Dame Arlene Phillips has opened up about motherhood at 47 with her second daughter, around the campfire with her fellow competitors on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Chatting to her celebrity campmates, the former Strictly Come Dancing judge revealed: ‘My daughter Abi, I remember dreading, absolutely dreading taking her to school, age 4, and having to explain, “No, I’m her mother not her grandmother. I was 47 when I had her.”’
Saturdays singer Frankie Bridge, however, was incredibly impressed by her pal on the show, revealing that it ‘just blows my mind’ that the choreographer would ever feel self-conscious.
‘The fact that she’s here, she’s 78, going through all of this with us, she’s still dancing around – and I imagine back then she was exactly the same. I get where she’s coming from but I don’t think she’s got anything to worry about.’
Dame Arlene also shared a rather insensitive exchange with a doctor shortly after her second daughter’s birth.
‘When I went to a mother and baby class in Primrose Hill my obstetrician came up and whispered – I can never forget this – he kneeled down and said, “Have no fear, it will get better – because you really should be a grandmother, so you’re going to have to find ways to understand how to be a mother again.”’
EastEnders star Adam Woodyatt was shocked, asking: ‘How hard did you hit him?’
Dame Arlene admitted: ‘I stood up, all my five foot three, and went….’, as she mimed crying.
She then said she’d initially thought it was the menopause.
‘Why it hurt so much, was because, having a baby naturally at 47 and thinking it was the menopause for four, five months… [and] “I can’t be pregnant, why am I so sick?”’
Elsewhere in the show, Naughty Boy put in a strong showing in the Savage Stakeout trial, ending up with a Burmese python on his arm and eight snakes on his head at one point, before completing the challenge with the full 11 stars.
The DJ was delighted and found his complete success hard to believe, while Adam praised him as ‘a superstar’.
Wednesday’s show saw the celebrities settling in to being back together in Castle Gwrych after Storm Arwen saw them evacuated.
As Frankie said at the beginning: ‘It feels so amazing to be back, which are words that I never thought would come out of my mouth. I never thought I’d want to see a castle ever again.’
I’m A Celebrity 2021 continues tomorrow at 9pm on ITV.
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