Truth in regards to the romance rumours swirling round Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones: Insiders inform KATIE HIND how their friendship has advanced – and why it might be nice information for the BBC

When the BBC started looking for two everlasting presenters to host its Morning Live display, they was hoping to seek out the following Richard and Judy.

Another vastly well-liked married couple like Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan – who introduced ITV’s This Morning again in 1998 and outlined chatty morning tv for a technology – have been precisely what BBC bosses sought after in the event that they have been to win a scores warfare with their long-running ITV opponents.

The best downside used to be that there weren’t many choices.

Instead, for Morning Live’s relaunch in January remaining yr, they threw the cube and got here up with cute Countryfile host Helen Skelton, and Gethin Jones, a protected pair of palms who had intermittently anchored the programme because it had first long gone on air in 2020.

Bosses agreed they’d sufficient in commonplace to make it a good fortune: each had introduced Blue Peter and had taken phase in BBC’s flagship Saturday night time display, Strictly, so have been already identified to a large a part of their key target market.

They have been additionally, because it took place, each unmarried.

But fast-forward 18 months and executives on the company are questioning whether or not they’ve discovered their dream couple, in any case.

The couple have been pictured on a bike in combination, heading out for breakfast in Manchester town centre

For the rumours are that Helen, 41, and Gethin, 47, are these days reasonably extra than simply an on-screen partnership.

While neither has commented on communicate of a romance, resources who know the pair have instructed The Mail on Sunday that they’re ‘very happy together’.

One stated: ‘Literally, they found one another at work, they were right under one another’s noses. Nobody noticed this coming. It may be very candy that they’ve discovered happiness in combination however even higher for the BBC and their scores as a result of now audience are tuning in to observe the chemistry after their secret has step by step seeped out into the general public area.

‘How ironic that the BBC were looking for a “Richard and Judy” and now, totally without trying, they might just have found them.

‘What a coup they might have pulled off, and what is all the more lovely is that it just happened – their friendship has evolved into romance.’

Tongues were wagging for some time because the pair were noticed having a look snug on a number of events clear of the tv studio.

Last Monday, Helen and Gethin have been noticed leaving a spa just about Gethin’s house in Cheshire – 110 miles from Helen’s house in Cumbria – the place onlookers reported that they have been ‘all over each other’. Helen used to be additionally noticed leaving the venue with a suitcase.

Three years in the past, Helen used to be devastated when her husband of 8 years, rugby participant Richie Myler, walked out on her simply 4 months after she gave delivery to their youngest kid, Elsie. They additionally proportion sons Ernie and Louis

Three weeks in the past, after filming for Morning Live at BBC headquarters in Salford, they have been additionally noticed leaving on a bike in combination, heading for breakfast in Manchester town centre.

The pair have been additionally pictured showing very shut on the Baftas, and once more at a charity ball arrange by means of the sisters of past due England rugby league celebrity Rob Burrow, who died of motor neurone illness remaining yr. Fellow visitors on the ball claimed ‘it was very clear that Helen and Gethin were together as a couple at the event’.

What makes their tale so a lot more spell binding is that they’ve each had their hearts shattered prior to now.

Gethin bated Katherine Jenkins in 2011, and at one time stated that he’d struggled to discover a female friend since their break-up

Cumbria-born Helen’s heartache used to be most up-to-date. She used to be left devastated when her husband of 8 years, rugby participant Richie Myler, walked out on her in April 2022, simply 4 months after she gave delivery to their 3rd kid, Elsie.

Richie briefly moved on with Stephanie Thirkill, the daughter of Leeds Rhinos president Andrew Thirkill, the membership he performed for from 2017 till 2023. Former Radio 5 host Helen introduced on Instagram that Richie had ‘left the family home’.

Meanwhile, Cardiff-born Gethin struggled for some years to recover from his 2011 cut up from fellow Welsh celebrity, opera singer Katherine Jenkins.

I noticed his devastation firsthand a decade in the past, after I spent the day with him as he hosted the spin-off display for Dancing With The Stars, the United States model of Strictly. Gethin and Katherine met and started relationship in 2007, and have been engaged by means of February 2011. But they cut up simply ten months later.

Katherine used to be concept to have ended the connection, even if she has extra not too long ago insisted it used to be Gethin who had pulled the plug.

Regardless, after I interviewed him on the display’s West Hollywood studios within the spring of 2015, he used to be nonetheless obviously wounded by means of the cut up.

Gethin, then 37, had spent many of the day telling me how he’d struggled to discover a female friend since Katherine, and had come to the United States to discover a new existence and to rid himself of the heartache.

Gethin and Helen on the Baftas in May this yr

Katherine, in the meantime, had moved on, and married American manufacturer Andrew Levitas simply 9 months ahead of my assembly with Gethin.

I joked with him that he used to be most definitely one of the crucial eligible bachelors in Tinseltown – which used to be met with a reasonably unhappy face. It used to be like he had given up.

It all made a bit of extra sense when, remaining yr, he admitted that the cut up punctured his psychological well being.

He stated: ‘I was engaged and then breaking up. Afterwards, or even during that period, it was just awful. I remember doing BBC Radio 5 Live and going into the toilet at 5.30am going, “All right. Come on. Just focus for the next three hours, and then you can go back to being sad again.” I definitely had a bad bout of depression during that time.’

One pal added: ‘Gethin is a kind, soppy bloke who just wants to settle down. He went through a very difficult time with Katherine, it broke his heart, but now Helen seems to have put a smile on his face.

‘And, of course, Helen went through one of the worst things imaginable when Richie left her. She never thought she would be happy again but now they are having a tremendous time together.’

As for the longer term, resources around the tv trade are looking ahead to Helen and Gethin to move public with their romance, and in spite of everything inform audience about their courting.

And once they do, insiders at a number of TV channels say Helen and Gethin will develop into essentially the most sought-after tv couple since Richard and Judy.

‘At that point, expect them to be the target of other broadcasters,’ says my supply. ‘Every channel will want them. It could be a very lucrative romance, indeed.’