Helen Skelton confirms she has left Leeds and moved her family back to her parents' Cumbrian farm following marriage split

The TV presenter moved regularly due to her husband Richie Myler’s rugby league career, settling in Yorkshire after he signed for Leeds Rhinos in 2017.

She told The Telegraph in an interview this week that she has now returned to her parents’ Cumbrian dairy farm with her three children after Myler left the family home earlier this year and began a new relationship.

Relocating to Kirkby Thore, on the edge of the Lake District, has enabled her to reconnect with her own childhood friends who remained in the area and whose children now go to school with hers.

The 39-year-old’s father – who now runs a bull semen sales business since retiring from farming – and mother are looking after her sons, aged seven and five, and baby daughter while she is in London for rehearsals and filming.

Skelton would not be drawn into discussing her husband in the interview, but confirmed that her children are ‘happy’.

She described village life as ‘everyone mucking in together’ and said her previous friendships had been ‘transient’ due to her nomadic life as a rugby wife, which involved a stint living in the south of France when Myler played for Catalans Dragons – a period she said involved ‘drinking cheap wine all the time’ but was a ‘wonderful experience’.

The interview also covered the future of children’s television – with the former Blue Peter presenter saying she fears for its future as young children prefer Youtube to live programmes.