Skipping Ropes, Starlight Express & No Regrets: Laura Hamilton meets Mr Motivator

What do you do when someone tells you that you cannot do something?

If you are Laura Hamilton, you go and figure out how. In this episode of On Your Bike, Mr Motivator bumps into the TV presenter on a sunny countryside ride, and the conversation that follows covers skipping ropes in hotel rooms, a childhood trip to Starlight Express, learning to fly, and why nothing in life should ever be filed under regret. It is all in there…

On Your Bike with Laura Hamilton: Fitness, Family and Life Without Regrets

The weather is beautiful, Mr Motivator is out on his VOLT Pulse, and is joined by Laura on the Pulse LS for a stunning bike ride and meaningful conversation. 

Laura, it turns out, is no stranger to two wheels. She has a bike in her home gym and another she takes out on rides outdoors, the longest recently clocking in at 13 miles. 

From Dodging PE to the London Marathon

For someone who now trains four or five times a week, Laura’s school sporting record is a surprise. She hated PE, and used to get her mum to write a note so she could skip the 400 metres.

Fast forward a few years and she ran the London Marathon for charity. But she is not a natural runner, and she finds the bike far kinder on her knees. Mr Motivator agrees, pointing out that on a bike you can wander off into the countryside and go that much further without really thinking about it.

Laura also remembers a pointer he gave her years ago, when they first met on a very well-known show. She was standing with all her weight on one hip, and he warned her it would cause problems later in life. She has never forgotten it.

The Skipping Rope in the Suitcase

Laura’s favourite piece of fitness kit is also the smallest. A skipping rope goes everywhere with her, and it takes up almost no room in a suitcase.

“People that have worked with me and stayed in hotel rooms below me can often say, ‘That’s Laura skipping up there.'”

She tries to book hotels with gyms when she is working, and when filming in Spain she runs along the promenade. Mr Motivator approves, and adds one thing to her packing list: resistance bands, one long and thin, one to go around the legs. Handy, given Laura only ever travels with hand luggage so she can get in and out of airports as fast as possible.

Keeping the Kids Busy

Laura grew up constantly encouraged to be active, and parents her own children the same way. Her children play tennis, ski, play football, ride horses and do gymnastics, and both have earned sports scholarships at school.

“My mum and dad always said, if we have you doing stuff all the time, then you’re not going to be on the street.”

Mr Motivator makes an observation. In the old days, being sent to your room was the punishment. Now, with phones and social media, the real punishment is being sent outside.

Knees and The Jump

Luckily, Laura suffered no horrendous injuries from working out. But Laura is a big skier (she did The Jump on Channel 4, which Mr Motivator was asked to do and turned down), and a fall before the marathon left her with a left knee she describes as definitely niggly. And when it comes to protecting knees, they both enthusiastically agree cycling is a powerful way to stay active and spare your knees!

“I Spring Out of Bed”

Ask Laura what she does first thing in the morning and the answer is simple. She smiles.

“People say, ‘Why are you always smiling?’ I’m like, ‘Sorry, this is my face!'”

She is usually awake before the alarm, never hits snooze, and by her own account has often lived two days before some people have even got out of bed. She packs her days so full that by the evening she sometimes cannot remember whether something happened that morning or the day before.

Mr Motivator reflects on how priorities shift with age. Your circle of friends gets smaller, you worry less about other people’s opinions, and you become more secure in who you are. Laura agrees. Being authentic matters more to her now than being a people pleaser.

Starlight Express and a Runner at Channel 4

At 15, Laura wanted to be a dentist. Then a forensic scientist, until she remembered how squeamish she is. Then her mum and dad took her to see Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria, and that was that.

“I watched all of these people skating around and I was like, I want to do that. I want to be up there.”

She had always been the kid in the middle of the dance floor on holiday, organising talent contests and a version of Blind Date on campsites. Her mum asked whether she really wanted a career of unsociable hours and fierce competition, and promised to support her either way.

