ITV presenter Nicki Shields says ’supportive husband’ is secret to balancing family and travel
TV presenter Nicki Shields says the secret to her work-life balance is having a supportive husband. Nicki is the face of ITV’s newly-acquired coverage of Formula E motorsport, having worked with the series for over 10 years.
But working in international motorsport - which takes place in glamorous locations such as Miami, Tokyo and Monaco worldwide - has a clear toil on home life.
Nicki has three young children aged just five, two and one, but has to spend a period of time every few weeks away from them, while she travels the globe for her TV duties. But with the support of her husband, Mark Sainthill, who she married in a luscious ceremony in Ibiza in 2014, she believes she has the perfect support network to allow her to keep flourishing in her career.
“I have a very supportive and understanding husband,” she says. “And to be honest, I'm never away for more than five days and for the European races, it's a bit less. I just view it as Monday to Friday.
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“A lot of people, a lot of my friends that have big jobs, they leave before the kids get up and they come home after the kids have gone to bed, so they are effectively away for five days, week after week after week. I do it ten times out of 52 weeks.
“It is obviously hard to be away but I have a good support network at home with my husband. We've got an after school nanny. We've got my parents. But I'm then around a lot more the rest of the time. I see it as being quite lucky that I can kind of get the best of both worlds, really… and then I get to have a good night's sleep when I'm away from them!
“When we were at Madrid, at breakfast they had FaceTime with me and they're just watching the cars go round on track, and I'm giving them a little tour of the garage and Arthur (eldest child) was asking about it, he wants to see this driver and that driver while he's just having his Cheerios before school.
“It also just means they've got a really good relationship with my husband, their dad, because we share the parenting. So they are as equally happy to be with me as they are with him. I know in a lot of situations that it's not always the case with kids; they're attached to one parent.”
Nicki has been a stalwart of Formula E’s race coverage for a decade and will again lead the TV team on Saturday night when they race in Mexico City.
She has previously been utilised as the pitlane reporter while Vernon Kay and Jermaine Jenas took control of hosting duties, but after Jenas’ highly-publicised exit from television, Nicki was given the call-up.
Nicki was working for CNN and had a sustainability programme when Formula E - an all-electric motorsport - was created in 2014.
She had never even thought about working in motorsport due to the lack of female representation in the sport, but with her love for racing - which comes from go-karting with her father as a child - and admiration for sustainability and technology, Formula E became a perfect fit.
The issue of female representation is improving. Formula E have just invested over £100,000 to help kickstart their More Than Equal campaign. Nicki is also an ambassador of Girls on Track, the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and motorsport initiative.
Nicki says: “It’s insane how much has changed. I remember so well in the first season, I could often be at the dinner with 20, 25 guys, and I might be the only female there. If I go for dinner now, it's 50-50.
“You don't necessarily see that from a shop window because all of the drivers are male at the moment, but everyone behind the scenes feels way more balanced. We still need more women in those positions, like team principals, and get them into engineering and mechanics, but overall, I think if you look at all the different roles, there's a really, really lovely balance, and I think that's why I've enjoyed working here so much.
“I don't want to come away and just be the token female. I want all my good mates, all my girlfriends, I want to go out for dinner with them at the end of the day. It's a much more inclusive workplace, a brilliant environment to be.”
Formula E, just like Formula One, attracts a wealth of celebrity names at their races. But one visitor stands out as Nicki’s favourite: Anthony Joshua. The former heavyweight boxing champion was a guest at the Monaco E-Prix last season.
“It wasn't until I met him that he took my breath away,” she says. “I have met a lot of celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio, who, when I was growing up, was like my pin-up boy on my bedroom wall. But AJ was just like, wow, there's something, he has this aura about him.
“He's just so big in his stature and he's very calm when he talks. He's very passionate about Formula E. He wowed everyone in the paddock when he walked around. Everyone did literally just stopped what they were doing and stared. There aren't many people in the world that can command attention like that.”
Watch Nicki Shields and Formula E on ITV throughout the season. The Mexico City E-Prix takes place on Saturday 11 January and will be streamed on ITVX.
