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BBC presenter reassures fans after ‘gasping for breath’ during weather report-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro
He took to social media.
![BBC presenter reassures fans after ‘gasping for breath’ during weather report-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SEC_200089076-4c60.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1024)
Simon King has reassured fans after they worried he was having a medical episode on air (Picture: BBC)
BBC weather presenter Simon King has reassured viewers he is okay after a worrying on-air moment.
After suffering shortness of breath during a live broadcast Simon received messages from concerned members of the public, but he has since taken to social media to reassure everyone he was okay.
Simon explained to viewers how he was not suffering a health problem, but had just been running late for the show and had to leg it up a flight of stairs.
‘Thank you to those who asked if I was alright after my Radio 4 weather earlier,’ he said, posting a picture of the stairs on Sunday evening,
‘Not going to lie, it was horrendous … I just couldn’t catch a breath. Time was really tight after I finished a TV hit so I decided to run upstairs to the radio studio … big mistake,’ he explained.
The BBC star told The Telegraph that members of the public had sent messages asking: ‘You okay? Have you had an asthma attack? Heart attack?’
He added: ‘Fortunately, it was nothing more than just running to get to the studio in time up a massive flight of stairs and then struggling with it.’
On Sundays – the day of his stairs dash – Simon is responsible for giving the forecast on Radio 4’s Breakfast programme and Radio 5 Live.
Usually the breakfast forecast is aired at 7.45am with the Radio 4 slot 12 minutes later, leaving enough time for him to present both shows.
But this time the Radio 4 show ran late, and he only had two minutes to get from one studio to the other at the BBC’s Salford base.
Simon had ran up the stairs as he was running late for the broadcast (Picture: BBC News & Current Affairs via G)
‘I didn’t actually get out of the studio until 7.55 am,’ he told the publication, ‘and as I got out of the studio I looked at my watch and realised, “Christ, I have only got two minutes before I need to be on Radio 4”.’
The flustered presenter then made a ‘split-second decision’ between the lift and the stairs, he recalled to the outlet.
‘In order to get there and not miss it, I decided I should run up the stairs!’ he said, adding: ‘Obviously when I got to the radio studio and I couldn’t breathe, I immediately thought that was probably a bad idea.’
His breath just got worse and worse, according to the meteorologist, as Simon explained how his rising panic of being live exacerbated the problem.
Having previously served in the Royal Air Force Reserve, Simon said the breathless episode made him want to get fitter.
Simon said this was nothing compared to the time a cyst burst in his spleen while he was presenting the shipping forecast. He was rushed to hospital immediately after the broadcast.
He said that while everyone noticed his panting on Sunday, no one noticed the ‘incredible pain’ he was in when the cyst burst.
In October 2013, Simon also made the news when he had to deliver his own baby.
‘It was a Friday night, we’d been for a curry and went to bed as normal. But around 2:00 am, my wife Emma woke me up to tell me her waters had broken,’ he told the BBC at the time.
After their first child Noah’s birth spanned 12 hours, the pair didn’t think there was a desperate rush to get to hospital. Their plan was to wait for Emma’s parents to arrive from Wales to look after Noah.
Their baby daughter Nell had other plans though, as Emma announced she needed to go to hospital.
But there was ‘no time’ as within minutes Emma said she needed to push.
‘I said: “What?! You can’t start pushing, not now.” I was in denial at first. But I then grabbed some towels called 999 in a bit of a whirl,’ Simon remembered.
He was then forced to deliver Nell, and ‘didn’t have time to panic’ as the operator took Simon through a birthing checklist.
‘Within seconds of the operator saying “you need to support the baby when she comes out”, she was born in my arms, thankfully breathing and crying.’
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