She did A levels in theatre studies, skipped university, wrote to TV companies, and landed a job as a runner at Channel 4 at 18, working behind the scenes while secretly wanting to be on stage. 

Strength Handed Down

Where does all that positivity come from? Laura gives the credit to her parents.

Her mum has lived with rheumatoid arthritis since she was 27. It went undiagnosed for around ten years, and by the time Laura was 13 her mum could no longer work. She never once complained.

“She was like, I’m not going to let it stop me. I’m going to be in the garden. Let’s go skiing.”

Her dad, Ian, lost both his parents in South Africa when he was four and was adopted by a British family. Growing up without knowing his own family is, Laura believes, why family matters so much to him. There is even a remarkable twist: years later, it emerged that relatives he had never known had been to watch Laura in pantomime in Milton Keynes with Bradley Walsh, without realising she was family.

Ian was a drummer, and played Uncle Bulgaria in the Wombles. At 21, his adoptive mum told him to get a proper job, and he gave music up. That, Laura says, is exactly why he has always told her to go and live her dreams.

Broken Trust and No Regrets

Mr Motivator asks about her lowest point. Laura will not call anything her lowest, but she admits to crying privately, and says the hardest moments have come when her trust has been broken by people closest to her.

The lesson she takes from it is not to tar everyone with the same brush, and to regret nothing.

“You can’t regret anything that you’ve done in your life, because I wouldn’t be the person I am if I hadn’t made those mistakes. And actually, they might not be mistakes. They’re just part of your journey, part of your story.”

Mr Motivator knows that feeling well. Adopted at three months old, he traced his birth mother at 45. After saying on a radio interview that he regretted her not being there, a listener wrote to tell him that everything that had happened was a stepping stone to where he is now. It changed his thinking, and it echoes Laura’s own view that things happen for a reason.

What Wellbeing Means to Laura

It is the question she struggles with most, she says, because she finds it so hard to switch off. Even during a massage or a facial, she is talking. Mr Motivator points out that is no bad thing. Communication, friends and travel are all pillars of her wellbeing, and so is music, especially a film score playing while she looks out of a plane window at the clouds.

Just before Covid, Laura started learning to fly, following in the footsteps of her dad, who holds a pilot’s licence. It was, fittingly, the one place she could not be contacted or distracted. Right on cue, a Spitfire roars overhead!

Mr Motivator shares his own framework: financial, emotional, physical and mental wellbeing, kept in balance. Emotions, he believes, are the main thing, because when those are out of kilter you cannot sleep, eat or do anything. And that emotional contentment does not depend on being with someone. It can simply mean loving yourself.

Laura sleeps brilliantly, by the way. Head hits the pillow, and she is out.

Quickfire Round: Mountains, Flying and Adventure Every Time

Laura warns that she is not good at quickfire rounds. She then proceeds to prove Mr Motivator wrong on almost every guess.

Mountains over beach, because she cannot lie still for long. City break over countryside retreat. Flying over a road trip (he knew that one), and adventure travel over relaxation, which she could manage for about half an hour. Solo or group trips proves too difficult to call, although neither of them enjoys sitting around a table deciding what to do next. Mr Motivator suggests that is because she is bossy.

Summer or winter? All of it. Long haul, though she points out how much is on our doorstep. Backpacking over all-inclusive, which Mr Motivator refuses to believe. Historical sites, early morning flights, spontaneous trips, and a far-away getaway. And after a brief wobble, local cuisine, because her children have travelled since they were three weeks old and eat everything.

His verdict on the results?

“At this moment, it looks like you need to be on medication.”

Watch the Full Conversation

Laura Hamilton’s episode is warm, funny and full of energy, and it lands on the same truth this series keeps finding. Staying active is not just about fitness. It is about resilience, gratitude, and treating every twist in the road as part of the story.

Watch the full episode above, and find the rest of the series on the On Your Bike Podcast page. You can also catch up with Jeremy Vine, Levi Roots and Rustie Lee, and visit the Mr Motivator, Say Yeah channel.