Gabby Logan reveals why she wants her children to know she had an affair while still at university

Logan had an affair with a German tennis player while in a relationship at university

Gabby Logan has revealed why she wants her children to know that she had an affair while she was a university student.

In her new memoir The First Half, the Welsh TV presenter writes about beginning a relationship aged 16 with an England athlete Gary Staines who was 10 years her senior and was engaged to another woman. At the time, she was a rhythmic athlete representing Wales at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand.

She also writes about when she was a student at Durham University and had an affair with a German tennis player while still officially with her boyfriend Ian, a fellow student.

Logan, who has been a leading TV sports presenter for almost 30 years, eventually confessed to Ian and called off her relationship with the tennis player, but her relationship with Ian was damaged.

Speaking to The Times, Logan said that she wanted her children to know about the infidelity so that they learn that “you’re allowed to make bad decisions” and move past them.

She shares twins Reuben and Lois, born in 2004, with her husband Kenny Logan, whom she married in 2001. Reuben has left home to play rugby for Northampton Saints while Lois is taking a gap year before attending university.

Logan on BBC Sport presenting duties (Getty Images)

“I think it kind of dawned on me when I was writing that sometimes in life you make excuses for yourself and actually it’s much healthier sometimes to say, ‘I made a bad decision,’” Logan said of writing her 2022 autobiography.

“You’re allowed to make bad decisions and then you move on. I think it’s how you learn from those bad decisions.”

Logan explained that she initially worried that her daughter Lois would see her as a “terrible person” if she revealed her past infidelity, but decided that she wanted to give her children an example of how someone can learn from their past mistakes.

Gabby and Kenny Logan pictured in 2023 (Getty Images)

“I had my teenage daughter in mind as well because I thought, she’s very good and she’ll think I’m awful: ‘I can’t believe you did that!’ She thinks I’m just a terrible person,” said Logan.

“But actually, you want them to know. You set these kinds of standards for your kids, and try and give them a great example but actually that’s not the full picture and they didn’t know me before I became a better person.”

Logan at the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year 2023 (Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, she said her son Reuben likes to “take the mickey” out of her social life as a student.

“He’s always like, ‘Did you ever actually go out when you were at Durham? Did you actually go to nightclubs?’”

“One of my very best friends now was at Durham at the same time as me but we didn’t know each other and she always teases Reuben and says, ‘That’s because I was in the clubs and your mum was in the library.’ He’s taken that comment and run with it and now thinks that I’m some kind of square.”