Helen Skelton, 43, says she wishes ‘everything was tighter and perkier’ as she wows in red swimsuit during family summer holiday

Helen Skelton wowed in a red swimsuit as she shared an array of snaps from her family holiday on Tuesday. 

The Morning Live presenter, 43, showcased her impressive physique in the plunging one piece and denim shorts during her time in Cornwall. 

Known for her active lifestyle, the star has admitted she struggles to sit still and opening up on life in her 40s she confessed she wishes she was a bit ‘perkier’. 

Speaking to Closer about how she sees her 40s as a real privilege as she explained: ‘I wish everything was a bit perkier and a bit easier, but it’s not. We are where we are and I’m grateful.’ 

Packing her holiday full of mountain biking, kayaking and swimming, Helen is also currently training three times a week for The Great North Run in September. 

Yet she admitted she doesn’t always rely on huge workout sessions, sometimes just fitting in exercises when she can. 

Known for her active lifestyle, the star has admitted she struggles to sit still and opening up on life in her 40s she confessed she wishes she was a bit ‘perkier’

‘For me, it’s the little things, like doing 20 squats while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil. I enjoy exercise and I enjoy the feeling afterwards, but it’s not always a lot,’ she explained. 

Adding that she exercises for her mental health as much as her physical she said: ‘We spend so long acknowledging it’s important to look after your mental health, but we don’t spend so many conversations saying how you do that.’ 

Helen shares children Ernie, 11, Louis, eight, and Elsie, three, with her ex-husband Richie Myler. 

And last month the star opened up about the humiliation she felt during the public breakdown of her marriage and said her mantra is to ‘get up and get on with it’ and she couldn’t bear the ‘patronising looks’ she would get following their split.

Helen’s antidote to the ordeal was to put herself on primetime television as one of the celebrity contestants on Strictly, just seven months after Richie left her.

Before her stint on the BBC dance show, Helen said she was dealing with gossip in her ‘tiny community’, telling The Times: ‘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 said that her dairy farmer father Richard would hear talk about her in his local golf club and ‘Susan from the meat counter at Sainsbury’s’ would ask her about her romantic life when she came in to do her food shop.

However, her second-place finish on Strictly was deemed a complete triumph as she showed the public, and Richie, that she was just fine without him.

Speaking to Closer about how she sees her 40s as a real privilege as she explained: ‘I wish everything was a bit perkier and a bit easier, but it’s not. We are where we are and I’m grateful’

Packing her holiday full of mountain biking, kayaking and swimming, Helen is also currently training three times a week for The Great North Run in September

Yet she admitted she doesn’t always rely on huge workout sessions, sometimes just fitting in exercises when she can

‘For me, it’s the little things, like doing 20 squats while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil. I enjoy exercise and I enjoy the feeling afterwards, but it’s not always a lot,’ she explained

One of the mother-of-three’s most memorable dances during the series was a Couple’s Choice routine to Mein Herr from Cabaret, which was referred to as her ‘revenge dance’ at the time.

Reflecting on the momentous performance, she said: ‘It struck a chord, one of the dancers said, “You did that for all of us, didn’t you?” I wanted to have my own narrative. I was sick of the patronising looks, the “Ooh, how are you?” I didn’t have the capacity to say, “I’m brilliant, how are you?” That’s what the dance did.’

During the routine, Helen mouthed Cabaret star Sally Bowles’ iconic line ‘you’re better off without me’ as a ‘metaphorical “f*** you”‘, to anyone who had doubted her.

Since her time on Strictly, Helen left her Sunday show on BBC Radio 5 Live in 2023 to spend more time with her three children at the weekend, saying the ‘juggle is real’.

After this, she became a regular co-presenter on Morning Live in 2023, joining the BBC’s weekday morning programme and becoming one of its main presenting faces.

Helen and her co-host Gethin Jones have been at the centre of ongoing rumours about whether they are seeing each other behind the scenes.

But finally setting the record straight, Helen said: ‘It’s wild. 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.’

She’s also said she’s not on dating apps. ‘I couldn’t think of anything worse, although my dad keeps saying I’m on Tinder when he means Vinted.’