Sian Welby details the pressure of being a female breadwinner as she praises ‘supportive’ fiancé Jake for enabling her to return to work three months after giving birth
Sian Welby detailed the pressures of being the breadwinner as she praised fiancé Jake Beckett for always being ‘supportive’.
The Capital Breakfast and This Morning presenter, 39, gave birth to daughter Ruby, whom she shares with producer Jake, in June 2024.
Just three months after giving birth to her first child, she returned to work, thanking her fiancé for letting her cut her maternity leave short.
In a new interview with the Daily Mail, Sian insisted she and Jake play equal roles in their home.
‘I guess you can’t do any of this without a supportive partner, or if you don’t have a partner you need a family member to help you because it’s not really a one-person job raising a baby,’ she said.
‘You need teamwork. My other half is a producer, so he understands the industry and understands that work is temporary and things can go as quickly as they come.
Sian Welby details the pressures of being the breadwinner as she praises fiancé Jake Beckett for always being ‘supportive’
‘He is very supportive and we work together as a team. Some days I do a full shift because he’s on the shoot, other days he does it and I never feel like someone isn’t doing their part.
‘I’d say what we both do is pretty equal. He does the mornings and I do the reception. While he eats dinner, I take bath time. All that kind of stuff.’
Sian added: ‘I think it’s difficult. The world is not for this, but I still think almost everyone is in the same boat.
‘There aren’t many couples I know of where they don’t both work, and sometimes out of sheer necessity, it’s impossible for them to live without two incomes.
‘So I think we’re in a bit of a mixed bag on that as I think a lot of people, even people who go out and work on two incomes, are struggling.
‘Me and Jake have always been very open and honest about this. There may be times when you earn more, and there may be times when they earn more.
‘The number of couples where one suddenly becomes unemployed and then becomes the breadwinner. I am very aware that these things can change, that is the modern world.
‘My other half has no problem with this or anything. He has no chip on his shoulder about who wins what. We just keep at it and I think you have to look at it that way.
‘We’ve moved on, everyone’s back to work and everyone has to work and you actually feel like a good role model because Ruby’s going to have to go to work, she’s going to have to see the reality of what we all have to do.’
The Capital Breakfast and This Morning presenter, 39, gave birth to daughter Ruby, whom she shares with fiancé Jake Beckett, in June 2024.
Sian also described the guilt she felt at not being able to see her father, who has dementia, as much as she wanted after a devastating ‘wake-up call’ upon his diagnosis.
He revealed publicly on ITV two years ago that his father Ian had been diagnosed with vascular dementia.
Sian, who has a successful career and parenting daughter Ruby in London, expressed her sadness at not being able to spend enough time with her 86-year-old father.
Ian lives in a Nottinghamshire village with Sian’s mother Helen and was diagnosed with dementia about five years ago.
Although she still has her good and bad days, Sian candidly shared how difficult it is to live so far away from her family.
He shared: ‘I am a very emotional and very empathetic person. I am a people pleaser in many ways. I’d rather make someone else happy and not bother my own day.
‘It breaks my heart a little bit because I can’t just drop by and they live so far away.’
On Monday Sian visited Spitz Charitable Trust care home sessions to witness first-hand the impact of music on people living with dementia.
The London-based organization uses live music to improve the wellbeing of dementia patients in care homes.
On Monday Sian visited Spitz Music Charity care home sessions to witness first-hand the impact of music on people living with dementia
Speaking about the experience, Sian said: ‘I actually found the whole day quite emotional. It really was.
‘I think whenever I do something like that, I always think I should do it more because it reminds you of – I don’t know – in life you can get so caught up in your own world of hustle and bustle almost, and then you end up in a place where people are at the end of their journey.
‘It breaks your heart a little bit because for a lot of people it seems quite lonely, quite boring and quite slow.
‘But I was there on a good day, you know, as I was there with the Spitz Music Charity and Music for Dementia.
‘I was there while they were doing activities, singing together and requesting songs.
‘And like I said, I could see in real time that it changed someone’s day, changed their mood, literally woke them up. “It was really quite strong.”
Sian supports the Music for Dementia campaign run by the Utley Foundation. Visit musicfordementia.org.uk
