Stacey Solomon has opened up about the guilt she feels at having two children by different fathers. In a candid video blog for The Huffington Post, the 27-year-old Loose Women star discussed the notion of the 'right time' to expand your family when you already have children with a previous partner. "Mine is plural, I have two children with two different fathers, and I always have an overwhelming sense of guilt that if I were to make my family any greater, then I would impact on them socially and emotionally," she explained.
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Stacey is a mum to eldest child Zachary, her child with teenage sweetheart Dean Cox, who was born in 2008, and son Leighton with ex-fiancé Aaron Barnham, born in 2012. Her boyfriend Joe Swash, meanwhile, has a nine-year-old son Harry with his former partner Emma Sophocleous. She continued: "I read loads of studies that say that broken families end up having children with worse cognitive behavioural skills, and less likely to learn, more likely to have emotional difficulties going through life.
Stacey Solomon pictured with her two sons, Zachary and Leighton
"There's definitely been times in my life where I've felt the stigma against having multiple children with different fathers," Stacey added, referring to an incident with an unnamed "well known person" who publicly stated that Stacey should stop having children to prevent her confusing her sons. "Part of me was like: 'Hey, you don't even have children, what do you know?' And then the other side of me was like: 'Maybe my children are confused?'"
The star said she feels an "overwhelming sense of guilt" about the thought of expanding her family unit
The former X Factor star also spoke about her own upbringing, revealing that she one of three children before her dad remarried, when she became one of seven. "Does it really affect them in a negative way or does it make their minds a little bit broader," she questioned of Zachary and Leighton. "My mum would come on family holidays with my dad and my stepmum, and it would be as though we were just an extended family, rather than two separate, completely separate lives. I hope I'm able to do that with my children. I have a great relationship with their fathers."