Celebrity
Giovanna Fletcher gets honest about emotional guilt and a romance that’s lasted 23 years.
Giovanna Fletcher Reveals the Emotional Cost of Balancing Career and Family
Giovanna Fletcher doesn’t do things by halves. The 41-year-old has launched a super hit parenting podcast with ‘Happy Mum’ while continuing with her acting career; she is a best-selling author, has three little boys, and the breast cancer charity CoppaFeel! is also one of her causes. However, she reveals to Hello! In this exclusive interview and photoshoot, she recently became aware of how important it is to say no sometimes. “I like all the things I do, but it’s very much a juggle,” she says. “I’ve learnt to say no to things I think will tip me over the edge. As a woman, you’re not used to saying no when someone asks you to do something, but to me it still felt that the no should be followed with some extra explanation. But now it’s much simpler and more comfortable for me, saying, ‘No, this isn’t going to serve me. ‘ And there’s another question I’ve started asking myself: ‘What is it going to cost my family by doing this, in terms of time and emotion?’
Giovanna Fletcher Balances Motherhood With Charity Work
Giovanna’s three sons, Buzz, 12; Buddy, ten; and Max, eight, are with their dad, McFly frontman and songwriter Tom Fletcher.
Plenty of Giovanna’s time and emotions have been poured into Happy Mum. The podcast launched in 2017 has helped in shifting the conversation surrounding parenthood and even featured the Princess of Wales as a guest. She is now hoping to do something similar for CoppaFeel!, which was co-founded by the late activist Kris Hallenga in 2009 when she was diagnosed with incurable cancer at age 23.
When we are speaking, Giovanna has just returned from a fundraising expedition to China for the charity – one of many such adventures she has undertaken during the past nine years. She’s very focused on making sure that the message is passed on from Kris about being breast cancer aware.
“I always say there’s only so many selfies you can post; you have got to actually do something,” she tells us.
“It doesn’t matter how often we beat the drum or how often we remind people of the signs and symptoms; the whole point is that it’s lodged in people’s brains.”
Giovanna Fletcher Reflects on 12-Year CoppaFeel! Journey
Giovanna has been involved with CoppaFeel! for 12 years, after meeting Kris, who passed away in 2024, at a wedding. “Her story genuinely made an impression on me,” Giovanna says. “Breast cancer running in my family was something I just accepted, and I kept thinking that it is something older people are more likely to get and that the diagnosis is always after a lump is found. Meeting a person like Kris completely overturned that mindset and made me decide that I must do everything to spread the word.”
CoppaFeel! treks all over the world have also been part of Giovanna’s life, who, apart from being the winner of I’m a Celebrity… The Get Me Out of Here! competition in 2020 has also been taking part in CoppaFeel! treks.
Giovanna participated in treks in the Himalayas and the Sahara Desert. She says, “I was instantly hooked” on treks that are the most meaningful life experiences. “China was incredible, but every trek is a unique and memorable experience attached to it,” she added. There is something about stepping away from normal life, being together, and focusing really clearly on why you’re doing it that connects with me.”
Giovanna Fletcher Reveals How Her Podcast Tackles Parenting Shame
Giovanna has left an imprint on her podcast as well, where guests share tales of parenthood with open hearts and minds.
They talk not only about their difficulties in parenting and the various stages of life one goes through but also the grief and fertility struggles that come with it. Giovanna herself has been candid about this part of her life in public: that she had endured two miscarriages.
Judging from her experience and being very candid in parenting, she thinks this honesty is what appeals to women because she puts it as follows: “We all beat ourselves up as parents; we constantly get the impression we are getting it wrong. The amount of guilt, the pressure, and the judgement are overwhelming.” She elaborates: “The whole idea for the podcast was to eliminate all that shame. We’re just making every effort, and for me it’s been really important that it is a safe space.”
The most memorable Happy Mum guest was the Princess of Wales, who chatted to Giovanna over a podcast in 2020 when she was the Duchess of Cambridge.
“It was like a real pinch-me moment for me,” says Giovanna. “I treated her like a typical person and even did my research on the topics we were going to discuss: hypnobirthing was going to be covered, and her morning sickness was going to be covered. Her team only asked me the night before to see what I was actually going to ask her. “We’ll take it to her and see.”
