Kate Forbes revealed how Storm Floris derailed her announcement that she would step down from Holyrood next year.
The Deputy First Minister appeared at The Herald's Unspun Live at the Fringe on Thursday evening, where she joked her appearance at the special podcast event had inspired her to make the announcement early.
On Monday, the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch confirmed she would not seek re-election.
She has criticised the Scottish Parliament's creche facilities as she juggled the demands of parenthood and a high-profile government job.
Her decision to step down was fuelled by a desire to spend more time with her family.
The Deputy First Minister told The Herald's political editor Andrew Learmonth she had no regrets about announcing she would step aside.
Her statement was released on August 4 - the day of her daughter Naomi's third birthday. But it coincided with extreme weather across the country.
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Speaking during the Fringe show, she said: "The news broke not just on her third birthday, but it broke in the throes on Storm Floris.
“So at about 11am, just after making the news the power went off completely. The WiFi broke. A mobile phone mast went down which meant there was no 4G and no mobile connectivity at all and despite going from my office back home to see if it was any better, I was totally cut off from about 11am and had no idea how anybody had responded to the news until about eight o’clock the next morning.
“It was quite blissful really. It saves you sort of scrolling through social media and allowed me to avoid all the good riddance comments as well.”
Storm Floris caused widespread disruption across Scotland, with around 950 homes still without power in the aftermath.
Ms Forbes revealed she had initially intended to make the announcement on Friday, August 8 – but her appearance at The Herald’s Unspun Live prompted her to bring the news forward.
“Such is my affliction for The Herald, I thought imagine announcing something the day after a big set piece like this,” she joked, adding: “That would have been a little bit unfair.”
She told the audience she did not have the “heart” to “essentially say goodbye” to Naomi every Monday morning for several days a week for another five years.
At the final night of @heraldscotland Unspun Live, @_KateForbes tells political editor @andrewlearmonth she’s not a quitter as she opens up about an incident where she was quizzed by someone on her views on wind farms when her daughter had clearly hurt herself pic.twitter.com/xXrhLt5Eov
— Hannah Brown (@HannahMargBrown) August 7, 2025
Ms Forbes, who spent a significant period of her childhood in India, recently visited the country with her family over the summer.
It was here she made the decision to step aside.
She said: “What did change over the summer was taking some time out, taking some leave, having a break and reflecting on what next six years looks like.
“It’s one thing to feel how difficult it is to balance all these competing demands, and then it’s another to voluntarily sign up for another five years.”
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While in India this summer, the Deputy First Minister and her family visited an orphanage, with children ranging from ages four to 16.
“I was just so overwhelmed at the realisation that these kids – these really precious kids – didn’t have something that my daughter did have and that my absence from home so often was a serious matter,” she said.
“I realised that in voluntarily signing up for another five years, I was choosing to essentially say goodbye to her every Monday morning and say hello again hopefully on a Friday night, on a good week. Sometimes on a Saturday night and sometimes leaving on a Sunday night.
“I just didn’t have the heart to do that for another five years.”
“To voluntarily choose to essentially outsource my daughter’s upbringing was a sacrifice too far.
“And so whilst it was a really difficult decision and I don’t want to let people down and I’m conscious of the impact it has on my own patch.
“I came back from India mid-July thinking that I knew what I needed to do.”
She also said she had been “weighing” up a number of decisions and had been trying to make the balance work for three years.
You can listen to the full special series of The Herald Unspun Live at the Fringe here.
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