The One Show star Alex Jones has opened up about having time off work when she was pregnant with her first child, making a sad career admission
Alex Jones admits she feels “replaceable” as she made a frank admission about The One Show. The Welsh presenter joined the hit BBC One programme back in 2010 as a replacement for Christine Lampard.
In 2017 Alex took maternity leave from the show while pregnant with her first child, Teddy. However Alex admits she was nervous to step back from the show, fearing that bosses would simply replace her permanently.
Speaking on the Great Company podcast with Jamie Laing, she explained: “I felt secure in my job, but I had an absolute meltdown when I went off for maternity, thinking ‘Oh s***’. I love my job and I really respect it and appreciate it, and I’m grateful for it, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, they’re going to get someone in and that’ll be it, I’ll never be seen again’.”
“It was a hard thing to step away,” Alex explained, admitting that she was concerned she would be forgotten about or replaced.
The presenter added: “I still feel replaceable, all the time, even though, bless them, they go to great lengths all the time to say, ‘But you’re not.’ I always feel that I have to be on top of it and bring the A game all the time.”
She says now, 15 years after landing the role on the show, people ask why she still presents on the show.
Alex added: “People ask, ‘Why are you still there?’ And I say, ‘Well I’m not bored’. I still feel like I need to prove myself and you only need to leave when you feel like you’re done.”
Alex has previously told Loose Women she was a “geriatric” mother, having welcomed the first of her three children at 38. It prompted her to suggest there needs to be a “change in the language”.
The TV star admitted she was “always keen” to have a family but explained she hadn’t “found her husband” Charlie Thomson until she was 34. She added: “For me family was always the number one goal and I’ve been brought up with my sister very close and I suppose I just wanted to replicate that.
“But moving to London and finding Charlie and settling into life just took a bit of time. Breaking up, getting back together, are we moving to New Zealand, no we’re staying in London, all of that takes a bit of time.”
Alex, who shares three children with husband Charlie, says the BBC were “fantastic” when she had to go on maternity leave but admitted she had “paranoia”.
She added: “If you like your job and respect your job, you still feel a little bit insecure because if you enjoy it, you want to keep it and it’s a very difficult thing because you want a family as well.”
Alex admitted she could have “taken a few more months” after welcoming Teddy into the world but says “it’s a balancing act” between her home and work life.
Alex will return to screens with The One Show from 7pm this evening (November 20). Alan Carr and Sheridan Smith will join Alex and co-star Roman Kemp on the show.