As Louise Minchin leaves her long-standing BBC Breakfast role, the star says she noticed her “whole demeanour” changed over the years
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Louise Minchin makes BBC News debut
Louise Minchin is leaving BBC Breakfast today after nearly 20 years – looking and acting a little differently on screen from her debut.
It was Christmas Eve 2001 when she got her first shift on the morning show back when it was based in London.
And viewers were not to know she would go on to be one of the longest serving breakfast hosts on British TV and an ever-present since the show moved to Salford in 2012.
The video here shows a segment of her debut hosting the much loved show.
On her first ever shift as a freelancer, Louise said: “I know I would have been really excited and really nervous, and you can see that, because I’ve watched it back and you can see the way I’m reading.
Footage from Louise in 2001
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Image:
BBC)
“I’m super nervous, really trying to keep it all together. Obviously I looked really different, and my whole demeanour is really different.
“But no, I would have been super excited that day because I always loved the programme.
“But I would never have a clue that I would actually do this job and do it for nine years in Salford now.”
Louise has decided to leave her job to spend more time with her family
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Image:
BBC)
Louise also gave an exit interview to mirror.co.uk this week and said she had decided to leave the show to spend more time with her family and avoid the dark early starts in the winter which she struggles with.
She said: “This has been a decision a long time in coming. It involved lots of in depth discussion with friends and family.
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“My children are pleased for us as a family I think, because I always used to say to them, ‘Oh, do you remember before I did BBC Breakfast?’
“And they’d say, ‘Not really.’ And then I realised that actually, my daughters are 20 and 17, so of course they don’t remember life before BBC Breakfast.
“I’ve not taken my daughters to school every single day for their schooling life, so I am looking forward to doing more school runs.
Louise says she is looking forward to being ‘a super taxi for the kids’
“And I’m really looking forward to those things like those Sunday night dramas, which I’d love to be watching but haven’t been watching because I need to go to bed. So, there’s a shared experience that I’m really looking forward to being able to have with them.
“Plus I have got no excuses now, I’m really looking forward to being a super taxi for the kids, which is great. And I am actually genuinely really looking forward to being able to do that!”
*BBC Breakfast airs on BBC1 daily from 6am.
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