BBC Breakfast’s Sian Williams admits she ‘wasn’t the best mum’ to her five kids during time on show

BBC Breakfast’s Sian Williams has admitted that she ‘wasn’t the best mum’ to her five kids during time on show.

The Welsh presenter revealed that the punishing schedule of BBC Breakfast was tough as she juggled years of early starts while raising her five children.

Speaking at the TRIC Awards Christmas lunch in London, Sian said: “When I was on Breakfast I was getting up at 3.30am and getting home around just after 4pm.

“You know that feeling of jet lag when you get up really early, if you’ve got a flight to catch or something like that – you can feel like that a lot.

“As I’ve got five kids, I wasn’t the best of mums for a good few hours and I would always be in bed before they were.”

Sian quit the BBC One programme in 2012 when news of a relocation to Manchester gave her the opportunity to focus on her parenting journey.

She had presented BBC breakfast from 2001 and during her training she reported the Hillsborough disaster.

Sian went on to present on Channel 5, but she was diagnosed with breast cancer just after she turned 50 in 2024.

After undergoing a double mastectomy during her treatment she told how her biggest fear was not being able to see her children grow up.

Cancer struck her out the blue as she always followed a healthy lifestyle, telling the BBC: “I always did the right things – I was a tea drinker, a salmon eater, a runner.”

Cancer runs in the family as her aunt also had breast cancer and her mum died of liver and bowel cancer.

Now she is 60 and is a chartered NHS psychologist, and hosts BBC Sounds and Radio 4’s Life Changing and Classic Unwind on Radio 3, from a studio in her home.

Sian added that this allows her to be there for her kids: “Now it’s a different kind of balance.”

“We’ve got a tiny little studio set up.

“It is literally a microphone connected to a computer. It’s the best. And I’ve got a view over the hills.

“I feel very privileged.”