Alex Jones has been hosting The One Show for 16 years, but she has admitted to still feeling "guilt" over the lack of "balance" the show has brought to her life. The Welsh presenter, 49, joined the BBC's weekday evening show in 2010, taking over from Christine Lampard.
In a new interview ahead of the show's 20th anniversary, Jones made a surprising admission about her role. "Presenting The One Show is my dream job. I still can't believe how lucky I am," she told The Daily Mirror. "But something always has to give. I always have mum guilt."
Juggling work and family
Jones has been married to New Zealander Charlie Thomson for 10 years, and together they have three children: Teddy, nine, Kit, seven, and Annie, four. Speaking about the struggle of juggling parenting duties with work, she explained that presenting the flagship BBC programme means she is not home in the evenings for her kids.
"I don't do bedtime, but I do take my children to school in the morning," she said, adding that her children are often still awake when she returns home. "They never sleep through the night," Jones revealed. "If I'm honest, they come looking for me. I said to Annie, 'Darling, you need to start sleeping in your own bed,' even though I love it when she hops in next to me."
Recalling a conversation with her daughter, Jones shared: "She said, 'Mama, I haven't seen you and you haven't picked me up from school. I won't see you until tomorrow.' It's clever, she got me! If that's where we are at this stage, who cares? The years go by so fast and I don't want to rush their childhood. So what if we're all in the same bed?"
Feeling the pressure
Jones said she still feels like she is "paddling away furiously under the surface," adding: "But then, everyone is. Everyone has worries and commitments and something that makes their life less straightforward. I don't think we've cracked it and sometimes I feel like the balance is all wrong. But I do try my best."
Raised in South Wales, Jones first appeared on TV as a contestant on the Sky reality show Prickly Heat before working as a researcher. She began presenting at 21, having previously felt such a job was out of reach for her as a girl from Carmarthenshire. "When I was a little girl growing up in South Wales, I thought I'd like to be a presenter but I was too scared to say anything because nobody in South Wales became broadcasters, especially not on national television," she revealed.
