Empire’s Terri White has revealed she stepped down as editor after six years because she was “completely exhausted” by working 19-hour days after she became a mother.

White said that when she returned to work last year after her maternity leave she warned bosses at Empire publisher Bauer that her previous long hours would no longer be feasible, yet nothing changed and she made the “very painful decision” to leave.

“The reality is it continued to be unworkable so there was a week before I resigned where I worked a few 19-hour days,” White told the Media Voices Podcast.