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WAKE & UP SHAKE UP!
SARAH-JANE MEE on taking over Eamonn Holmes’s Sunrise hot seat
Sarah-Jane Mee doesn’t think twice about jumping into bed for the YOU photo shoot. ‘Oh joyful, don’t you just love mornings?’ she jokes as she snuggles under the duvet for the camera. In truth, the 38-year- old TV reporter could do with a bit of shut- eye. After several weeks of dawn starts for her new role as the anchor of Sky’s Sunrise breakfast show, she has come down with a cold.
‘I’ve been running on empty and I think the 3am starts have finally caught up with me. Getting up that early is a bit like sticking pins in my eyes,’ she says. ‘My biggest fear is oversleeping – I set four alarm clocks to make sure I don’t.’
She might be running on empty, but Sarah-Jane hides it well. She has hired a personal trainer who has her weight training three times a week and has cut out sugar in an attempt to get healthy. With her gorgeous mane of red hair – ‘I’m ginger and proudly so’ – and radiant skin, it’s clear that exhaustion hasn’t dampened her joie de vivre. She feels like ‘the luckiest girl on the planet’ to have replaced Eamonn Holmes in October, following the shock announcement that he was standing down from the show after 11 years at the helm.
Sarah-Jane jokes that she has Eamonn’s dodgy hips to thank for her good fortune. ‘I was doing Eamonn’s job for three months while he had his operation [he had a double hip replacement at the beginning of the year] but I had no idea he wasn’t coming back. I had to keep [my appointment] secret for about two months – which wasn’t easy in a building full of journalists – but when the news came out I got lovely messages from practically everyone, and Eamonn was so supportive. He’d never say he put me up for the job but he did say, “Kiddo, if it’s not me, it’s gonna be you.” To be honest, it blows my mind that I’m now presenting the breakfast show. It hasn’t sunk in yet.’
It’s this down-to - earth normalness that makes Sarah-Jane so likable and popular with viewers. She is upbeat yet serious, informed but not condescending. ‘I am just like the people watching at home – except wearing a bit more lipgloss.’ Most of her Uber drivers recognise her as ‘that girl off the telly’, but she still takes the tube: ‘I’m usually on my way to the gym with no make-up, so I’m rarely recognised.’
Certainly fame hasn’t gone to her head. She has Eamonn to thank, she says, for making the transition so seamless. ‘He’s the most generous man. He never talks down to me and everything he’s said has been so constructive. ‘He told me, “Have fun, be yourself and don’t mess it up” – but he didn’t put it that politely. I
try not to think too much about [what I’ve taken on] because then I scare myself. I’ve had a career in TV for a decade, and I’ve done well by being myself and doing the job to the best of my ability. I don’t know everything and I don’t pretend to, but I ask lots of questions.’
Sarah-Jane and her younger sister Victoria, 34, grew up in Essex with their parents Lynda and Tom, who design and build kitchens. Convent-school educated, and the first in their family to go to university, both sisters have pursued ambitious careers. Sarah-Jane describes Victoria, a forensic psychologist, as ‘the clever one’ but says, ‘Dad taught us from an early age that we could do anything we wanted. He is one of the original feminists and a bit of a maverick. I knew I wanted to be in TV from the age of 11. I used to love watching Eamonn and Anthea Turner on GMTV. I remember thinking, “They are having so much fun!” What they were talking about was interesting, and no day was the same, and I thought, “You’re so lucky.”’ Her all-time idol, she says, is Selina Scott, glamorous presenter of BBC’s Breakfast Time during the 1980s. ‘She was clever, poised, and I thought she was amazing – she really made me want to do the job.’
After A-levels Sarah-Jane was offered a place to study English language and literature at Manchester University. ‘I remember being really excited about leaving home and going off to find myself. I did a bit of student radio and some work for the student paper, and I played a lot of netball and badminton, although I was never good enough for the teams. I was a jack of all trades, which kind of sums up my early career.’
She graduated with a 2:1, then did a master’s in public relations and government affairs before deciding to leave Manchester – and her university sweetheart, a medical student – and make the move to London, where her first job was at Sky. ‘I found out they were looking for runners at Sky Sports News. I started out making the coffee and working the overnight shift, before getting promoted to planning and production.’ Two years later she got her first break when she was poached by Gary Newbon, the sports broadcaster turned ITV exec who had also convinced Gabby Logan to leave Sky. Newbon made Logan a star on terrestrial TV and also put Sarah-Jane in front of the camera.
‘I have Gary to thank for giving me my break. He took me to Nottingham so I could cut my teeth on ITV Central. I had never been to Nottingham but one of my friends had a brother who lived there. I’d met him once before on a drunken night out – next thing I was on his doorstep saying, “I need a room!”’ When ITV Central relocated to Birmingham, she went with the network. ‘I did a programme on motoring, football, fashion. I went the traditional route, which not many people do now: I made all my mistakes in regional TV and it was a great grounding. I could never throw a diva strop, because I’ve been the runner, the producer, the presenter – I’ve climbed every rung of the ladder.’
