TV presenter Helen Skelton has revealed the dramatic birth of her second son and how firefighters and friends came to her rescue in an exclusive interview with HELLO! magazine. Revealing that her son with her rugby league star husband Richie Myler is called Louis – the couple’s eldest child Ernie turns two next month - Helen said the speed with which he arrived came as a shock to all concerned. “It was all a bit frantic. We are just so relieved he is safely here,” says Helen of the birth on April 8th. “I’m still not really sure why the fire brigade arrived but it seems they were the closest emergency service at the time!”
Helen Skelton with her husband Richie Myler and their two children
In the interview, Helen reveals that not only did Richie miss the moment of Louis’s arrival, but she gave birth on the kitchen floor of their family home in Perpignan in France. “I’d been out for a walk with Ernie in the pram and when I arrived back home I was getting a few pains,” she explained. “At first I thought it was because I’d been out for a long walk but then I could hardly move. I phoned Rich to say, ‘I think you need to get to the airport as I’m in labour.’ As I’d been two days in labour with Ernie, I didn’t realise it was going to be so quick. But within an hour of calling Rich, I couldn’t get up off the floor.”
READ: Helen Skelton opens up about family life and her lively toddler Ernie
Stuck in the UK, Richie called a nearby friend and neighbour, who rushed round to help and called emergency services. “The firefighters were lovely and beside themselves with excitement as they said they hadn’t been at a birth before, but bless them they weren’t up to speed with what you do so they were all flapping,” 33-year-old Helen tells HELLO!, of Louis’ swift arrival. When Richie raced back from playing for his rugby team Catalans Dragons in the UK, she says, “Bless him, he looked like he’d done five rounds with Anthony Joshua, he’d been crying so much.
He was relieved we were both okay.” “I am really proud of her for doing it on her own. I know she must have been scared but she will never admit it!,” Richie tells HELLO! And of having two children under two, Helen adds, “People talk about the early baby bubble, but it really is like that, we feel like we are on happy pills. Two is a gamechanger though. I think it’s going to be chaos!”
Read the full article in HELLO! out now.