Ben Hillman almost quit A Place in the Sun days after landing job after family news
EXCLUSIVE: A Place In The Sun presenter Ben Hillman has opened up on juggling family with his filming schedule for the Channel 4 show.
A Place in the Sun: Ben Hillman shows dining room to couple
A Place In The Sun's Ben Hillman has revealed he landed his job on the Channel 4 property show just as his first child was born leaving him to wonder how he could make it work. The job involves a lot of time away from home filming and Ben was acutely aware of the difficulty this posed.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk he explained: "I had this sort of dichotomy of just landing my dream job, essentially, and the dream moment happening in my life at the same time.
"All of a sudden she was born and I was being torn away to different lands. So it was kind of mixed emotions at that time. I did wonder, 'Oh my goodness, is this going to work?'" he admitted.
"But once you get into a stride as a family, and my wife and I, we found our feet with it, it's kind of fine," he said.
Ben and wife Gaby, who he married in 2011, now have a second daughter and he explained how he manages to juggle his job with his family life.
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"Generally speaking I book out all the school holidays. I won't work those days. So I'm always here for the school holidays.
"If I'm in Spain [working] I fly back for the weekend as well. So if I'm close enough, I'm only really gone sort of Sunday through to Friday, and then I'm back for the weekend and whatnot.
"So it works. It works pretty well. I'm at home pretty much half of the year on average - two weeks on two weeks off. So I might be away two weeks, but then I'm back for a solid two and I'm doing the school run every day. So it kind of works. It works quite nicely, to be honest."
However Ben concedes he didn't find that balance on his own and credits his NHS worker wife for keeping things ticking over.
"My wife has definitely found the rhythm to make it work. She is incredible, because when I am away, she's got her job to be doing. She's looking after the house. She's taking care of the kids. She's a legend, to be honest," he acknowledged.
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Ben is back on screens this evening (September 9) as brand-new episodes of A Place In the Sun return to Channel 4.
He is tasked with helping a couple called Sandra and Gary fulfil their dream of buying their very first property together on the Spanish Costa Calida.
Interestingly the couple has never been to that part of Spain but their research suggests it offers them everything they are looking for in a holiday home.
With a budget of £90,000, viewers will have to tune in to see if Ben is successful in finding his house-hunters their very own place in the sun.
A Place In The Sun is on Channel 4 weekdays at 4pm.
