Durham almuna Gabby Logan plans to tell her kids about her affair during university

Durham University alumna and BBC sports personality, Gabby Logan, has revealed that she will tell her children about her affair, which happened when she was a student.

Explaining that mistakes are a learning curve, she wrote in her memoir, The First Half, that she believes it is “much healthier” in life to admit mistakes and say “I made a bad decision” in order to move on.

In the book, Gabby details how she began a relationship with English athlete, Gary Staines, at age 16 when he was 10 years her senior. He was engaged at the time of the relationship, and Logan was representing Wales as a rhythmic athlete at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand.

The memoir goes on to explain how the former Hild-Bede student had an affair with a German tennis player when she was in a relationship with fellow student, Ian. Logan eventually came clean to Ian about the affair, and found her relationship damaged.

In an interview with The Times, Gabby revealed that that she wanted her children in particular to know about the affairs as part of a lesson that “you’re allowed to make bad decisions” and you can move on from them.

She also revealed that “my kids think I’ve already said enough about my sex life.”

The welsh TV presenter has proven she could move past her previous mistakes and is now happily married to rugby player, Kenny Logan. Gabby and Kenny parent twins Reuben and Lois, who were born in 2004. Reuben now plays rugby for Northampton Saints, and Lois is taking a gap year before attending university.

Logan said of writing her memoir that “I think it kind of dawned on me when I was writing that sometimes in life you make excuses for yourself and actually it’s much healthier sometimes to say, ‘I made a bad decision’.

“You’re allowed to make bad decisions and then you move on. I think it’s how you learn from those bad decisions”.

Logan also displayed concerns that her daughter, Lois, might see her as a “terrible person” for her past infidelity, but decided it was important to teach her children a lesson about moving on from past mistakes.

Gabby said: “I had my teenage daughter in mind as well because I thought, she’s very good and she’ll think I’m awful: ‘I can’t believe you did that!’ She thinks I’m just a terrible person.

“But actually, you want them to know. You set these kind of standards for your kids, and try and give them a great example but actually that’s not the full picture and they didn’t know me before I became a better person.”

Her son Reuben on the other hand apparently prefers to “take the mickey” out of Logan’s student social life.

Gabby said of her son: “He’s always like, ‘Did you ever actually go out when you were at Durham? Did you actually go to nightclubs?’

She also explained that Reuben often teases her for her antics while at university: “One of my very best friends now was at Durham at the same time as me but we didn’t know each other and she always teases Reuben and says, ‘That’s because I was in the clubs and your mum was in the library.’ He’s taken that comment and run with it and now thinks that I’m some kind of square.”

Featured image via Instagram @gabbylogan. 

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