SIAN WELBY JOINS LULU FOR ANOTHER EPISODE OF ‘TURNING POINTS’ PODCAST
For the latest episode of The Lulu Podcast: Turning Points, produced by Whistledown and in partnership with Spotify, Lulu is joined by TV and radio presenter Sian Welby. Sian speaks about navigating motherhood when you’ve just got your dream job, her dad’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, going viral as Channel 5’s weather presenter, and how she coped with losing a friend and colleague while on the radio. Listen to the full episode here.
On looking up to Cat Deeley:
S: School didn’t know what to do with me because I said I want to get into drama and they were like, well, you’re on your own… So then someone literally in the common room at Sixth Form flippantly said something like, ‘you remind me of Cat Deeley’, who at the time did SMTV with Ant and Dec and this was the kids TV show that I grew up watching. I loved her because she was one of the boys. But she was also a girl’s girl and she was funny and they did sketches. So it all tied in. And it was like a lightning… I’ve gotta be a Cat Deeley… This is what’s full circle. I’ve since now, like, you know, sat on the sofa with her on This Morning. It is weird because me at 13 would have never believed it if a fortune teller had said this to me.
On losing Joe Lyons, her producer on Capital Breakfast:
S: We lost a member of our team. He took his own life, which is traumatic to hear about someone you know very well. He was one of the producers… Everyone has a moment in their life where they have that fear, someone hasn’t come home or someone’s late for something, and you try not to go to worst case scenario because you think, ‘oh, it will be fine, I’m sure there’s an explanation for why’. For us, it was ‘why Joe hadn’t come to work?’. Because he was always the first one in… but none of us knew and you’d never know. And actually, I have lost other friends the same way and they’re always the life and soul, lovely, fun characters. Funny… everyone loved him. All the celebrities loved him, he’d come in and look after all the guests – everyone knew producer Joe, everyone adored him.
L: How did you cope after Joe? Did that affect you?
S: I don’t know if I’ve ever processed it if I’m being honest. My mum and my sister are very good listeners and very good talkers and maybe I use them in some way as my therapy… you know, I spoke to friends about it and we all had this shared trauma as a team that we sort of all felt we could talk about. We felt we can all talk together and get through it. But maybe I’ve just never really processed it – I can’t believe it’s real, it was so shocking, came so out of nowhere that I think a lot of us haven’t really.
On her dad’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis:
S: I’m very close to my dad. He’s very funny, he is very sharp, so it’s scary to think I was gonna lose that because it’s him, you know? That’s what’s so cruel about it, that you won’t wish on anyone. You’re gonna lose the person. They’re physically going to be there, but gradually, bit by bit, you’re losing them. That was just horrible to imagine. I’m very lucky, and I will say it out loud, I’m lucky that my dad seems to have reached a very stable stage where he’s not particularly getting worse, he’s having good days and bad days, but he still knows who I am, he knows I have a baby, he doesn’t know her name, that doesn’t bother me, but he always remembers that I’ve got a baby.
On her This Morning dream:
S: When I first started out and I was doing my bits and bobs, one of the things I did once was I did an online presenting. I was doing this stuff online with one of doctors from This Morning. So when I was in my 20s, I was there sometimes meeting him at the old ITV studios in the South Bank, waiting for him to finish This Morning… Then I’d go to a studio with him and we’d do like a little medical chat was one of my first little jobs. What was funny is I remember one day, Dr. Chris, his name is, he said to me, ‘Sian, why don’t you come in and wait for me so you get to see This Morning?’ And I remember coming upstairs and seeing all the pictures on the wall of all the presenters. I honestly had a thought going, ‘oh, imagine if one day I was on that wall as one of the presenters.’
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