‘I Feel Guilty About Having My Kids'

Mum-of-two Stacey Solomon talks candidly about battling her emotions when faced with women who are struggling to conceive

- Olivia Buxton

After Jennifer Aniston made headlines earlier this month with her claim that childless women are seen as “damaged goods”, a host of stars spoke out in support of the American actress – including model Kelly Brook, who confessed that she feels under pressure to have children as she nears 40, before opening up about the pain of enduring “several miscarriages”.

And mum-of-two Stacey Solomon – who was just 17 when she discovered she was pregnant with her first son, Zachary, now ten, with car worker Dean Cox – admits she wrestles with her own emotions over women who are unable to start a family.

The Loose Women panellist, 28, says, “I can’t imagine how difficult it is for people who really desperately want children and can’t have them. I almost feel like it’s not OK for me to have them because I had my sons by accident and it makes you feel really selfish. I feel guilty because it wasn’t something that I had planned – having kids just happened.”

SHATTERED DREAMS

In 2014, Stacey – who is also mum to Leighton, five, her son with former fiancé Aaron Barham – admitted finding out she was pregnant in her teens was “devastating”, saying, “It felt like all my dreams had been shattered. I didn’t want to be pregnant, so I didn’t act like I was. To me, I was just me. I still went out. I was just fatter.”