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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Jessica Sansome

Gemma Atkinson branded 'unsupportive' by radio co-star after suffering awkward postman moment

Gemma Atkinson was jokingly branded 'unsupportive' by her radio co-host after she was left to present solo for a few days. The Hits Radio presenter was hosting the drivetime show alone earlier this week, alongside producer Matt, as Mike Toolan took a few days off.

But after a brief break, Gemma and Mike were reunited and while he didn't give a reason for his absence on air, Gemma didn't mind outing him on social media. Filming herself and Mike in the radio studio, the 38-year-old said to the camera in a video posted to her Instagram Story: "Look who's back in today, look who decided to show!"

"Here I am," Mike declared as Gemma went on: "We're not saying on air why you were off," as Mike agreed and said it was 'personal'. But Gemma went on: "It's quite embarrassing, isn't it. It's quite embarrassing isn't it, producer Matt, and quite pathetic." As Matt said: "Just say!" Mike commented: "It happens to a lot of guys."

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Former Emmerdale and Hollyoaks actress Gemma, who is currently pregnant with her second child with her Strictly Come Dancing star fiance Gorka Marquez, went on: "We were saying I went away for my weekend with the SAS [who] deal with all kinds of injuries and who have had struggles and Toolan... pulled a muscle."

As producer Matt laughed, Mike insisted: "It wasn't just a muscle." But Gemma wasn't having it as she said: "He pulled a muscle so he had two days off work. I'm growing a human but hey ho!" As she looked towards her co-host, he said:" You're very unsupportive," which made Gemma laugh before the video ended.

She then typed alongside the clip: "This was the GENUINE reason he was off!" alongside a string of emojis before tagging Mike. It came after Gemma decided to spend her morning before her shift on the radio doing something a bit different. She joked that she had gone "rogue" and instead of working out, she decided to test her brain strength during her rare morning off.

Gemma laughed at her co-host (Gemma Atkinson Instagram)

"So today is a day where genuinely, the first day since Christmas where I have nothing on before the radio," she explained in a video posted to her Instagram story. "Usually, and normally, it is Zoom meetings, or podcasts or meetings or fittings or shoots or you know, anything like that. Today it is just the radio. So I have gone a bit rock 'n' roll. I have gone a bit rogue.

"Rather than train, which is what I do every day anyway, I am going to do a one thousand-piece jigsaw. Yeah, buddy. A one thousand-piece jigsaw. I am going to do a one thousand-piece jigsaw.

"I am going to do it. How many hours have I got? Three? Two? Two hours to do a jigsaw - I'm going to do it. I know you're all jealous of my rock 'n' roll lifestyle but I am going to challenge myself today. I am going to challenge my brain instead of my body." She then added: "So yeah, I will let you know how I get on."

Gemma suffered a bit of a awkward moment after a puzzle got her hot under the collar (Gemma Atkinson Instagram)

The mum-of-one then shared a string of hilarious videos in which she documented the 'stages' of doing a jigsaw from the initial joy to the despair when it doesn't quite come together as fast as you hoped it would. And it even got the pregnant star hot under the collar. "Well, that was stressful. It wasn't as therapeutic as I thought," she admitted in a later video.

Admitting a blunder, she said: "I had to take my top off, my bra. I had to get my saggy maggies out. The postman was looking at me, like I am bloody not right. I said to him put it down, take the picture and go, you've got to go, I have to focus. Some of the edges are missing - it's not that I couldn't find them! It's that some of them are missing..."

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