{"id":700735,"date":"2026-07-20T00:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T00:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/700735\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T00:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T00:15:22","slug":"robert-preston-says-it-was-too-difficult-returning-to-aberystwyth-after-his-wifes-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/700735\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Preston says it was ‘too difficult’ returning to Aberystwyth after his wife’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

ITV political editor Robert Peston described how he found it “too difficult” to return to a home in Wales he shared with his late wife.<\/p>\n

Writer Sian Busby, who had Welsh heritage, died of lung cancer in September 2012, aged 51. <\/p>\n

Peston said Busby decided in the last 10 years of her life that Wales was her “proper home”, leading the couple to spend time at a property in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, for “many years”.<\/p>\n

After Busby died, Peston kept the property for “a while” before deciding to sell because being there reinforced the “terrible sadness and grief” he felt.<\/p>\n

“Being in a place where someone is both there but not there… ultimately I just found it too difficult so in the end I did sell it,” he said. <\/p>\n

“But I still love Wales and Aberystwyth.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales<\/a>, Peston said his wife “loved everything Welsh”, including the coastline, and the couple enjoyed taking “endless walks along the cliffs” together.<\/p>\n

“There is so many amazingly beautiful villages and seaside towns in that part of the world,” he added.<\/p>\n

He recalled how at age nine, his musician son Max recruited a bunch of “Aberystwyth lads” to start a rock band with him. <\/p>\n

As an adult, he went on to form another band, The New Sticky, alongside one of the original members from his childhood band, who plays bass, which his dad said is “lovely”.<\/p>\n

Peston is no stranger to music himself, as lead vocalist of a rock and punk cover band, Centrist Dad. <\/p>\n

He performs alongside broadcaster and former politician, Ed Balls, who plays the drums.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t have a drummer and I piped up…’ well, I know a drummer’,” he said.<\/p>\n

Peston had remembered visiting Balls in the1990s in Yorkshire and seeing a drum kit, leading him to assume he could play. <\/p>\n

Peston called Balls who said “he would give it a go”, before admitting “sheepishly” that he was not a drummer.<\/p>\n

“The thing about Ed is everything he does, he does immensely seriously and so he is now a very accomplished drummer,” Peston added.<\/p>\n

He said the band has provided him with the “most wonderful escapism”, adding: “It’s the joy of my life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ITV political editor Robert Peston described how he found it “too difficult” to return to a home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-700735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}