I felt like an emotional punch bag after the death of Mike and my parents

Sarah Greene was one of TV's biggest stars... then came years of debilitating grief. As she supports a Christmas fundraiser to help ovarian cancer sufferers, she opens up on loss, her career comeback and finding new love

- BY FRAN WINSTON

Sarah with husband Mike Smith back in 2008

THE FESTIVE season is a time of reflection for most people, but Sarah Greene has particular cause for contemplation. The 68-year-old television presenter is very much in love, more of which later, and is also enjoying a career resurgence thanks to her role hosting hit BBC game show The Finish Line alongside Roman Kemp.

The quickfire quiz has proved such a success since its launch two years ago that it's been granted a Christmas special this year, something which delights Sarah, best known for hosting iconic children's TV shows Blue Peter and Saturday Superstore.

"Up until four years ago, I'd never worked on a quiz show," she says.

"I've been a guest on one many times and found it terrifying. But I absolutely adored being on the desk side of the action from day one, and I'm still loving that now." Her joie de vivre comes after a difficult period in her life in which she suffered the deaths of the three people closest to her.

"I had possibly the worst three to four years of my life, losing my mum, then my dad, then my husband," she says quietly.

Sarah's beloved mother, actress Marjie Lawrence, died in 2010 aged 78 of ovarian cancer. Her father, TV DIY expert Harry Greene, collapsed and died in 2013, at the age of 89 after returning from a holiday with Sarah and her husband, fellow TV presenter and businessman Mike Smith.

'It's a strange, surreal, visceral, hurting sadness'

That would be enough sadness for most people to endure in a short period.

But just 17 months later, Mike, to whom Sarah had been married for 25 years since 1989, having first met him in 1981, died aged 59 from heart surgery complications.

"It's unreal, it's a strange, surreal, visceral, hurting, sadness it's all of those things," she recalls of the grief she felt.

"I don't speak for everybody. I can only speak from my own experience on this.