Princess of Wales’ Memorable Podcast Appearance
“Once she had her brief, Prince William was walking through the room too and just said to her, ‘Just talk because you can always edit it out afterwards,’ which I think was the best thing. That made her, and also me, relax and she talked about everything, which was totally amazing.’
“She’s so knowledgeable. She had actually come for the launch of her work in the early years, and before we had recorded the episode, we were meant to be adding in experts who were putting a survey together. But she was articulate and had clarity of thoughts, and I said to the producer straight away, ‘We don’t need to include any experts now.’
Other standout podcast guests have included the Strictly Come Dancing star Oti Mabuse, who opened up about the premature birth of her daughter in 2023, as well as Jenni Stancombe, the mother of Elsie Dot Stancombe, who died at the age of seven in the 2024 Southport stabbings. “Jenni approached us as she wanted to come on the podcast and share, so it felt like a privilege to be the one she decided to open up to. There were no words to describe the emotions… That was certainly the sort of a podcast that’s not going to leave you for a long time.”
Giovanna Fletcher Lands Lead Role in New Stage Thriller
Although the podcast business keeps expanding, Giovanna’s acting profession is also taking off with her being in the forefront of a very promising role. She is scheduled to go on a UK tour in early next year, when she will be performing as the protagonist, Christine, in one of SJ Watson’s most popular novels adapted for the stage, Before I Go To Sleep. Christine, at the end of each day, suffers total amnesia, and to cope with her fragmented memory, she records everything down to piece together her life, which leads to some dreadful finds.
She obtained the role after the play director told her to check out the book when they were collaborating on an earlier production, The Girl on the Train, last year.
“It is becoming a great little thing that has quietly been developing for a year and a half,” she says with excitement. The fact that the work started very early on and that she was part of the production gives her a great feeling.”
She will be travelling around the UK, and she is cleverly going to do so, so she can get back home on Mondays and Sundays to take care of her kids, which is her main reason to be at home. “I leave home for a couple of days depending on how far I am going from home, but I get home for school runs usually on Mondays and Tuesdays, and depending on the day and the location, I may be able to return home on Saturday nights. That sounds quite good to me.”
The production run overlaps with Paddington transferring from London’s West End to Broadway. The musical will bring Tom, 41 years old, who composed songs and wrote lyrics for the production, to New York. “I absolutely admire him for his dedication towards the project as well as his artistic creativity, and that particular bear is not going to run away anytime soon,” she says of Padraig Flynn.
Giovanna Fletcher Reveals Why 23 Years With Tom Still Feels Special
Next year, the couple will mark their 15th anniversary as spouses; they have been together for 23 years. They met while both attending the Sylvia Young Theatre School. “We are each other’s laughing buddies, and that is what keeps us going,” she says. “We enjoy being at home most of the time, as we find it to be our place of happiness and connection. Glitz and glamour do not appeal to me. I prefer just having him sit with me around a table with delicious food and laughter.”
They are a dynamic couple who also wrote the young-adult dystopian book series Eve of Man, along with the other books. They look forward to the release of the third book next year. The couple also enjoy being outdoors with their children while sometimes watching Strictly Come Dancing or The Traitors on TV with their kids. Their oldest son, Buzz, has been inspired by them and followed their path. He played a role in the CBBC series Andy and the Band: Rock Star School, and he had a lead role in the musical play Starlight Express on the West End stage.
Giovanna Opens Up About Son Buzz’s Acting Career and Family Life
“Tom and I have met a lot of kids who were there because their parents had been quite pushy, and we knew that in that world, you really have to want it yourself. We never really pressured him. To see him flourish and do it his way was incredible. I hardly get on set; he is allowed to go with a chaperone and be taught by the director. He should be able to be totally immersed in and not have me saying, ‘No, don’t do that!'”
When Giovanna steps away, she tends to her animals and recently discovered a new interest in gardening.
“We have one dog, ten chickens, nine ducks, one tortoise, and one bearded dragon. “I’ve been really into gardening, and I think I can now produce enough for Tesco,” Giovanna reveals.
“I am not the type to do things halfway. If something grabs my attention, I throw myself at it completely, so I have become aware that I really need to learn to rein it in a bit.”
