I’ll stay single until my son is 15 – there’s a huge reason we don’t have a man in my life, says Josie Gibson
WHEN the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve this Saturday, there is only one male Josie Gibson wants to be cuddled up with.
The much-loved This Morning presenter will be seeing in 2023 with her four-year-old son Reggie James — and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
In fact, Josie, 37, insists that finding love is the last thing on her mind and has vowed to stay single until Reggie is well into his teens.
She says: “I think when Reg is about 15 and he’s off living his life, maybe then.
“Anyway, he still sleeps in with me and he’d go mad if someone else got in my bed.
“Only the other day I asked him when he might get out of Mummy’s bed and he said, ‘When I’m 18!’.
“So at New Year I’ll be snuggled up with Reg. That might sound boring but it’s perfect for me.”
Bristol-born Josie, who split with Reggie’s dad Terry, 52, four years ago — just months after giving birth — clearly loves being a mum.
And she reckons there is simply no spare time in her life for a relationship.
“I would never be able to fit anybody in, so it wouldn’t be fair on anyone,” she says.
“And this might sound really weird, but I love Reg so much, nothing else comes close to it.
“I know it’s a different sort of love, but I’m just so into him and he’s at such a sweet age, I want to be with him all the time I can.
“So if I met somebody now, they would be encroaching on Reggie’s time.”
There is no doubt that 2022 has been an incredible year for Josie.
Having started on This Morning in early 2019 as a roving reporter, she has now firmly established herself as a regular stand-in host.
She’s had several stints presenting the main show when Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby have been away, sharing the sofa with co-hosts such as Craig Doyle, Vernon Kay and Andi Peters.
It’s all a far cry from this time four years ago, when Josie — who shot to fame in 2010 when she won the 11th series of Big Brother — was about to give up on her TV presenting dreams after a string of rejections.
Reggie was just a few months old and the knockbacks left Josie seriously considering returning to her old job working in commercial foreign currency.
She says: “Over about three years I’d tried 72 times to get a presenting job, and I’d been given 72 nos.
“Everybody had their own excuses or reasons — maybe it wasn’t the right time, or I wasn’t the right fit.
“So I’d decided to go for a job in the area I worked before Big Brother.
“It just so happened that the same week, This Morning called and asked if I fancied my first gig with them on the Monday, interviewing people on Chalkwell beach in Essex.”
She proved an instant hit with viewers who loved her down-to-earth nature, self-deprecating humour and game-for-anything personality.
She adds: “All of a sudden I was the right fit and it was the right time. Giving up on your dreams is giving up on yourself, so I will always keep going.”
Her 2022 highlights include teaching Jennifer Aniston how to speak with a Bristolian accent, being starstruck by The Gladiators and revealing to actors Rupert Friend and Sienna Miller that her nickname at school was Lobey-Wan Kenobi on account of her “fat earlobes”.
“And the best part was Sienna Miller then looking at my earlobes and going, ‘Oh they’re so adorable, proper little chubbies!’,” she giggles.
Despite rubbing shoulders with the Hollywood A-list, it is getting to work with best friend and fellow Big Brother graduate Alison Hammond that brings Josie the most joy.
The pals have been recording a mini travel series for This Morning, which will air in the new year.
Josie says: “I don’t know how they edit anything when we’re together because we spend the whole time laughing.
‘Like living a double life’
“We both have the same outlook on life and we’re quite similar characters. I just love her so much.”
She adds: “I’ve learned from everyone I’ve worked with there. I feel so lucky to work with Phil and Holly, who make it look so easy.
“And, you know, Holly really looks after me. I’ve been given other jobs and later found out it’s because Holly’s been singing my praises.”
More than 12 years on from winning Big Brother, and that doomed romance with Aussie John James Parton, Josie is used to life in the public eye, although laughs off any suggestion that she’s “famous”.
She still lives in Bristol and keeps her inner circle small to protect herself and Reggie.
She says: “I don’t let a lot of people in because I’m really protective over Reg.
“All my friends are people I’ve been friends with for donkey’s, so nothing’s really changed.
“I go up to London to do This Morning and it’s a bit like living a double life, where I have this lovely, amazing, TV career in the big studios and then I come home and everything is just normal.”
Dividing her time between Bristol and London means Josie relies on a successful co-parenting relationship with ex-partner Terry, who briefly moved back in during the first lockdown.
“Reggie’s dad is really good, actually,” she says. “Reg goes to nursery on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and his dad has him those days so I can go to work.
“And then I pick him up after nursery on a Thursday.
“It works for us and we still try to do family things as well, like a couple of weeks ago we all went bowling together. We try to keep it amicable for Reg.”
She adds that she would have liked more children but does not see that happening now.
Josie reveals: “I wish I had started a little bit earlier because then Reg would have had a brother.
“But now I haven’t got the energy. I love kids, they make the world go round and I’d have a house full of them if I could.
“I’d love a massive family but I’m not in the right circumstances at the moment and there’s no time.”
She adds: “I wasn’t that confident before I became a mum. But when I had Reg, I felt like a warrior.
“I hardened up a bit and then my career kicked off because I got the This Morning job when Reg was five months old.”
Looking ahead to 2023, Josie says This Morning has “loads of things in the pipeline for me” and she is excited to see what the new year will bring.
She adds: “The twists and turns I’ve had with work this year have been crazy and I’m still a bit shocked by it all.
“I grew up watching This Morning and all the people on it, and sometimes I look around everyone and think, ‘How did I end up here?’. It’s so surreal.”
- This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX.