Susanna Reid's "armour crumbled" during the making of her new documentary.
Susanna Reid
The 46-year-old TV presenter has made a one-off show for ITV's 'Crime & Punishment' series about the 2015 murder of 16-year-old Becky Watts, and Susanna - who has sons Sam, 15, Finn, 13, and Jack, 12, with Dominic Cotton - has confessed the story took a toll on her.
She explained: "As a journalist, you deal with a lot of horror, so you develop a certain armour to switch your emotions off, but there are times when that armour just crumbles.
"In those moments, you are no longer a journalist, you are someone who knows what it would be like. Your heart and soul just goes out to them. Afterwards, you realise you have been much more affected by it than you thought.
"It does make you go home and hug your own kids that bit tighter at night because you see the true devastation of what some parents experience."
During the documentary, Susanna speaks with the victim's dad Darren and step-mother Anjie about Becky's murder in Bristol.
And Susanna admitted the experience of making the programme has made her more appreciative of the people in her own life.
She told The Sun newspaper: "I am very grateful that I have my kids, and those simple pleasures like cooking with them or just hanging out become much more important with that in mind.
"Obviously I don't want my children to bear the responsibilities of my job, so you have to leave it at the door because you'd be a wreck, but sometimes I wonder where [the darker things] lodge in your brain.
"I hope what it does is make you have an appreciation for the good things in life, while having an understanding of the pain some families go through."
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