Place in the Sun Jasmine Harman says settling in Spain 'wasn't all plain sailing'

A Place in the Sun presenter Jasmine Harman has spoken frankly about how long it took her family to settle in Spain, admitting, "it wasn't all plain sailing".

She also revealed that despite budget cuts at Channel 4, A Place in the Sun wasn't facing the axe as rumoured online.

Harman, 48, moved to Spain a year ago but has worked in and around the area for more than 20 years in her role as one of the lead presenters on the programme.

She moved there with her husband and children, and for the first time has talked honestly about the difficulties they faced with their new life, and how it's helped her in how she advises people who now come on to the show looking for property.

Said Harman: "I'm not going to say it's been plain sailing because there is definitely a period of settling in where you feel sort of a bit adrift where you don't know anyone.

"Things have now changed for the better. The children found friends at school. My husband has taken up paddle boarding and I'm doing Pilates classes. None of this stuff happens immediately but now we are feeling much more settled.

"You know, for the first six months everything felt a lot harder. But now I feel like, you know, we've got some community support and friends that we can ask for advice if we need something.

"It's really nice, actually. I suppose it's just like moving house anywhere, wherever you are. We had to build up new support networks and new relationships."

"And now I can commute to and from work rather than be away from the children."

Harman is now passing on her new advice to house hunters on the show.

"I can now, yes. I mean, I first moved abroad in my 20s when I lived in Portugal for nearly four years. And I think that has helped me over the last 20 years of working on A Place in the Sun to know and to be able to understand what it's like to try and adapt to living abroad or having a home abroad.

"And so now doing it myself, I can add to the experience. This morning, my house hunters were asking me, 'Oh, you know, who did you use as your lawyer or what do we ask for? And what about currency exchange? And you know, and I've just done it. I've just done it for real."

She wasn't aware of any rumours that the show would be hit by budget cuts.

Harman explained: "I don't know anything about that.

"I know that Channel 4 has been going through a bit of a difficult time, but we are still filming loads of new episodes. There's still there's a whole load of new episodes coming on to our screens.

"So you know, I would just reassure people there's nothing to worry about. We're still here. We're still making new episodes all the time and there's plenty for people to enjoy and watch."

New episodes of Place in the Sun continue on Channel 4, 3pm