Fiona Bruce wonders if she spent enough time with her children

She said it helped to have the same live-in nanny for two decades when it came to balancing her professional and domestic lives.

The 57-year-old broadcaster shares two children with her husband, media chairman Nigel Sharrocks, a son called Sam born in January 1998 and a daughter named Mia born in November 2001.

Appearing on the cover of October’s edition of Good Housekeeping, she said: “It was definitely helped by having the same nanny living with us for 20 years. She left when Mia finished her GCSEs, but she’s a firm family friend.

“Did I spend enough time with my children? I think scratch the surface of any working woman and she will always think, ‘Probably not.’

“I don’t think there’s such a thing as quality time with your children. I think it’s quantity.

“But there’s never been any question that they take precedence over everything in my life, and always have done.”

Fiona also expressed dismay at being repeatedly asked whether she was “ambitious” as a young journalist.

She said: “When I started my career, I got asked that time and time again. In the end, I was thoroughly sick of it because I never heard a man being asked that.

“It’s the same as only women being described as ‘feisty.’ You want to do as well as you can in your job – that’s human nature.”

The Question Time host said, when coronavirus restrictions would allow, she was excited for the return of a live audience to the BBC show.

She said: “When the live audience comes back I will kiss every single one of them, whether they like it or not!

“There is no substitute for having people actually there, seeing what they want to talk about and gauging their reactions when the politicians speak.

“Having a live audience makes the programme an event – it’s the bit I enjoy most.”

The full interview can be found in the October issue of Good Housekeeping which is on sale now.