HELEN Skelton has opened up about how hard it was going through a public divorce and gossiping about it, even at the shops.
The TV presenter divorced rugby player Richie Myler in 2022 after nine years of marriage and just months after their third child was born.
She spoke of how she was determined to “get up and get on with it” following their split, especially because she hated the “patronising looks” she would get off strangers after the news went public.
“It felt humiliating to me because of where I’m from. I didn’t enjoy walking down the street and people knowing stuff about my past,” Helen told The Times.
She also described how even her dad Richard would hear gossip about her love life at his golf club, and that “Susan from the meat counter at Sainsbury’s” would ask for an update on her romantic escapades while she was trying to shop.
Helen decided that year to join Strictly Come Dancing to help keep her mind off the divorce: “I wanted to have my own narrative. I was sick of the patronising looks, the ‘Ooh, how are you?’”
She joined the twentieth season of the BBC dancing show where she was partnered with Gorka Marquez.
The pair made it to the final but just missed out on lifting the glitterball trophy and finished in fourth place.
In a further love-life admission, Helen was keen to clear up any ideas that she was dating her Morning Live co-star Gethin Jones.
Reports of their rumoured romance started in mid-2025, when it was suggested that the co-stars had grown “close” off-screen with insiders suggesting “their friendship has blossomed into a deeper connection”.
“It’s wild,” she continued. “I’ve had my best friend congratulate me on our engagement. We’re not [together].
“We work together; he’s one of my best friends.”
Helen confirmed she also has no plans to find love online and won’t use dating apps.
“I couldn’t think of anything worse, although my dad keeps saying I’m on Tinder when he means Vinted,” she said hilariously.
Helen shares three children with her rugby playing ex, while Richie is a dad to two further children with his new girlfriend, Stephanie Thirkill.
