Gabby Logan is preparing for a full house on Christmas Day as she and husband Kenny are hosting both of their families at their Buckinghamshire home. Their 19-year-old twins Reuben and Lois will be there for the big day, along with Gabby’s brother Jordan and his family, her mother and Kenny’s mother, too. But TV presenter Gabby says the sporting family won't get to spend much time together this festive season.
After rustling up the Logans’ roast dinner, she will be heading straight back to work, while her rugby player son, who plays for Northampton Saints, has commitments of his own. “I’m working on Boxing Day,” Gabby sighs. “I’m presenting the Liverpool v Leicester Premier League game, and then I’m working the day after that presenting Arsenal v Ipswich. And my son – because he plays rugby – has just told us he’s arriving by train on Christmas Eve morning and leaving on Boxing Day. So our time together is going to be really short.”
But Gabby is used to having her Christmases cut short thanks to Kenny’s rugby career and her dad Terry Yorath having been a professional footballer. “Everyone has their commitments. I grew up with that as my dad was a footballer. He would often leave after lunch on Christmas Day,” she says. “And being married to Kenny, Christmases were often quite short as he might have a match on Boxing Day, and now we’ve got it with our son as well.”
The 51-year-old, who is presenting her 12th BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Awards this month, is on kitchen duty this Christmas, and she says she’s nailed the dinner preparations now. “I always try to prep as much as possible beforehand so I’m not stressed on Christmas Day, but it never works out,” she laughs. “I’ll have made 19 different types of vegetables – and then at two in the afternoon, when we’re eating at four, my daughter will say, ‘Are you not doing Yorkshire puddings?’ So then I’m making Yorkshire pudding batter!
“But the last few years, my Christmas lunches have been absolutely on the money. I feel like I’m finally cracking it at 51. Nobody wants to go out. They all want to eat my food, which is a compliment!” Being the Christmas chef comes at a price, though. “My fingers end up with loads of lacerations because I’m chopping vegetables,” she says. “By the time I go on telly on Boxing Day, I’ve got my hands bandaged up like I’ve had a run-in with Edward Scissorhands, and burns from getting the turkey stuck in the Aga.”
Oven burns aren't the only wounds Gabby has been dealing with lately, with the presenter suffering with a recurring elbow injury that has stopped her playing sport in recent months. “I was doing loads of padel and golf, but I’ve had tennis elbow for about three months, which I haven’t had time to sort out,” she says. “I’ve had to modify all my gym training to accommodate it.
“I can’t swing a golf club, which is really annoying because I was enjoying my golf. There’s not much you can do to mitigate it. It doesn’t respond to anything so it goes away and then comes back six months later.”
Gabby can be hit with the recurring pain when she’s on screen, and also wants to get back to her hobbies because they’re good for her mental health. “When I was at the Women’s Euros, I was having a flare up while I was holding the microphone, which was annoying,” she says. “I realised the other day that it’s not great mentally when your hobbies are related to sport and you’re not able to do them – then you’re just working all the time. I need to get my hobbies back.”
With Reuben away playing professional rugby and Lois at university, Gabby and Kenny are now empty-nesters, although Gabby has kept the house busy since they left. “I decided I should redo their bedrooms because they were looking really scruffy, so I’ve had builders and decorators in the house since they left,” she says. “Maybe I’ve subliminally tried to fill the house with people so I haven’t felt alone.”
Although the twins will pop home for spontaneous Sunday lunches, they’re like “ships in the night” and opportunities for family time in the new year are likely to be rare. “I said to Kenny, ‘When all those people are no longer working in the house, we’re really going to notice it,’” she says. “Lois will be diving into a new term and won’t be coming home. Reuben will hopefully get into the under-20s Six Nations, so he’ll be really busy.
“January is bleak for everybody, so I told Kenny, ‘It might be time for a week away somewhere in January.’ We could never have winter breaks before because of the kids and school, so I just want a change of scenery. I’ve got this yearning to do something really cold, maybe go to Sweden or somewhere we could do trekking and ice baths. But Kenny, with his olive skin, is looking at me like I’m a lunatic. He wants some sun.”
Before Gabby can jet off with Kenny on holiday, she has one of the BBC’s biggest sporting events to host: Sports Personality Of The Year (SPOTY). The former gymnast will take to the stage with Clare Balding and Alex Scott to look back on this year’s sporting brilliance, becoming the awards’ first all-female presenting line-up after Gary Lineker stepped down in November.
“It doesn’t feel like such a huge thing for me because I’m regularly in a studio presenting athletics with Denise Lewis, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Paula Radcliffe, so I’m often in situations where there isn’t a man around,” she says. “It’s horses for courses. It’s about having the best and most relevant people to work on that show. There are good men and good women in the business. The three of us have done it before, we’re all experienced with SPOTY – and obviously Gary decided to step down, but I think we have it covered.”
The public can vote for their winners across eight coveted categories, with the likes of footballer Jude Bellingham, Olympic runner Keely Hodgkinson, darts player Luke Littler, cricketer Joe Root, cyclist Sarah Storey and triathlete Alex Yee up for SPOTY’s titular award. Gabby has a few favourites of her own.
“Keely Hodgkinson is somebody I absolutely champion – over the last four or five years, she’s burst onto the international scene and won a gold medal at Paris,” she says. “It was an amazing moment. She’s very approachable and definitely someone to watch out for.
“With the Euros, England came close again and Jude Bellingham is one of those who stood out. There’s always those big events that millions tune in for, which shows the relevance of sport and how important it is to people.”
It’s been an exciting year in sport, not just for the UK but for Gabby herself, who presented the UEFA European Football Championships and the Olympics in Paris. “Those were two big highlights for me,” she says. “I always love the Olympics – it was my fifth, and I can’t believe I get to work on it every time. It’s so special. The only thing I regret is that I’m not at home watching it!”
Gabby also hopes to spend more time with her family in 2025. So, does she think Lois and Reuben could follow her into broadcasting? “Reuben has the chat but I’m not sure he has the discipline,” she laughs. “We’ll have to see. He needs to focus on his first career now. Lois is at the stage where she has the world at her feet – I’m so proud of her.
“She’s making the most of the different sports at university – she’s started doing pole vault and she’s still horse riding. She keeps saying, ‘There’s no student newspaper, there should be one,’ and I thought, ‘She’s going to start a paper!’ So maybe that’s where she’s following in my footsteps. University is a time when you can try out new things.”
Sports Personality of the Year airs on Tuesday 17th December at 7pm on BBC One