BABY BLISS - 'Bella is the best thing that has ever happened - she was meant to be'

Former Hollyoaks star Jamie Lomas and his fiancée Jess Bell invite OK! to meet their newborn daughter for our exclusive shoot and open up about the birth and their plans for the future.

- EVE MACDONALD

Turn back the clock 12 months and life couldn't have been any better for Jamie Lomas and his fiancée Jess Bell - or so they thought.

The couple got engaged in July 2023, during a holiday to Mexico; they had a stunning home in Manchester; they enjoyed the delightful company of Jamie's 13-year-old daughter Polly (with ex-wife Kym Marsh), who stays over regularly; and they shared their beloved miniature dachshund Jeffrey. But then their first child together, baby Bella, came along and made their dream set-up even more magical.

In an exclusive photoshoot with OK!, the couple - who met in 2021 through mutual friends - confessed that a new addition to the family wasn't exactly on the cards, but was the best surprise they could ever have hoped for.

"I just didn't see how a baby would fit in around our lives," Jess, 36, who is a cosmetic dentist, explains.

"But you learn to make things work, and I'm so glad we did. She's completed us." Jamie - who is also dad to son Billy, 18, from a previous relationship and Jess welcomed their beautiful baby girl Bella Nevaeh Lomas on 29 July, weighing 6lb 8oz.

"We wanted a name that was meaningful to us," Jamie, 49, smiles. "Bella is a nod to Jess's surname and Nevaeh is 'heaven' backwards. Bella also means beautiful so it's 'beautiful heaven'." And when OK! meets Bella, just 15 days after her birth, at our photoshoot at the couple's home, she's protectively guarded by Jeffrey who "follows her everywhere she goes" Her arrival, the couple tell us, was one filled with happiness, love and joy, and the newborn has settled contentedly into their lives.

Here, Jamie and Jess talk us through their beautiful new addition, wedding bells and Jess's close relationship with Jamie's ex Kym...

Hi, Jamie and Jess. Congratulations! You must be over the moon...