Stacey Solomon has admitted she once “lost it” when her husband Joe Swash was away from the family home for three days and therefore not on hand to help her with the children. The couple, who married in 2022, share three children together; Rex, five, Rose, two, and one-year-old daughter Belle. Respectively, the Loose Women star also has two sons Zachary, 16, and Leighton, 12 from previous relationships, while Joe has a teenage son named Harry.
Reflecting on life as a busy mum, Stacey said she was grateful that she and Joe were able to split parenting duties with their jobs, and are also lucky to have additional help from her family, whom she refers to as “the village”. While it would be apparent that juggling a big family with her work schedule would cause some stress, the 34-year-old said she is surprisingly chilled most of the time, until she recalled a particular moment when Joe was away.
Speaking to Oliver Patrick on The High Performance podcast earlier this year, Stacey explained that when her spouse was away filming in Guatemala and she was home alone with the kids, it was “the most high stress environment” she had encountered. She shared: “During the day, I never feel stressed but if I get to a point like the night time when I know I need to sleep, and I knew with that day Joe was coming back from Guatemala, I was going straight back to work to Manchester. So I knew the next day that I had to be even more on it to go back to work and do the handover, then not being able to get the kids to sleep stresses me out because I’m already anticipating the next day and how I’m going to deal with that next day. That is the only time at night where I might get stressed.”
She added: “When Joe’s home, this is why this experiment isn’t always like this. I can be like, ‘Joe I’ve got to go, I’ve got to go to bed, it’s nine o’clock and I’ve got to leave at six in the morning’.” Whereas, because I knew he wasn’t there and I was doing the night feed, so then I was going straight back to work and he was coming back. I think I was just like, Oh.”
Physiologist and Lifestyle Specialist Oli chimed in to say that Stacey’s situation was a “great example” of how exaggerated stress can be caused when we lose control of a situation. Agreeing with his theory, Stacey went on to admit: “The control freak in me lost it.” Now more aware of how to control stress, the mother-of-five said she feels like “sleep is the best present” to herself.
During the episode, Stacey also joked that her womb probably wouldn’t take another child as she seemingly ruled out having a sixth. This, however, hasn’t stopped the pair from discussing fostering in the future once their children grow up, according to Joe. Speaking on The Netmums Podcast, the ex-EastEnders actor explained: “Fostering is something that me and Stacey have talked about and would love to do. We’d love to foster, we’d love to give something back, you know?”
It is something that we definitely want to do, when our kids get old enough that they’re not as reliant on us. Touch wood, we’re both healthy enough and fit enough. We’ll have to wait until the time comes, but we’re open to the option.”
Catch Joe and Stacey on Celebrity Gogglebox tonight at 9pm on Channel 4.
