The one lesson I’ve learned from life: Charlotte Hawkins says things will feel better tomorrow
- Charlotte Hawkins, 45, who lives in London, is part of ITV Good Morning Britain
- Her father who was a vicar was ‘fond of saying that tomorrow is another day’
- She reveals how looking forward to tomorrow helps when she’s missing him
Charlotte, 45, is part of ITV’s Good Morning Britain team and a presenter on Classic FM. She also runs her own Last, Past & Blast music podcast. She lives in Surrey with her husband, Mark, and their five-year-old daughter, Ella Rose.
I’m a great believer in living in the present. It’s something I got from my father, who taught me to take each day as it comes. He was fond of saying that tomorrow is another day.
He was a vicar, a great listener and really good to talk to. If I was going through some sort of crisis, he’d tell me that however bad things might seem at that moment, they would pass.
Charlotte Hawkins, 45, (pictured) who lives in London, revealed how looking forward to tomorrow helps when she’s missing her father
Not long ago, we interviewed Captain Sir Tom Moore [who raised almost £39 million for the NHS after doing a sponsored walk around his garden before his 100th birthday] on Good Morning Britain and I was interested to see he’s titled his autobiography Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day. That’s the philosophy, he said, that’s guided him down the years, and he’s still here aged 100. It made me think I’m not going too far wrong living by my father’s mantra.
I remember being voted off Strictly Come Dancing in 2017 in the fourth week. I was devastated at the time, but I gave myself a good talking to. I’d done the best I could. There was no point beating myself up — and tomorrow I was going to feel better about it.
In 2015, my father succumbed to motor neurone disease. You don’t ever get over the grief — there will always be that raw part in your heart — but you do learn to live with it. In his final weeks, I was conscious of sharing the many happy times we’d had together. Even now, if I’m feeling sad and missing him, I try and tell myself that I won’t necessarily be feeling like that tomorrow.
Dad died just a month before our longed-for baby was born. We’d been trying for years to have a child. He was the first person I told I was expecting a little girl, Ella Rose. I like to think they sort of crossed on the way out and in. It’s what they call the circle of life. When I think of that, it’s hard to be upset for long.
The Last, Past & Blast podcast is available on all platforms every Tuesday.