EXCLUSIVE He wrestles crocs on TV but being a Dad to young kids is what scares Steve Backshall most

Daily Mail​

12 hours ago

On television he's the fearless adventurer who has wrestled with some of the world's deadliest predators, from 15ft crocodiles to killer sharks, and venomous snakes to ferocious polar bears.
But for wildlife expert and naturalist Steve Backshall, whose BAFTA-award winning CBBC series Deadly 60, continues to inspire and educate children, it's at home where he faces his toughest challenge.
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, the much-loved and renewed explorer admits that having three children under six in his 50s, is physically challenging.
While he absolutely loves what he does, and never expected to still be a huge children's television star at his age, there's no escaping the emotional struggle of spending long periods of time away from his family filming all over the world.
Steve is married to two-time Olympic champion rower Helen Glover, 38, and the couple have son Logan, six, and five-year-old twins, Willow and Kit.
He describes his wife as a 'mega-mum' and is incredibly proud of the fact that she was the first British female rower to go to an Olympic games after having children.
Explaining what it's like being an older dad, Steve said: 'I do wish I had the energy that I had when I was in my 20s and 30s, to have the ability to sprint around playing football and rugby all day long with my kids, and for me to still be popping and buzzing with energy at the end of the day.
'But obviously I haven't and it's really tough to keep going when you're 52 and you've got three kids under six. But I've got knowledge and experience and a whole array of different things that I can teach them about, help them with, and also I've got no choice! These are the cards that I was dealt with and I've got to make it work.'
While Steve's three young children are all proud of their 'cool dad' and love hearing about his dangerous expeditions, having to go away for weeks at a time is something that they struggle with.
So much so that he reckons they'd all much prefer it if he had a normal 9-5 office job because it would mean he'd be at home with them a lot more.
Steve said: 'I think they are very excited by it and very proud but also the fact I go away a lot, they don't like at all.
'They really, really struggle with it and it's been hard ever since they could understand what it was doing and actually, they would take me doing an office job and see me every day over me having this incredibly exciting job but always kind of leaving, and being away for long periods of time.
'Especially at the age they're at. Right now for this one little precious period of time in their lives all they want is to be with Mummy and Daddy.'
When he is at home Steve loves nothing more than getting outdoors and exploring nature with his children, something which they all love.
He said: 'From the moment they could crawl they were pond dipping, they were out in the canoes, they were climbing trees, doing all the kind of things that I did as a kid that I really wanted them to embrace and enjoy.
'They've kind of had no choice when it comes to that sort of thing but you can see how switched on they are. They are never more alive, more enthused, sparkle in the eyes than when they're out doing something active, physical, in nature.
'It's the same with animals too, whether it's domestic animals or wild animals, they just love it. I've got something that I can give to them that I know can make them happy and enthused.'
Steve admits that he's quite an old fashioned dad, he said: 'I do think that discipline and rules and structure are important for kids, and I do think the things we've been doing for generations are timeless and they work for a reason. I think I'm quite an old fashioned dad.'
Family time is also really important, and he's conscious of how quickly the years are going by.
He said: 'It feels like an absolute heartbeat since they were crawling around and now all three of them are at school and all three of them have got quite grown up personalities, they're all very different from each other. Everything that everyone says about being a parent is so true.'
While Steve's passion for nature has inspired generations of youngsters to appreciate and protect wildlife, there is one cheeky clip that will always follow him around.
Back in 2013, while demonstrating the hydrodynamics of tuna for Deadly 60, he lost his swimming trunks while clinging onto a rope attached to the back of a speeding boat.
He laughed: 'That will be there for the rest of my career no matter what I do! I could be winning endless awards and be knighted by the King, but that will still be out there, imagery of me being dragged around as naked as the day I was born.
'There's no getting away from it. I've been doing this a long time now and there are an awful lot of those "It'll be alright on the night" out takes of me being pooed on, having animals doing inappropriate things in the back ground behinds me, it's just one of those things, you've got to embrace it.
'I do quite a lot of big shows and talks, I've got a big one coming up in October, an arena tour which is rather exciting, I always play bloopers in those shows because people just love them, they find them hilarious.'
So what do the school mums think of having a hunky explorer in the playground?
Steve said: 'The mums in the playground are all much more adoring of Helen. There's no getting around it, she is mega-mum and she is this incredibly inspiring, iconic figure, so they're all like... 'Oh yeah, the old git who likes bothering bugs or the four-time Olympian who basically went to her third Olympic games when she had three kids under two?
'Who you going to be more admiring of? She's been to four Olympics, she's got two gold medals and one silver medal. She did her third Olympic games post-pandemic, she'd just had the twins, trained herself at home, with no coach, no special diet or routine and became the first British female rower to go to the Olympic games after having kids.'
Steve recently filmed a special expedition in the Arctic, which saw him walk the same path that King Charles did 50 years ago to see how the area has changed over time.
He's just launched his new podcast That's Just Wild, which went straight to the top of the science podcast chart, and is preparing for his first big arena tour this October.
He said: 'The podcast is so exciting. We've just launched. It's with my two good friends Lizzie Daly and Sarah Roberts, and we basically sit around and talk nonsense about nature, the both of them have real academic backgrounds, so there's some really eye-popping science in there as well, it is very funny, sometimes very serious, full of a lot of amazing stuff that people would not have heard before about animals.
'We had a really exciting launch and went straight to the top of the science podcasts which was just fantastic. Then arena tour that I've got coming up in October is something that I've wanted to do for a very long time.
'I've been doing stage shows since about 2008, and I've been developing them over time to make them more and more spectacular, the idea of doing a one man show, in a 20,000 seater arena is both the most exciting and intimidating thing I've ever had on my plate.
'That's the big thing I'm wanting to tick off. It's incredibly exciting and very very frightening. If it goes well, it's going to be epic.'
And although he appeared on BBC's smash hit Saturday night show Strictly Come Dancing back in 2014, Steve's response to any other big celebrity shows has been a blanket 'no' because he is just too busy doing what he loves.
He said: 'Strictly was an incredible experience with the best people. But I have a fairly blanket 'no' I'm up to my eyeballs in the stuff that I love and that is dear to me.
'An awful lot of people in my position do not have all that work, so I do feel that breath down the back of my neck, and I do need to keep doing the stuff that I am good at, and while the opportunities are there I need to take it because they might not be there in a couple of years time.
'So yes occasionally, there will be mentions of things but I'm not really interested. Anything physical like Strictly, Dancing on Ice, you have to give it six months of your life and not do anything else, and right now I've too many other things that I want to do.
'And as for I'm A Celebrity, I can't imagine for a minute, why would they take me to the jungle? I spend my life in the jungle.
'This may sound big headed but I spend more time in the jungle than the people that they would have as their advisors so why would they take me? I would be the worst person to take. It sounds so pretentious, but we're in June and I've had five weeks in the jungle already this year.'
Readers can listen to Steve's new podcast, That's Just Wild, podcast here and tickets for his huge arena tour this October are available via Tickemaster.