At the same time she was also presenting the Heart FM radio breakfast show, with its 4am starts. ‘I’d be on air from 6am until 9am, then go to Central where I’d finish my day at about 6.30pm. I survived on coffee, ambition and enjoyment. I didn’t want to give any of it up, and that’s still the case today. I’m a 100-miles-an-hour, seven-days-a-week girl. Eamonn always said, “You never know when it’s going to come to an end” and that’s true.’
When Sky News invited her back to London as a news reporter, just before her 30th birthday, she knew it was the chance of a lifetime. ‘Rolling news was completely different to anything I’d done before. My first broadcast was a bit of a disaster. I had to operate the Autocue using a foot pedal and I hit it too hard: the script shot up and the screen went blank. I could feel my hands getting clammy but I knew I just had to talk. Somehow I managed to get it together.’
Since that nerve-racking night, Sarah-Jane has covered some of the biggest stories of recent times – most recently the US election. ‘I flew to New York and Washington to cover the story. It was my first overseas trip for Sunrise and it was such an honour to be waking Britain up to the news that America had a new president. We were broadcasting round the clock from a studio in the middle of Times Square where we were at the centre of all the action, watching the crowds, seeing their reactions. It was awesome.
‘That’s what I love about rolling news, because you never know what’s going to happen. I was on air covering the Brussels terrorist attacks for three hours, which was one of the most draining experiences – emotionally and physically.’ While she hasn’t ever broken down on air, she says she has nothing but empathy for colleagues who get choked up while reporting live. ‘I’m human,’ she says. ‘When you interview a guest who’s lost a child or endured something traumatic it can be very hard. I always give them a hug during the break.’
There are also moments of hysteria. Sarah-Jane once had to excuse herself from the Sunrise set after a comment from Eamonn about Donald Trump that made her giggle so much she couldn’t speak. But for all the laughs, she knows what hard work is and, being a woman in a largely male-dominated world, she admits she has overcome sexism on her way up. ‘In my 20s I got a bit of attention for being the girl in the skirt, but I dealt with that. There’s sexism in the industry but there’s sexism in every industry.’
At Sky’s vast studio in Isleworth, West London, she shares her slick new office with her sidekick Jonathan Samuels, one of Sky’s senior correspondents. And whereas the BBC was recently criticised for seating its female presenters on the right of our screens – which from a viewer’s point of view is perceived to be the less dominant position – Sarah-Jane is firmly in the hot seat. ‘It’s my show and I’m on the left, Jonathan’s on the right. But there are more important things to worry about than where we’re sitting.’
Refreshingly, she also dispels the myth that TV news is bitchy and cut-throat: ‘I’ve not encountered any jealousy on the way up. Kay Burley was one of the first to congratulate me when I got the job. People expect me to say she’s bitchy and doesn’t like other women but that couldn’t be further from the truth. People have Kay all wrong.’
What does rile Sarah-Jane, however, are those who question why at nearly 40 she is not yet settled down with children. ‘It frustrates me a lot that women are put in a bracket: ambitious career woman or married with kids, with no in-between. I’m happily single, and what’s wrong with that? Men don’t get asked, “When
Getting up at 3am is a bit like sticking pins in my eyes
are you having kids?’’ but there’s this suspicion about women who don’t have children. Just look at Theresa May. It was outrageous when Andrea Leadsom suggested that being a mother potentially made her a better candidate for leader. Theresa May is at the top of her game and to suggest she can’t understand family issues because she doesn’t have children is ludicrous.’
Besides, Sarah-Jane says she has the best of both worlds, with five gorgeous godchildren (including Wilf, the son of Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham). ‘I love being with my godchildren, I love being fun Aunty SJ – but spending a few hours with them is much more exhausting than being on air.’
One day, she says, she hopes to have children of her own, ‘but I’ve come to the conclusion that I only want kids if I meet someone to have them with. I’ve thought about freezing my eggs, and I’ve talked about it with other single girlfriends, but for me it’s about being in a partnership and children coming from that.’ Right now she is playing the dating game: she admits that she has enjoyed a few nights out with someone she’s hoping might turn out to be special.
‘I’ve been in some fantastic relationships, but it’s all about timing. I’ve had three big loves in my lifetime. My most recent ex didn’t like the limelight. Whoever I’m with has to accept that I have a profile and I know that’s sometimes a big ask. It would be nice to meet someone not in the industry – I don’t want to go home and talk about work. I live and breathe my job but there has to be a cutoff point.’
She insists she won’t be panicked into settling down. ‘I think people concentrate too much on what they haven’t got rather than enjoying what they have. It’s fine not to be in a relationship, and I want other single women out there to know that. I’m not just going to settle for any guy. Of course I want to find The One, but I’m not panicking about it. Right now I’ve got the dream job and I’m loving life.’
Sarah-Jane Mee anchors Sky News Sunrise, Monday-Thursday, 6-10am
I’ve thought about freezing my eggs, but it’s about being in a partnership and children coming from that