My Life through a lens

Celebrities share the stories behind their favourite photos. This week it’s Today programme presenter Justin Webb, 58

1982

While studying at the London School of Economics I travelled to Kiev, which was then in the USSR, with a friend in the summer holidays. We took gifts to a psychiatrist who was being persecuted by the Soviets – he and a lecturer of mine were friends. Afterwards we visited Turkey, where this photograph was taken, before returning home. There’s no way I could have fitted into those skintight jeans again for most of my adult life, but I’ve slimmed down a bit in recent years.

1998

I was very close to my mum, who died in 2006, aged 82, and this photo of us is very special to me. Fortunately my family and I were in the UK when the end came, although I was based in America at the time. My biological father was the late BBC news presenter Peter Woods [Justin was conceived after an affair]. It’s odd that Peter and I had roughly the same career, but I certainly didn’t choose it because of him.

1991

I’ve worked for the BBC since 1984, and while serving as a foreign correspondent I was sent to cover the first Gulf War, following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. This is me, at the back wearing sunglasses, accompanying Egyptian troops who were part of the America-led coalition that liberated Kuwait. None of us really knew what was going on during the fog of battle, and after crossing the Kuwaiti border a group of bedraggled-looking Iraqi soldiers tried to surrender to my cameraman and me. We had to try to explain via our interpreter that we didn’t take prisoners!

2009

Just after Barack Obama became President, I got to interview him at the White House. Interviewing a US president is a real rigmarole. It was only confirmed the night before, and on the big day there was a bomb scare outside the White House and the police weren’t letting anyone in or out. So it was touch and go whether it would happen. But he was charming, and we had a nice talk off-camera beforehand about Type 1 diabetes, which my son Sam has – Obama knew a lot about the disease.

1977

At school I was in the thrall of hippydom and bands like Led Zeppelin, as you can see from this photo of me [centre] with two friends. I had more rows with my teachers about my shoulder-length hair than any other thing. As soon as I left, I thought, ‘Do I really want all this hair?’ and chopped it off. But who knows, maybe one day I’ll retire to the US west coast and grow a ponytail…

1969

I grew up an only child, and this is me aged eight at my gloomy prep school in Bath. My mum Gloria was a Quaker and, at 11, I was sent to a Quaker boarding school in Somerset. I was lucky to get half a dozen O-levels, as I spent much of my time playing table tennis. One year in a speaking contest I spoke in favour of legalising cannabis – I enjoyed being in the spotlight, which inspired me to go into broadcasting.

1996

My wife Sarah and I got married at Chelsea Register Office on the King’s Road, which has a real sense of glamour about it. In the photo my mum Gloria is standing next to me, and my wife Sarah – who I met at a party held by the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen – is on her right. The little girl, Zara, is a friend’s daughter. Afterwards we hired a double-decker bus to take everyone to the reception in London’s Holland Park, before heading off to Spain for our honeymoon.

2010

I love this photo of my daughter Clara, who was six then but is now 15, with me in Bath just after I’d returned to Britain when my stint as BBC North America editor ended. Clara grew up entirely American. Her accent went pretty quickly when we moved back but all three of my children – my 18-year-old twins Martha and Sam too – still talk about sidewalks rather than pavements.