Earlier this month, Gabby Logan was quizzed about her biggest mishaps on live television, and recounted the nightmarish moment she realised she was mistaken when she told millions of viewers a boxer’s mum and sister had passed away.
The Welsh TV and radio presenter – on London Marathon: My Reason to Run today (April 26) – had been working on the BBC‘s highlights show during the London 2012 Olympic Games when the mistake happened.
Gabby Logan on biggest TV mishap
On her final night, she was presenting a BBC show of highlights from the previous two and half weeks. She had an “amazing guest list”, she told Sir Chris Hoy on his podcast. Among them was David Beckham.
“He came on and it was the final day of the Olympics, so you kind of lose track of everything that’s going on,” she explained.
“We had a bit of boxing on and we were watching through this VT. And I said to David: ‘It’s really tragic, this boxer, his mum and sister died this year in a car accident.'”
As the VT ended, Gabby said to the camera: “Luke Campbell, Olympic champion. Very emotional actually because the story behind Luke, he lost his mum and his baby sister six years ago and he went into a boxing club at a very young age and stuck at the sport.”
Beckham replied to her, still on camera: “He has been through a really tough time in his life and boxing was obviously something that he wanted to go into and wanted to kind of prove to people how strong he is mentally and physically.
“He’s performed at the highest level and won us another gold and his mum and his sister will be smiling down and we are all so proud of what he has achieved.”
Gabby Logan’s apology
At the end of the recording session, the presenters headed outside expecting a rapturous farewell. Producers called Gabby back inside, however. She thought she was getting champagne. Instead, she received some shocking intel.
Sitting on the sofa, out of view of the cameras, she was told in her earpiece that Luke Campbell’s mum and sister didn’t actually die in a car accident.
“Then somebody starts shouting: ‘It’s Anthony Ogogo, no it’s Anthony Joshua,’ and they’re shouting all the British boxers names in the gallery,” Gabby continued. “From the head of sport to the head of Olympic sport.”
It was “terrible”, she said.
“I decided the best way to finish was to say: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, some erroneous information made it to air tonight and Luke Campbell’s mother and sister are alive and well, goodnight.'”
‘It took me a while to get over’
The story made it into the Telegraph, who reported that she was “forced to apologise” after the mistake. The paper pointed out that Logan had confused Luke Campbell with a different Team GB boxer, Freddie Evans. He tragically lost his mum Tracy and sister Scarlett in a car accident in 2006.
Gabby later tweeted, “Huge apologies to Luke Campbell’s family. His mum is alive and well. Some erroneous information made it to air. I can only apologise.”
She told Chris Hoy that she called Luke’s mum the following morning. “She was just so brilliant about it all,” she said.
“It was my fault, I told David. But that took me a while to get over, that night I couldn’t sleep. I had just ruined 18 days of the Olympics, and you blow it up in your head, don’t you?”
Former Olympic heavyweight champion Audley Harrison called it an epic fail, on Twitter. Amir Khan, meanwhile, tweeted, “Gabby Logan just killed off the Campbell family LOL”, according to Wales Online.
Watch Gabby on London Marathon: My Reason to Run today (April 26) at 1.15pm on BBC One.
Read more: Gabby Logan reveals her ‘tears’ over family upheaval: ‘I’m not going to pretend it’s a breeze’
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