Josie Gibson recalls hospital dash with son Reggie, Digi Mart USA News: Josie Gibson is more than used to juggling the demands of a busy TV career with life as a single mum, but on this occasion the bubbly presenter seems a little frazzled. When we catch up with the 41-year-old This Morning host, she reveals her eight-year-old son Reggie is recovering after breaking his arm at school.
“I’ve had the worst weekend ever,” she says. “I was down the hospital the whole time — it’s been a nightmare.
He snapped and dislodged the bone, and had to have his whole arm re-broken.” For Josie, it was a shock reminder that life with young children can quickly spiral into chaos.
“No matter who you are or where you’re from, as a parent you never know what’s around the corner,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, but when I see parents with five kids and they’re smashing it, I think, ‘How?!’”
Appropriately enough, Josie is currently fronting an IHG Hotels & Resorts campaign, When The Host Needs Hosting, which recognises that those caring for others occasionally need looking after, too. And right now, it seems Josie could definitely do with someone making a fuss of her.
“In the early days, I’d literally go to work for a break,” she laughs. “They’d put me in a nice hotel and it would be my escape from it all.
After this weekend, I’ve never needed a trip away more!”
Josie has been raising Reggie as a single mum since splitting from his dad, property developer Terry Bond, when he was a baby. But while it can often feel daunting, she has learned to adapt.
“There have been a lot of vulnerable moments,” she says. “You think, ‘How am I going to do all this?’ But you just do it.
Organisation is the key and thinking, ‘You can only do what you can do.’”
Although the Bristol-born star won’t be drawn into discussion about her love life, she says she refused an offer to appear on Celebs Go Dating. “Because I’ve got Reggie, I wouldn’t like him to see me on a date,” she explains.
“He would probably be cool with it, but it’s just not me.”
She is not immune to a little celebrity attention, though. When asked if any famous faces have ever slid into her DMs, she reaches for her phone.
“Oh, Ben Shephard!” she says, before clarifying, “That’s only because I bumped into his best mate’s mum in my local village.”
Josie’s infectious warmth and humour led the nation to fall in love with her when she entered the Big Brother house in 2010, and eventually won the series. Since then, she has appeared in everything from The Jump, The Masked Singer and Loose Women to I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, which saw her finish fourth in 2023.
But despite being a household name, Josie says fame hasn’t changed her, and that her biggest extravagance is the house she is currently renovating.
“If somebody said to me, ‘You can have a designer handbag or a new bush-cutter,’ I’d go for the bush-cutter.” She also laughs at the assumption she is super-wealthy. “Everybody automatically thinks you’re a billionaire,” she says.
“People think you get paid a lot more than you actually do.”
It’s hard to imagine she still frets about money, but she adds, “B****y hell, yeah. Of course there is still worry, especially when you’re building a house.
I have worries, just like everybody else.”
Behind her happy-go-lucky exterior, protecting her son is also a responsibility she takes very seriously. “I worry about what Reggie’s future is going to be like, the state of the world, the environment, politics, social media.
Where is it all going?” she says.
But thanks to his mum’s successful career, Reggie has far more opportunities than many youngsters his age. “He gets lovely trips away and is just realising that’s all thanks to my job,” she says.
“He’s absorbing so much, so the more I can show him of the world and the more information I can give him, the better job I’m doing. Travelling and getting out of the little bubble where you live really helps kids grow.
The world is at his disposal. It’s there for the taking.”
That’s a far cry from Josie’s own childhood, when holidays in exotic locations were never on the cards. “My mum used to pack us all in the car, then circle the estate so it felt like we were going away for a long time,” Josie recalls.
“Then we’d pull up in a field. We thought we were miles away from home, but really we were only about 25 minutes down the road.
We’d pitch a tent next to the quarry after getting past a raging bull. But it felt like a big adventure.”
Josie says turning 40 last year brought a big shift in her attitude. Over the years, her weight has fluctuated and she has spoken openly about body confidence.
More recently she revealed she has lipoedema, a condition affecting fat distribution, after years of feeling that something about her body “wasn’t right”. Nowadays, she insists she is far more at ease with herself.
“I’m less apologetic and I’m now comfortable with who I am. I reckon I’m going to be like Miriam Margolyes because the older I get, the less I care.” She adds, “I don’t question myself quite so much and I’m a lot kinder.
I used to give myself a hard time, saying things like, ‘You’re not doing well enough.’ The dialogue in my head has changed. I used to get imposter syndrome all the time and now I don’t.”
She recalls one This Morning assignment covering Sir Elton John’s Oscars party when those feelings hit hard. “I remember thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ I was on the red carpet meeting people like Sharon Stone, Elton and Leona Lewis – people who were so far removed from my life.
I felt like I really didn’t belong.”
Josie is making big plans for next year. “I’ve got two shows in the bag,” she reveals.
“I’d love to do more How To Clean Up For Cash, which I enjoyed. I’d also like to do something about finding love, setting people up, because there’s enough love in the world.
And documentaries investigating the weird and wonderful.”
She may even have a future This Morning co-presenter waiting in the wings. “Reggie would sometimes come into the studio after the show, get on the couch and pretend to be a presenter,” she says.
“His dream is to interview Tom Holland. I love Zendaya and he loves Tom, so we’d make a really good duo!”
