BBC star Jo Whiley, 59, ageing backwards as she shows off her incredible abs in powerful shoot-Asyia Iftikhar-Entertainment – Metro

Media personality Jo Whiley spoke about the fitness routine behind her healthy lifestyle (Picture: Mark Cant / Women’s Health UK / BBC)

Radio DJ and host Jo Whiley has candidly opened up about how the gym ‘saved her’ after she started menopause.

The 59-year-old presenter is reaping the rewards of her healthy lifestyle as she showed off her amazing abs and strong physique in an empowering new photoshoot as she looks towards her milestone 60th birthday.

The mum-of-four has been in the industry for three decades and has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. So she has decided to up the fitness ante to sustain her bustling career and make sure she is around for as long as possible in her children’s lives.

‘With running, I really have to make myself do it. But the gym I love working out and doing weights,’ she told Women’s Health UK for the October cover.

In particular, Jo hopes she can open up more conversation around the impact of menopause on women in their 50s and 60s – especially as women in this age range who work in the media industry have long been overlooked.

‘I did go through a period of time when I felt like I was just a bit weak, but I think it’s probably when the menopause hit,’ she continued.

Jo struggles with running but loves the weights (Picture: Mark Cant / Women’s Health UK)

She was heavily impacted by menopause (Picture: Mark Cant / Women’s Health UK)

‘When I was going through [it], I think the conversation wasn’t being had that vocally, like it wasn’t on social media with Davina [McCall] and her campaign… I really lost myself.

‘I cried all the time. I mean, I cry a lot anyway, but I cried all the time. I just felt very weak. And going to the gym and getting myself strong has played a really big part in helping me be the person I am today. It really saved me.’

During this time period, Jo and her family have also had a wake-up call around maintaining a fit and healthy lifestyle following the deaths of several friends including broadcaster Steve Wright.

As she explained: ‘Our family motto was “can everybody stop dying?” because it was just like, oh my god, another one.

‘I’ve always been healthy, and so [there weren’t] any major lifestyle changes, but it was going and getting health checks… [and] having a yearly MOT.’

The radio and TV personality wants to stay healthy as long as possible(Picture: Mark Cant / Women’s Health UK)

She also spoke about how her experience has differed from her daughter’s (Picture: Mark Cant / Women’s Health UK)

Elsewhere in the article, Jo reflected on how much the atmosphere has changed for women now compared to her generation.

During her 20s and 30s, ‘there was so much objectification of women and their bodies’ she said, adding that it was a ‘ludicrous time’ but she ‘weathered the storm’.

It was similar for her oldest daughter, 32, who ‘faced a lot of pressure’ around her body growing up including ‘fat-shaming’ and the stress to be ‘skinny all the time’.

Although she did praise the new generation of girls who seem to ‘absolutely fearless’ as they embrace themselves for exactly who they are, and what they look like.

The music expert has been in the industry for decades (Picture: Ian West/PA)

The Northampton native joined BBC Radio 1 in 1993 where she became co-presenter of the Evening Show with Steve Lamacq.

She has since been on the ground at the biggest music events in the world and crossed paths with huge names in the industry such as Madonna and Adele.

The Radio 2 DJ is a regular at Glastonbury Festival and has seen it all over the years. In 2022, she told Metro.co.uk what the wildest thing she has ever witnessed is at the five-day musical festivies.

‘Oh God. The mud people. Those years of the mud. I think 1997 was one of the extraordinarily bleak times and just trying to discern whether there was a human being lying in the ground or whether it was sort of a creature, you know, everyone coated in mud.

‘The crazy dancing mud people are probably the weirdest thing that I’ve seen,’ she admitted.

Currently, Jo presents Radio 2’s ‘In Concert’ on Thursday which features live performances and a round-up of the music gigs on everyone’s lips.

The full interview can be read on the Women’s Health UK website now, or in the new issue on sale from 17th September.

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