‘I let 425,000 people watch me give birth'

YouTube sensation Imogen Horton, 29, has been accused of “oversharing” but she says she has no regrets and fans admire her for her honesty

- LOTTIE HULME

'The nurse was telling me, “Push!” and I clenched Spencer’s hand as I dutifully did. I was so deep into the contractions that I really didn’t think about the fact we were filming the birth for my 425,000 YouTube subscribers.

Capturing the amazing moment our daughter, Renaelia, was born was something my husband Spencer and I had always planned, because I’ve shared everything on my channel, Imogenation – the highs and the lows – since it launched in 2017. This was the biggest stage of my journey yet.

I’ve always loved being in front of a camera and performing. I did a degree in dance and musical theatre and I’d wanted to be an actress, but fell into retail and worked in a nightclub to pay the bills as acting work was so patchy. I saved up for equipment like studio lights to start my channel because I missed performing.

I was renting a tiny room before my YouTube began in 2017 and I’d film when my landlady and her family were out at work and school. I’d come home from night shifts and film at six in the morning too.

I used to say on social media that I hated men and I was single for a long time while living in London, not wanting to go near men. I shared all the lows of my life on my channel, including being in hospital with a stomach condition. Not glamorous!

Back in the early days, I was fairly naive. In my Storytimes on my channel, where I told honest accounts of things that had happened to me in my life, some subscribers felt they needed to go and find people I’d talked about – including ex boyfriends and friends – and message them. It was a learning curve and put me off those types of videos about other people. You can open a can of worms.