The broadcaster, whose brother died aged 15, has 17-year-old twins (Picture: Instagram/gabbylogan)
Gabby Logan has opened up on the death of her brother Daniel aged just 15 and how that has affected her outlook on life, admitting she had worried about her own son turning 16 because Daniel had ‘never got there’.
Reflecting on the grieving process and Daniel’s death having been a seminal day in her life, the TV presenter had to pause while on the edge of tears, confessing the ‘worry’ she realised she had been holding onto as her own children reached landmark ages that her brother never did.
The 49-year-old, who is mother to 17-year-old twins Reuben and Lois, is the oldest of four siblings.
She was 19 and living in London when brother Daniel – younger than her by three years – collapsed while playing football in the back garden in 1992 with their father, former Welsh international footballer and manager Terry Yorath.
He died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease where the heart muscle cells enlarge and the walls of the heart chambers thicken, making it difficult to hold and pump blood.
According to the NHS website, it is the most common cause of sudden unexpected death in childhood and in young athletes.
Gabby’s dad Terry with her mum Christine and children (L-R) Louise (aged three), Gabby (aged four) and Daniel (aged one) in 1978 (Picture: Coventry Telegraph Archive/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
Daniel was soon to turn 16 before his untimely death (Picture: PA)
‘You have your own children, and you start to look at his life differently. When my son was nearly 16 – my kids’ birthday’s only a few days from Daniel’s birthday – I realised that I’d been worried about him not being 16 because Daniel never got there,’ she shared while holding back tears.
‘So I did have a fear that I was going to repeat history.’
She also revealed that years later, when she was working in broadcasting and football after graduating from university she would become ‘obsessed with dates of players’ births because they would be his age, and I knew that he might be playing in that match’.
The presenter revealed she had been worrying about her own son reaching 16 (Picture: Instagram/gabbylogan)
Gabby with husband Kenny and their twins, 17-year-old Reuben and Lois (Picture: Instagram/gabbylogan)
‘You wonder, “What kind of player would he have been?” I wonder if he’d have had a girlfriend by now, I wonder if he’d have met somebody he wanted to marry, or now I wonder if he’d have children,’ she told host Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast.
The BBC pundit, who is heading to Qatar later in November to front the broadcaster’s coverage of the World Cup alongside Gary Lineker and the team, also said that a therapist had helped her stop waiting for ‘the next s**t thing’ to happen.
She also praised Kenny following his caner diagnosis (Picture: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Jaguar Land Rover)
Explaining that ‘there was part of me that thought “Okay, now terrible things can happen at any time”’, Gabby shared that a therapist had told her that her ‘s**t thing’ had happened.
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‘That was such a powerful thing to say because although another s**t thing can happen of course, it stopped me. It kind of really stopped me in my tracks and I thought, “I’ve got to reframe this and stop believing that something else is coming down the tracks that I’m going to have to deal with.”’
Elsewhere, she paid an emotional tribute to her ‘rock’ of a husband, Kenny Logan, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year.
Who to call if you need help
The Cruse Bereavement Care Freephone National Helpline is staffed by trained bereavement volunteers, who offer emotional support to anyone affected by bereavement.
The number is 0808 808 1677
You can also email [email protected]
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Daniel died aged 15 in 1992.
