire to protect and guard and allow our kids to use the wings we have helped to nurture.”
Logan has been married to Kenny since 2001, with their twins born four years later.