Helen Skelton has revealed why she left a top BBC job to move back to her native Cumbria to live on her parents’ dairy farm.

The 40-year-old mother of three says she is happily ‘living in 1985’ as her friend put it during a recent visit.

“My house is always full of so many kids, because you’re repaying the favour.

"The adage that it takes a village [to raise a child] is 100 per cent true,” Skelton told The Times.

She recalled a moment last week when she opened the door to her pantry and found two of her friend’s children retrieving cakes when she did not know they were in the house.

“I like that kind of household,” she said. “It’s funny: my friend came up to visit me from London and said I live in 1985. I’m alright with that.”

She said last week: “Anyone with small kids knows that there’s certain times in your life when jobs work, and certain times when they don’t. I’ve got three very busy kids who do three very different activities and most of them happen on a Sunday morning. It was just the wrong time.”

"There are certain chapters of your life where things are just a little bit too much"

Skelton joined Morning Live, the BBC’s daily mid-morning magazine show, as a host this month.

She will host the BBC1 show three days a week every fortnight, leaving her time to film other projects, including Countryfile and Channel 5 documentaries.

Skelton said she was “kind of amused” by the publicity surrounding her decision to walk away from her previous Sunday morning BBC Radio 5 Live show, adding: “I thought: that just shows that there are a lot of people in the same boat.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a mum, a dad, a grandparent or step-grandparent: there are certain chapters of your life where things are just a little bit too much.”