Louise Minchin: BBC Breakfast star hits back after ‘poor Dan Walker' jibe

BBC Breakfast host Louise Minchin, 50, recently opened up about her menopausal symptoms, which have affected her at work.

The mother-of-two said she now has her own setting on the studio’s air conditioning which makes the room cooler for her.

Louise shared her column with The i in view of her 163,000 Twitter followers last week.

The headline read: “The BBC studio now has a ‘Louise’ air con setting because of my menopause flushes.”

A Twitter user responded to the post, writing: “And poor old Dan freezes.”

Louise hit back at the tweet writing: “Hardly.”

Within the article, Louise Minchin spoke out on her “challenging” time at work before she told bosses about her menopause.

Dan Walker’s co-star said she was “too embarrassed” to tell her colleagues about the menopause at first, but eventually told her boss when symptoms worsened.

“It was particularly challenging at work,” she admitted.

“Although adrenaline cleared my brain-fog when I was presenting, suddenly getting hot from top to toe under the lights in front of six million viewers was difficult to cover up.

“I tried for months though, too embarrassed to say to anyone what was going on, and ended up negotiating with the team on a daily basis over the temperature in the studio.

“One day it got too much, and I had to confess to my boss the real reason why I needed it to be cold; I was menopausal, and suffering with it.”

Louise eventually told bosses about her symptoms, which she referred to as a “dark cloud had been lifted”.

She added: “I was taken very seriously and greeted with huge sympathy, and since then we have a Louise setting on the thermometer.”

Louise joined the breakfast show in 2006 before she was appointed as a main presenter on weekdays in 2011.

Dan Walker, 42, joined the sofa with Louise in 2016, replacing former host Bill Turnbull, 63.

Earlier this year, the pair spilled on their friendship and what they get up to behind-the-scenes.

Louise told The Mirror: “I think that we’re both team players, and so many times Dan gets me out of trouble or I get him out of trouble.

“I know that Dan is 100 per cent going to back me up, and, you know, things happen on the programme and mistakes are made, and we’ll always help each other out in that situation.

“They’re not gonna let you down, they’re not going to do something mean, they’re not gonna say anything horrible, we are a team.”

But Louise joked she does sometimes “eye-roll” at some of his jokes.

BBC Breakfast airs daily from 6am on BBC One.

source: express.co.uk