BBC Breakfast star feared she was dying after ‘traumatic’ incident

Former BBC Breakfast star Louise Minchin has detailed a terrifying incident in hospital, where she was worried she was going to die.

The newsreader, 56, who co-hosted BBC Breakfast until 2021, shares two daughters with her husband, Mia and Scarlett.

Recalling the birth of her eldest, Mia, Louise has shared she was in need of counselling after a ‘traumatic’ experience.

‘I think I’ve been through quite a few things in my life that I just put them in a box and shut it,’ she began, speaking on Gabby Logan’s The Mid-Pointpodcast.

‘That’s what I do with lots of things, when Mia was born, that’s the only thing I’ve ever kind of had to seek help for actually.

‘When Mia was born, a week after she was born, I had a burst appendix. It was really, really serious.’

Louise said that it was a ‘ridiculous’ coincidence that her appendix had burst while she was in hospital, but didn’t know if the pain was linked to her pregnancy or not.

She continued: ‘It was my first pregnancy so I didn’t know. I kept telling them that I had this pain, but they just thought, “It was your body, you’re having this baby, what do you expect?”

‘Literally six days after she was born and it burst while I was in hospital and it was very dramatic and very traumatic.

‘That’s the only thing I’ve ever had help with actually, because I thought I was going to die six days after my baby was born.’

Louise previously said that after her appendix burst, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and needed months to recover.

The I’m A Celebrity star told The Mirror in 2013: ‘After coming out of hospital, I was still in pain. I’d sleep for hours and was in lots of pain. It took nine months to recover.

‘At the time, I called the scars my M25. I’m glad to say that after 11 years, the M25 is looking better. It’s still there, but there aren’t so many bumps any more!

‘Although the scare didn’t put me off having more children, I delayed it. But the birth of my second was a breeze.

‘It was lucky it all happened after Mia was born. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had been pregnant. It changed me, but I’m more positive now.

‘When something like that happens, it gives you a different perspective.’