Gethin Jones and Helen Skelton Heal After Heartbreak

Gethin Jones and Helen Skelton didn’t hide their growing bond as they cosied up on the presenter’s motorbike while heading for breakfast in Manchester city centre on Thursday. 

It comes amid speculation of the pair’s growing ‘deeper connection’ after MailOnline revealed that the Morning Live hosts have grown close off-screen after they were seen leaving the BAFTA TV Awards together. 

Yet both TV stars have experience their fare share of heartbreak after Gethin’s famous split to ex fiancée Katherine Jenkins left him seeking therapy for depression. 

Meanwhile Helen split from her ex-husband Richie Myler in 2022, with whom she shares children Ernie, nine, Louis, eight, and Elsie, three, after he left the marital home four months after she gave birth. 

And now after presenting BBC Morning Live together, fans have insisted Helen and Gethin ‘belong together’ but could they mend each other’s broken hearts?  

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Gethin was famously engaged to fellow Welsh singer Katherine before the couple separated in December 2011 following a five-year relationship. 

The Welsh presenter has been open about how the painful break up destroyed him and led to a bout of depression. 

Discussing his mental health battles in an interview in 2023, Gethin admitted he underwent therapy in the wake of the split. 

He told the Outdoors in Mind podcast: ‘I was engaged and then breaking up, afterwards, or even during that period, it was just awful.

‘I remember doing BBC Radio 5Live 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.’

‘I was waiting for a friend to tell me what to do and they can’t do that. It puts so much pressure on them… you need to figure it out yourself.’

In the end, Gethin revealed he had counselling to try and navigate a way through how he was feeling: ‘I saw someone, I had therapy for a couple of years and I still do my homework on that.’

Gethin and Katherine first met in 2005 when she was a guest on Blue Peter, which he presented. 

Two years later they got together, when he was competing in Strictly Come Dancing and she was singing on the show.

Then three years after that, he proposed – with a £10,000 ring during a romantic holiday in Mexico.

In what looked to be the perfect happily ever after the pair then bought an eight-bedroom house for £4.7million in Richmond, South-West London. 

But the engagement faltered after just ten months.

While neither have confirmed the reason for the split, various rumours have suggested his career was faltering while hers was accelerating and while he wanted a family she didn’t want to press pause on her music.

Speaking in 2014, Katherine claimed it was Gethin who initiated their split, shortly before she embarked on a world tour.

She told Wales Online: ‘At the end of 2011 when Gethin and I broke up, the reality of it was that about two weeks later I had to go on a UK tour where every night I’m singing songs of heartbreak and every day just trying to find the energy to cope let alone going on stage and understand his reason for doing it.

‘Meanwhile everybody else is under the impression it was my decision, my ambition, I wanted to take over the world. It was so far from the truth.’

Following on from their split Katherine married painter and filmmaker Andrew Levitas in 2014, and the pair share two children Aaliyah Reign, nine, and Xander Robert, seven.

However while Katherine has been married for over a decade, Gethin hasn’t been so lucky in love. 

He told the Daily Mail back in 2014: ‘All I want to do now is meet someone, get married, have a big family, be a good father.

‘I have never made any secret of that but the problem is finding someone. I started going to yoga classes as I thought that would be a good place to meet girls, but it is hard to chat to someone when you are balancing upside down.

‘I had thought I’d be married by now – I was engaged, so obviously I thought that’s where it was heading – but I can’t force the issue. If it’s not meant to be, it won’t happen.’

Gethin went on to date German underwear model Katja Zwara, however the couple separated in 2018 after a year of dating with a source confirming to The Sun: ‘Gethin and Katja remain pals but things just didn’t quite work out in the end.

‘They split last month and have gone their separate ways.’

The star also had a brief relationship with TOWIE star Lucy Mecklenburgh before the couple amicably parted ways in 2014.

In 2023 he fuelled romance rumours with First Dates star Cici Coleman after they were seen enjoying a night at the theatre followed by drinks and dinner. 

Meanwhile Helen was married to her ex husband Richie for eight years before she announced on Instagram he had ‘left the family home’ in April 2022, just four months after the birth of their youngest child Elsie.

Writing in her autobiography, In My Stride, Helen recalled her 2022 split and how it blindsided her: ‘I was in shock. I know that following break-ups, people often say they didn’t see it coming and it sounds like a cliché, but that was me.’ 

Helen was so distraught after her split from Richie that she was unable to tell her parents at first as she did not want to ‘inflict’ pain on them.

But when her father noticed her spending a lot of time on her own with her children at her marital home, he surprised her with a visit from Cumbria.

Helen wrote: ‘He immediately stepped in, knowing I needed him, even though I didn’t want to admit it.’

Since their split, Richie has gone on to welcome two more children with his new partner Stephanie Thirkill.

The rugby ace, 34, welcomed son Freddie with Stephanie last June and the couple already share daughter Olivia, who was born in May 2023. 

A year after the couple’s split, Helen was said to be dating again as she attempted to move on one year after her ‘trust was broken’ by Richie.

A source told OK! magazine: ‘She is now reluctantly dipping her toe back into the dating pool.

‘After her trust was broken, she’s nowhere near ready for an all-in long-term romance. But she’s not closing herself off to anything anymore.

‘She’s open to new adventures in all respects and is making it her aim to say ‘yes’ to more things that excite her.’

So far Helen and Gethin’s respective reps haver refused to comment on the duo’s relationship, but fellow guests at the BAFTAs earlier this month said the pair’s interactions were very ‘tactile’.

A TV source told MailOnline: ‘Helen and Gethin have an extremely close working relationship and there’s a feeling in recent months their friendship has blossomed into a deeper connection.

‘They’re both keen to keep a lid on it to avoid public scrutiny but there’s no denying their closeness both on and off screen.’ 

The Welsh presenter has in the past expressed his admiration for his co-star after they took part in a 24-hour live TV marathon in aid of Comic Relief earlier this year.

Taking to social media in March following their epic TV stint, Gethin shared his admiration for Helen and despite having spent 24 hours together, revealed that he called her up just an hour later. 

Alongside a selection of images of the pair looking close during their TV marathon, he penned: ‘And a little appreciation post for this super woman @helenskelton. Unbelievable physical and mental resilience… 

‘Loves a laugh but a deep thinker (I had to remind her a few times we were live on tv). 

‘It says a lot that you can spend 24hrs non stop with someone and still call them an hour later for a debrief . Respect means we can be honest with each other always. 

‘There was NO time at all, at any time during this challenge, not one, where I wanted to throw her off the rink. Never once. Didn’t even come into mind.’