A health condition forced Countryfile favourite Matt Baker to give up his beloved hobby and career as a child.
The presenter had planned a different career to TV presenting. Firstly, he wanted to become a gymnast. However, injury meant that Matt had to give up his dreams of competing for his country.
Countryfile star Matt Baker on his dreams
During an interview with Penguin in 2021, Matt told how he ended up in television. His parents Mike and Janice encouraged him to give everything a go.
Matt, 48, grew up on a farm, and started doing gymnastics as a young boy. It began as a physical outlet, but Matt – on Celebrity Bridge of Lies this weekend (April 11) – developed a real flair for the sport.
Consequently, Matt made newspaper headlines when he achieved a perfect 10 in a national competition. But at 14 he was diagnosed with anaemia, and therefore had to quit. The condition can be caused by a lack of iron and result in dizziness, thus making it unsafe.
Speaking in 2025, he said: “Ever since I was a little lad, it was my dream to be part of the Olympics. But I ended up having to stop my gymnastics in my mid-teens because I got anaemia. It meant I just couldn’t train to the level that was needed so I made the heartbreaking decision to stop.”
But Matt then took up gymnastics again. Speaking in 2015, Matt told the Mirror how he found it to be the best stress reliever.
He said: “I’m very physical and I have to do two or three good sessions a week or I get really wound up. I do handstands and backflips at home, I’ve got crash mats, we’ve got a big climbing frame and I’ve got ropes in the trees.”
Matt’s journey to stardom
Matt fell into showbiz accidentally, and it became his first passion. He acted as a stunt double for the lead in a school production of Grease, and was shocked by how much he loved it. Because of this, Matt finally decided to go to drama school. Blue Peter, The One Show and Countryfile then beckoned.
Speaking late last year he added: “I never actually wanted to be a TV presenter. It all sort of happened – fate. I was a British champion gymnast when I was younger, and I ended up in a college production of the musical Grease – I was the stunt man doing the backflips and somersaults as a body double for the guy playing one of the lead parts. But he got laryngitis a couple of days before the show opened, and I ended up having to take his part! While in the show I got scouted, and I ended up at drama school in Edinburgh.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Watch Matt on Celebrity Bridge of Lies on Saturday (April 11) at 5.40pm.
Read more: Countryfile star Matt Baker’s plea to fans over ‘herniated disc’ which once left him ‘bed-bound’
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