BBC star Helen Skelton reveals unlikely adoption plan as she says – ‘I want two’

Fronting the newest season of Springtime on the Farm, Helen Skelton has opened up about her busy lifestyle – but she’s still keen to welcome two new additions into her family

Helen Skelton has revealed she’s keen on welcoming two new additions to her family(Image: James Linsell-Clark/PinPep)

Helen Skelton never stops. Now at the helm of a new season of Springtime on the Farm, she’s also considering adopting.

Just hours after she completed her 24-hour skateathon, raising over £1 million for Comic Relief with her pal Gethin Jones, she was hiking up a hill.

This time it wasn’t a fundraiser, it was for a mental reset. The Springtime On The Farm presenter, 41, loves the great outdoors and knows she needs a nature injection to feel good – especially after attempting something as tough as her Wheely Big Challenge for charity. However, it didn’t stop her work colleagues from teasing her

“We had a busy week doing Comic Relief and they were all laughing at me at work saying, ‘Even after roller-skating for 24 hours, I bet Helen is on the top of the hill.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I am, because I’m old enough now to know the stuff that settles my head.’

“I’ve reached an age when I know the things that make me feel good, and being outside in fresh air makes me feel good, that’s why I make it part of my life.”

Helen Skelton lives in the rolling hills of Cumbria with her three kids – Ernie, nine, Louis, who turns eight on 8 April, and three-year-old Elsie – and their two dogs. From her house she has an uninterrupted view of fields – and she loves it.

She says, “That’s the ultimate life, to be able to see the horizon. You know you’ve grown up when you appreciate a view but I think that’s because we know it makes us feel good and it makes us feel better.”

The only problem is that when she’s filming, she often gets so attached to the animals she agonises about taking them home with her. “I want a pair of donkeys,” admits Helen. “I want two as I’d feel sad for them if they’re on their own.” She has been involved in lambing ever since she was a little girl and was often given an orphaned lamb to raise on her father’s farm.

Helen Skelton is back at the helm of Springtime on the Farm(Image: Paramount)

“In Cumbria, for orphaned lambs we had the lamb bank,” she explains. “It is basically an adoption service for lambs so if ewes die or if lambs die then you can try and pair them up. When we were kids, me and my brother were always given one lamb to be bottle fed, to teach us how to be caring.”

Looking back, Helen is amazed she had such a big responsibility but believes it helped her become who she is today. She says, “That’s wild, isn’t it? That’s brave of our parents to entrust us with a lamb that potentially wasn’t going to make it.

“But we always had to look after one lamb that had been orphaned and nurture it through. Varying degrees of success though, that’s all I’m going to say!”

As for the ongoing success of Springtime On The Farm, Helen is thrilled that  TV fans across the nation have taken the show to its heart.

Television accessories

“We don’t take it for granted,” she says. “People have been alongside us on this journey for a lot of years now. And it is essentially the same thing – it’s the celebration of this time of year and all the hard work that farmers do to get us to this point. We just get to be along for the ride and help out when we can.”

When Helen was at school, farming wasn’t considered cool, but now she hopes the younger generations of today are more interested in green issues – and she’s proud to have impacted that.

“I was a farmer’s kid and the farmer’s kids were not the cool kids, whereas now I feel like there’s a renewed interest in the countryside, nature and sustainability,” she says.

“It’s not geeky to be green any more, it’s cool to be interested in what’s happening in nature and the earth. We’re grateful that people are interested in the conversations we’re having on telly.”

Helen’s Springtime On The Farm co-star Jules Hudson relates to her love of the outdoors and the country life. He says, “Sometimes you have to kick yourself out the door and remind yourself of just how good it makes you feel. Helen’s right, we don’t need drugs and pills to get that endorphin rush of a lungful of spring air and a lovely view.

It’s just taking time to sit down and be a bit selfish and say, ‘I’m just gonna step out of the hectic madness for a moment and enjoy this view, a view that people have enjoyed for thousands of years through the generations.’”

Single mum Helen shares her Cumbria home with her three children (Image: Instagram/@helenskelton)
Television accessories

It’s no wonder former Strictly star Helen needs some calm headspace. Not only does she have a busy career, she’s also a single mum following her split from rugby player Richie Myler in 2022.

On 15 April she’s back filming 5’s Springtime On The Farm around the clock at Cannon Hall Farm for five nights through lambing season. But before she heads to Yorkshire, she’s spending her days baking and batch cooking for her children to ensure they’re catered for while she’s away.

“I’m making all the cakes and stuff for the kids for when we’re working,” says Helen as she cooks her way through our interview. “It’s what you do isn’t it, when you’re a mum?

“I know I’ve got a busy week, so I try and overcompensate by going, ‘OK, I’m going to make cakes and curries’ so when I’m feeling bad for lambing for 24 hours, I’ll be like, ‘Oh, at least the kids have got something nice to eat!’”

Working mums will relate to the struggle of the juggle, but Helen knows she’ll be back in the heart of her home at the end of the shoot. Spending time away can be tough, but she says that witnessing animal births on the show is a grounding experience and in this series, they’re expecting a shire horse foal, donkey foals, pygmy goat kids, lambs and calves.

“It’s very humbling because we’re all busy in our lives and doing what we do and getting lost in the minutiae of stressing out over little things,” says Helen. “But I think when you’re on the farm, it is very humbling. It’s a massive lesson in that you get out of life what you put in, you reap what you sow… if you nurture something, it thrives.”

And just like the viewers who tune into the Farm series season after season, Helen is never bored of witnessing the arrival of a new life. “I never get tired of that,” she says. “It is such a moment, isn’t it? It’s life, it’s new life and what a privilege to get to be there for that.”

Online TV streaming services

Springtime On The Farm airs from Tuesday 15 to Friday 18 April at 8pm on 5, or stream on channel5.com

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.