Helen Skelton

You have kids and everything changes, and I guess before I had my kids I could do what I wanted and go where I wanted.

I've been active and dedicated to health and fitness since I was 15 years old, but I don't do it because it's good for my backside, my abs or to look good. I do it because I enjoy it and get a total buzz out of it.

Frankly, you're heading down a dangerous path if you take seriously what people say about you, and I don't read most of it.

I know being an open, honest, outspoken person gets me into trouble all the time, but I don't know how to be any other way.

Losing two cousins who were really close to me altered my perspective on life massively.

I might not earn loads, but I can proudly say that I've travelled the world, met the Queen and flown with the Red Arrows.

People think you earn a fortune in TV, but that's not always the case, especially when you're working as a children's presenter.

Growing up on a Cumbrian farm showed me first hand that you get out of life what you put in. If you don't put crops in the ground, you can't feed your animals or earn money.

You should always encourage people. The worst that can happen is that they fail.

Adam Peaty is far and away the best swimmer in the world, and he's British. He set a world record - but the day after we were talking about my dress.

I'm not body-conscious, but show me a woman who genuinely wants to show the tops of her thighs squashed on a leather bar stool.

I've done things that should be talked about, and covered serious issues that face our kids, but people aren't interested in that.

The swimmers ask me all the time 'is it going to be on telly more?' They want their families to watch them. Not every family can afford to go to Rio or Budapest. And it is nice for the clubs and coaches as well to see the people they have brought up.

Swimmers do not get a lot of telly time so you are not dealing with a lot of egos.

I was lucky to spend so long on 'Blue Peter' and 'Newsround' and if you are a bit giddy, like I am, a bit daft, like I am, and you are the kind of person who makes lots of public mistakes, like I do, then it's sometimes hard for people to take me seriously.

When you are a journalist and there is a big story like Dominic Cummings, it's great to be at the heart of it. What I love, and it sounds a bit cheesy, is you feel connected to other people.

The scariest thing I ever did was give birth in the kitchen by myself, with my three-year-old bashing me on the head with a sword, but it's not like you have a choice is it.

I once went down the Amazon and our boat got charged by Columbian policemen with guns and we all had to get on motorbikes and whip across town.

For me having kids, it doesn't clip your wings, it gives you a different type of adventure to take, like you say you've got different priorities.

Everyone asks me how to get into television. Ultimately, you have to work for free for years. As much as we enthuse about diversity, we are never going to be truly diverse because the system means only a certain section of society can do that.

My kids are my priority, then my husband, then my life, then work.

After you have kids, you feel differently about your body. Aesthetically, am I happy with my body? No. I definitely think you come to view it as more functional. But you just get past it.

That's just the culture that television breeds. No one wants to be difficult. You want to bring solutions, not problems.

I am actually hoping to write a series of books! The Amazon was the first one I got finished and have managed to get published! I have plenty more ideas up my sleeve!

I walked on a high wire at Battersea power station for Comic Relief in 2011. It was the scariest but the most exciting moment. I hated being on it but as soon as I stepped off I was desperate to get back on and do it again!