Amanda Holden gets tearful as daughter prepares to leave home

Amanda Holden shared an emotional clip from her recent TV series on Instagram, expressing her fear about her daughters eventually leaving home.

The 53-year-old presenter has two daughters with her husband Chris Hughes and the eldest — 18-year-old Lexi — is planning to jet off to an American university to continue her studies. Her other daughter, Hollie, is 12.

In a clip from the sixth episode of Holden's recent series with Alan Carr, entitled Amanda and Alan's Italian Job, Holden explained that she feared her most precious time with her kids is coming to an end.

She said: "Your children, when they leave home, you then only spend like a year of your life with them ever again. They say you have 18 summers, and then you're lucky to see them.

"It's so terrible because you wish so much of it away. When you're a busy parent, you just go 'oh god' or you're like 'shush' or 'hurry up', or you're on your phone or you're cooking dinner or something goes wrong.

"I spend my life going 'hurry up, don't interrupt' and then they turn around and they're not even there. They're gone."

Holden shared the tear-jerking clip with the simple caption "time flies, enjoy it" and the video has already been liked more than 15,000 times, with many commenters sharing their own experience of being "empty nesters".

A 2021 survey found that nearly half of parents have experienced the fears around empty nest syndrome, so Holden is far from alone in worrying about the future.

The second series of Amanda and Alan's Italian Job launched on BBC iPlayer in January and, within 24 hours, almost three million viewers had tuned in to watch the two friends in action.

During the show, the duo attempt to revive the fortunes of dilapidated properties in Italy through ambitious renovation jobs.

Amanda and Alan's Italian Job is available on BBC iPlayer now.

Watch: Amanda Holden broke Britain's Got Talent rule at 2024 auditions

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