Brooke Vincent has told of the advice she has received from Gemma Atkinson as she ‘replaces her’. It has been announced that the former Coronation Street star will sit in for Gemma on Hits Radio while she heads off on maternity leave.
Gemma, 38, is set to welcome her second child with her Strictly Come Dancing star fiance Gorka Marquez in just a matter of weeks and hosted her last drive time show - for now - with Mike Toolan last week.
And Brooke, who is famed for playing Sophie Webster in the ITV soap Corrie, has now officially been announced as the new host for Hits Radio’s evening show alongside Mike, who she previously worked with on Key 103 several years ago.
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Speaking exclusively to the Manchester Evening News about her new gig, which begins on June 5, Brooke said she is “very nervous” as the reality sets in but she’s also “very excited”. She said: “I’ve obviously listened, I know Gem, I know Mike and yeah, I’ve listened for a while and now I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ that’s going to be me.”
Despite having had experience in radio before, Brooke does admit to feeling like a newbie and will be calling on Gemma for advice. “I literally said to Gemma, ‘What am I going to do? I’m really nervous. I’ll be texting her saying, ‘Gemma, can you tell me what I need to do now please?’ But it’s really exciting and the drive team are amazing and Hits Radio is on the up at the minute which is really nice. So it’s nice to join a big group of people that are just absolutely smashing it.”
Despite not going into somewhere completely new, Brooke, 30, said: ”It’s more, obviously, it’s on a huge, much wider scale now and I said to Gemma when I first initially found out about the audition, I was saying, ‘What do you think?’ and she said you should definitely go for it!’
"Just to have that support there anyway is amazing but also to have somebody that I know is on my wavelength and that will say, ‘do that, don’t do that’ and it’s just nice to know someone who has the experience and cares for you as well.”
And while Brooke may need some support in her new role, the former soap star may also be able to offer Gemma a tip or two as she’s a proud mum to her tow Mexx, three, and two-year-old Monroe, who she shares with footballer fiance Kean Bryan.
“I was laughing with her actually because I’ve already got two children and I was saying, ‘I’d rather be stepping into your shoes than you stepping into mine and that’s exactly where you’re off,’” Brooke laughed. “I really, really like Gemma and we are friends so I feel like I’m on her wavelength anyway and I think that’s why it kind of works and we’re both very Manc.”
As for swapping advice, Brooke told us: “I said anytime. I’ll be saying, ‘Gemma, you come back. I’ll look after the baby.’ It’s scary on both sides. It’s scary as a woman in this industry to go off and to sometimes put yourself and your family first but I also think it’s very daunting on my side to leave your family and your babies to come back to work.
“So I think we’re both in a very similar but different position and like I say, I’m so glad it’s Gemma because we are on a wavelength where we can ring each other up and go, ‘I’m finding it hard, what can I do?’ That’ll be me by the way, me ringing her saying that.”
But for Brooke, this is her biggest job since leaving Corrie and welcoming her two children. “I have literally been at home looking after the boys and then doing my little online business [Oh So B]. I’ve not really pushed myself as I never felt ready. So this is local to home, I can do it around the boys and around their nursery and I just feel super, super lucky to even have the opportunity to do that and with people that I actually love. So it’s a really nice opportunity for me.”
Asked if this is something we could see her doing more of in the future after her maternity cover, Brooke said: “If they keep me. If they’d want me. I’d sit at reception to get a break. But like I say, it’s just nice to be a part of it at the minute and I feel a little bit like a supply teacher which has been kind of nice, not putting too much pressure on the situation leaving the boys and now it’s got a start and an end date I kind of like that and I’ll work towards that. So anything else in the future is if and when it comes up.”
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