Anna Richardson has candidly spoken of her regret over not starting a family, admitting the demands of building her successful TV career over the past three decades meant she 'forgot' to have children of her own.
Speaking on author Marisa Peer's new podcast, Your Mind, Your Rules, Anna, 55, admitted she often felt as though she had been on a 'hamster wheel' throughout her career. She landed her big break in the mid-90s as a producer on The Big Breakfast before stepping in front of the camera to host ITV's Love Bites and the prime-time film series Big Screen.
The TV host admitted on Sunday's episode: 'The human cost of trying to do it all is just overwhelming. Looking back, I recognise that I was so busy on this hamster wheel of trying to make everything happen, trying to be successful and trying to succeed in broadcasting, that I forgot to have children and build my family. I'm feeling that now at 55. I look back and think, 'Oh, I kind of missed that boat, and now what do I do?' So now I'm having to, in a more flexible way, ask myself how else I can build my family and what that might look like.'
Marisa, who is the author of six books, including her latest Your Mind, Your Rules, replied: 'There are many, many ways to have a child in your life and be in their life. I believe we can have it all but it requires balance and planning and a certainty that you are worth it and can work to obtain it.'
'Exactly,' Anna said in reply. 'And we've got to remember lots of people choose not to have children. Lots of people aren't able to have children. Again, think of people within the LGBTQ community who may not wish to have children. There are different ways of building your family.'
Anna has been in a relationship with charity boss Simon Marks since 2022, following her split from partner of seven years, comedian Sue Perkins, a year earlier. Before that, she was in an 18-year relationship with TV producer Charles Martin.
Opening up to Marisa about her romantic past, she confessed that Simon brought a sense of calm to her life that her previous partners hadn't. She said: 'You met my previous partners. They were amazing, extraordinary people who I'm very good friends with. They were alpha, very successful, very combative. And it was exciting to be in relationships with those people because it was sort of fire meets fire. But now I've found a man who's actually very calm, very quiet, exceedingly kind, and it's actually what I need. Kindness is so underrated, isn't it?'
Anna, who describes herself as 'sexually fluid', also touched on her frustration at being constantly labelled because of her relationships with both men and women, insisting: 'The most common question is, 'Are you lesbian or are you straight? What are you?' And I say, 'I'm Anna, I'm me.' It's interesting with labels because people say, 'Well, are you gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, trans, what are you?' But for me, labels are unhelpful. Your biggest label is your name. I am Anna, and I've loved men and I've loved women.'
Speaking of her enduring bond with Sue, she added: 'Could you fall in love with the person? I fell in love with that person and she is still one of the most significant people in my life.'
Marisa agreed that labels can be 'limiting', before asking Anna which label she would most like to remove and which one she would choose to add instead. She answered: 'The answer would be the same. I would take off that I'm difficult and I would stick on that I'm difficult.'
Many of the TV shows Anna fronted in the noughties centered around diet and eating habits, from the extreme eating series Supersize vs Superskinny, which aired between 2008 and 2009, to Secret Eaters, which explored the ways people can unintentionally overeat. And reflecting on how she first met host Marisa, Anna said how TV producers encouraged her to try hypnotherapy in a bid to lose weight.
'I was basically told 'you could do so with losing a few pounds, so we'll make you the reporter of this show and then see whether you can shift some weight'. I didn't realise I needed to lose weight. So I remember turning up at your house with the crew standing outside.' However, after just one session, Anna credited Marisa with helping her lose weight and break her negative cycle of overeating and yo-yo dieting by using a hypnotherapy technique to uncover the root cause of overeating and rewire her relationship with food.
Aside from hosting shows about diet and nutrition, one of Anna's biggest roles is presenting the dating programme Naked Attraction, in which contestants choose potential partners based solely on their naked bodies before meeting them. Growing up in Shropshire as the daughter of a vicar and a teacher, Anna told Marisa that her childhood often came with the pressure to be a 'good girl.' Yet she added that it was also the open-door policy inspired by her father's faith that taught her the power of acceptance.
She said: 'I was always told I needed to be a good girl, not to question anything, to simply be there, be clever and be pretty, and not rock the boat in any way. But that environment also taught me about acceptance and opening the door to anybody. If you're brought up in a vicarage, my dad could have had the bishop at the front door, or a beggar. And we were expected to embrace those people, regardless of who they are and to accept them. So I think from a very, very early age, I was taught that everybody is equal and your natural curiosity and your humanity kicks in and you just want to know about who they are.'
Anna said she questioned producers over the objective of the show, which first aired in 2016, when she was approached to host, before understanding that it was a show that celebrated diversity. 'This is not pornography, it's not even titillation, it's not a laugh at someone who's got a funny body. And once I understood, there is an element to this which is educational. Yes. It's funny. Yes, you play along, but there's an educational element. And actually, there's a human interest element about acceptance and showing people that we all look different and we all deserve to be loved. And that really is what Naked Attraction is about. I mean, I consider it my absolute privilege.'
Your Mind Your Rules published by FlightStory in conjunction with Ebury and Penguin is priced at £20. Your Mind, Your Rules Podcast with Marisa Peer is available to listen to here.
