Kate Thornton admits she feels ‘grief’ about her son Ben, 12, ‘growing up and pulling away’

Kate Thornton is ‘grieving’ her son growing up.

The presenter, 47, shares with son Ben, 12, with ex-husband Darren Emerson, and told Entertainment Daily that it really hit her in lockdown that her child was no longer a baby.

‘I love being his mum. He’s 12 going on 13 and he’s pulling away now. He’s independent,’ she said. ‘We were together 24/7 [in lockdown] so we had time to walk down our memory lane and it was so emotional.

‘It kind of kicked off a grief of I’m never going to have him as a baby again.’

She also explained how she regulates what Ben is exposed to on social media.

She said: ‘It’s such a complicated world that I try my best to help him manage it without being overbearing. But that digital world they live in of constant commentary, that worries me so much.’ 

In 2011, Kate announced she had separated from Darren.

She was left a single mother and turned to therapy to cope with the demands. 

She said: ‘I went back into therapy in my adult life, when I became a single parent and I just couldn’t come to terms with the grief of losing what I thought was my future as a family.

‘And I struggled terribly with it, and I bored my friends into submission, almost.

‘So in the end, I gave up the ghost and I thought, ‘I need to go and talk to somebody professional’.

‘So I went back into therapy and again, it’s saved me.

‘I have huge respect for talking therapies and I wish that mental health is given the same level, attention and funding as our physical health.’