‘I don’t think I ever thought I really was. I was off to have a baby, it was really exciting, but I thought I’d go back. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I would. It was such a huge part of who I was and the life I led, I couldn’t see myself not doing it. And then maternity leave was ending and I just couldn’t imagine going back to the studio every day, leaving the house at four in the morning in time to get everything sorted before that day’s show or, if I had a later start, hopping on the Tube with hundreds and thousands of other commuters like a swarm of little ants and huddled together in a tiny space. What was exciting to me before simply wasn’t any more, and I just didn’t know how I felt about leaving my eldest with someone else or missing out on parts of his childhood. It didn’t sit right with me. So I just didn’t go back. I told myself it was a short fix, that I’d get back out there when Barnaby was a bit older and maybe in pre-school, but then I fell pregnant with Chloe and that was that,’ I say.

‘That sounds very final.’

‘It’s very full on, this parenting malarkey. I don’t know how I’d find the space to add anything else in.’

‘And how does that make you feel?’ Scott asks. ‘When you look back to the person on the show doing her thing, being all sassy and loving life?’

‘I feel so far removed from her,’ I sigh. ‘It’s not like I was in fancy suits and heels every day, I was always in trainers and comfy clothes, but it’s the interaction, the connection that you feel with others you work with, that’s what I really miss. That and the fact I knew when I’d done a good job. There was a sense of achievement with work that I simply haven’t had since becoming a mum. Nothing is ever complete or right – I’m constantly getting things wrong and beating myself up over it. It’s so isolating being at home. I look back at the laughs we used to have at work and I feel so sad not to have that in my life still.’

‘Hmmm …’ he replies.