From presenting the Six Nations to dancing on ‘Strictly’, Gabby Logan has long been a fixture in our lives – and now she’s on a mission to redefine middle age.
If you like a bet, it’s worth having a flutter on whether Gabby Logan will be one of the presenters hosting the 2025 Six Nations rugby tournament when it kicks off in Paris on 31 January. As well as covering a range of sports for the BBC – including the Euros 2020 and 2024, the Olympics, the London Marathon and Sports Personality of the Year – Gabby has previously worked on Sky, ITV and Channel 5, while hosting a show on BBC Radio 5 Live. She was the first woman to host a live football match on terrestrial television, and in 2020 she was awarded an MBE for services to broadcasting and the promotion of women in sport.
Looking Back
Daughter of former Wales international and manager, Leeds and Tottenham footballer Terry Yorath and his childhood sweetheart Christine, Gabby was born in Leeds, one of four children.
She has talked openly about her father’s struggle with alcohol as well as the death of her brother Daniel who in May 1992 collapsed and died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy aged just 15. Gabby was 19.
In May 2023, during an appearance on the ‘Big Fish’ podcast with reality star Spencer Matthews, she revealed: “I remember hearing someone on the radio saying that their dad didn’t love them enough because they’d never beaten their alcoholism and I was so sad to hear that because I felt that I’d managed to get to a place where I knew it wasn’t me, it wasn’t my fault, there was nothing I could do; that has to come from the person themselves.”
As a girl, Gabby, 51, was a talented rhythmic gymnast, representing Wales at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and also competing for Great Britain. However, she retired at 17 because of a back injury and pivoted towards presenting. This year she was named as a guest host of BBC quiz show ‘Pointless’.
Midlife Mission
Host of the popular podcast ‘The Mid.Point’ – and admitting she is middle-aged and unashamed – Gabby talks candidly to well-known faces about their own midlife challenges. Inspired by her podcast, Gabby published her second book, The Midpoint Plan – a midlife manual– in July last year. It’s a follow-up to her 2023 memoir, The First Half.
Gabby married former Scotland rugby star Kenny Logan in 2001 and they have twins Reuben and Lois Maya, born in 2005 after IVF treatment. The family was rocked by Kenny’s diagnosis of prostate cancer in 2022, though he now has the all-clear. “Family is wrapped around everything. It’s in every consideration of every decision I make.”
