EXCLUSIVE: The Morning Live presenter, 42, opens up about midlife, what starring on Strictly taught her about confidence and why she's not allowed to do Masterchef.12:39, 28 Jun 2026She's kayaked the Amazon, cycled to the South Pole and tightrope-walked between the chimneys of Battersea Power Station. But ask Helen Skelton what a triumphant day looks like now, and the answer is gloriously ordinary.‌"I feel like I've made a success of the day if I've managed to do everything I need to do," she told OK! with a laugh. "If I've managed to get the food shop, do my work, get the kids somewhere and do a bit of exercise, I'm winning."‌The presenter, 42, has spent nearly two decades on our screens, from Blue Peter and Countryfile to Strictly Come Dancing and her current home on BBC One's Morning Live.‌These days, life off-camera revolves around her three children — Ernie, 11, Louis, nine, and Elsie, four — whom she's largely raising in Cumbria, having moved back to her parents' farm after splitting from her ex-husband, rugby player Richie Myler, in 2022.Her busy life, she admitted, leaves little room for glamour. "When you've got kids, a job and a life, you've got to be fast on your feet, you've got to be comfortable," she said. "If I'm at work, I'm dressed up with high heels on, but if I'm not at work, you need to be able to bend down and pick stuff up and move around without bits falling out or skirts riding up. I spend half my life in leggings!"‌That balance of looking good and feeling free to move is what inspired her new collaboration with fashion brand JD Williams, masterminded with the help of TV stylist, Gok Wan. "I remember the first time I met Gok, he was like, 'Why are you always in leggings with a top knot?'" she recalls. "I was like, 'Because I've got to do a million things!'"The collection is built around real women's bodies — something Helen feels passionately about. "JD Williams body-scan real women, so you don't try anything on and think, 'Oh god, my thighs are too big,' because the clothes match what we're actually meant to look like".‌The right outfit, Helen insists, does far more than just make you look nice. "It gives you confidence at work," she said. "If you've gone in in a scraggy old jumper that needs a wash, you shrink into the corner. Whereas if you've got something nice on, you step out of the lift rather than follow people out of the lift. Your clothes are like your armour. If you feel good, everything is easier."That includes the school gates, which Helen admits can be intimidating for mums when it comes to choosing what to wear. "I think everyone feels that pressure," she explained. "It can be quite intense and competitive — but it shouldn't be. You can't turn up like you're ready for a fashion show, but you can turn up feeling stylish in something you can wrestle the kids in.”She hit back against the idea that women become "invisible" in midlife. "I think that's just a reflection of where people think they are on the priority list," she revealed. "When you're in your 40s, you've got house commitments, family commitments, relationship commitments, and feeling good in an on-trend outfit is sometimes far down the to-do list.‌"When you hit this chapter of life, you've got a lot of people to look after, so you have to step forward and be the matriarch rather than stand in the background. That’s the irony – the time when you feel invisible is the time when everybody needs you. But if you haven't got a spring in your own step, how can you make sure everybody else is springing?"‌One challenge many women face is bodies evolving with age. "Even for the most body-confident women, their bodies change," Helen said. "But I don't know why we put pressure on ourselves to look 25 when we're not 25. I don't look like I'm 35, because I'm not 35!"That said, she still likes to look the best version of herself. "I get little bits of Botox," she explained. "My son asked me recently, 'Do you have Botox?' I said, 'Yeah, every now and again I get a bit there'” – pointing to her forehead – “and he went, 'Your skin looks banging!'"One of the biggest pressures when it comes to self-image, she believes, comes from online. "Social media is quite overwhelming in terms of what we should look like," Helen continued. "You soak up images of perfection without even realising it. I'm like, I can't handle this, it's too much!” She regularly clears her cookies to reset her algorithms.‌She’s also hopeful the government's new under-16s ban, due to come into effect next year, can help protect young people – but that’s only one part of the puzzle. "It's an interesting time, because social media is not going anywhere," she said. "Conversations about what it is and how it's put together are really important.‌“I hate looking at pictures of myself, but magazine pictures and social media pictures come with nice lighting and they're curated. There's nothing wrong with that, but you have to choose how much you want to dial into it.”Now in her 40s, she finally understands a phrase that once baffled her. "When I was in my teens and 20s, I'd read interviews where women said, 'I'm comfortable in my own skin,' and I never got what that meant."Now I get it. I'm grateful I can run down the street after my kids. If I can button up my jeans, then that's a bonus! I'm just in a place of gratitude. Everything changes in the wildest way – but that's something to be grateful for, because you're getting older. What a privilege."‌It's a mindset she partly credits to Strictly Come Dancing, where she reached the 2022 final partnered with Gorka Marquez. "Even though you're standing among a load of racehorses, they look at their bodies and go, 'Look what this body can do for me,' as opposed to, 'It should be thinner, tighter,'" she said."My body served me up three healthy kids, so I can't knock it. I work out a lot, but never to make my bum peachy, to make my head peachy."‌Strictly remains one of her proudest achievements. "It was really intense, but it's like a rollercoaster — as soon as you get off, you're like, can I get back on?" The experience, she added, taught her a lasting lesson. "Those dancers say, ‘Walk out there, own it, fake it till you make it.' I used to go, 'I don't know what you mean!' But it's great advice for life. You've got to step out tall and put your invisible crown on."It's an attitude she now brings to everything — including the daily Strictly Fitness slot on Morning Live. "We've got professionals there and I'm just raving around. Every day my agent calls me and says, 'Can you please take it seriously?'" she laughed. "And I'm like, no, I'm having a lovely time!'Article continues belowHelen is open to more reality TV, including Celebrity Traitors — though she's under no illusions about her chances. "I've got absolutely no poker face," she grinned. "My friends are like, 'You should do it' – I'd last a day! And they've banned me from MasterChef because I'm so bad in the kitchen. My kids are like, 'Please don't do that, for the love of God.' Harsh, but probably fair."Helen Skelton has partnered with midlife fashion brand JD Williams to launch a 12-look Summer Edit, inspired to carry women effortlessly through summer’s key moments. Everything is available to buy online now in sizes 8 to 32.