'Never give up on your dream

After five miscarriages, ineffective egg freezing and failed IVF, Blue star Simon Webbe and wife Ayshen introduce their longed-for second daughter

- SARAH MORTON

“Good girl, Cyan,” coos Simon Webbe to his three-year-old daughter, as she gently caresses the head of her newborn sister. We’re chatting to the Blue singer and his wife Ayshen to celebrate the birth of their second baby, Riya Diamond Webbe, and it’s clear from their adoring smiles that having two children is bringing them nothing but joy.

It’s little wonder they’re so smitten with their growing family. Just 10 months before our exclusive shoot, Ayshen, now 44, was told by a doctor to give up on her dream of having a second baby, who said at her age her eggs were no good.

"It was brutal," she says now. "I'd always pictured myself with two babies."

But three weeks later, despite years of failed fertility treatments and five miscarriages, the couple conceived naturally against all the odds.

Riya, an alternative spelling of Ruya, which means "dream" in Turkish, was born on 27 June at 12.55, weighing 71b 2oz.

While talent manager Ayshen admits to "hating every single second" of the birth, she says holding her miracle baby in her arms made it all worth it.

Simon, 46, who also has grown-up daughter, Alanah, from a previous relationship, feels it was only when he and Ayshen relaxed into life without the stress of fertility treatments that they were able to fall pregnant naturally. Here the couple, who have been married for six years, introduce baby Riya and explain why they never gave up on giving Cyan a little sister..

First of all, congratulations! Riya is absolutely beautiful…

Ayshen: Thank you so much. She’s perfect, beyond perfect, but as a parent I would say that.

Simon: We’re completely in love.

Ayshen: She’s so alert. She just sits and stares at me. I love it. I think she looks just like Cyan too.

How has Cyan been with her?