In an exclusive photoshoot and interview in HELLO! magazine in February 2018, Danny Jones and his wife Georgia introduce their son Cooper as they tell of their "overwhelming love" and reveal the dramatic story of his arrival. "It is just crazy that you can create this life, it is just an overload of love," Danny told HELLO! of Cooper Alf Jones who was born on 27 January.
Cooper, who is seen in the exclusive photos with an impressive head of hair, arrived nine days after his due date but the dash to hospital is one they will never forget. Georgia was taking a bath when she had an overwhelming urge to push, and says, "I thought this baby is going to be born at home in the bath...or in the car." Danny says, "I would love to see that CCTV of us arriving at one o’clock in the morning. I was frantic. When we got to the birthing suite I skidded in like Del Boy and Rodney, grabbed the first wheelchair I could find but it had a dodgy wheel so I ended up going round and round in circles..." "...and I was sat with my hands between my legs trying to hold in the baby," Georgia tells the magazine.
Danny Jones and wife Georgia introduce baby Cooper in this week's HELLO!
Cooper was born just 36 minutes after arriving at 1.36 in the morning. "It was too late for anything other than gas and air, I'd done most of it at home on two paracetamol. And all our plans for having lavender burning to keep us calm and our favourite music playing went out the window," Georgia said. Adds Danny: "I keep telling her how proud I am of her, doing that on gas and air, how she coped with that. My respect for her went through the roof."
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Of finding out they had a son, Georgia says: "I wanted Danny to be the one to tell me if it was a boy or girl but the umbilical cord was over his bits. Danny was saying, ‘I can’t see, I can’t see,’ and then we saw we had a little boy." The couple made the decision not to find out the gender of their baby beforehand, with Danny explaining the reason why. "We understand why people want to find out in advance but we decided to have that big surprise. I’m actually very impatient so I did well to wait," said Danny.
The McFly musician, who says he is "overwhelmed" with love for his baby boy, added: "It's crazy that you can create this life; it's just an overload of love. I keep looking at him and going, 'We created him, we created those ears, those fingers, those toes…'" As she watched Danny cradle their newborn, Georgia smiled. "It melts my heart to see them together. As soon as Cooper was born and he went onto Danny's chest, he was in bits. He's such a natural with Coops," she said, using the name the parents affectionately call him.
Right now it's hard to tell who Cooper most resembles. "But I did think, 'Oh it's a mini Danny' when I first saw him," said Georgia, a former Miss England, who has already won praise for her honest approach to becoming a mum on her YouTube channel, The Georgia Edit. A few hours after giving birth, she shared a photo of herself on Instagram with the words: "This was me a few hours after baby Cooper was born… greasy hair, prickly legs, very sore bits, big pants and one very empty wobbly tum… But I wouldn't change a thing… Well done body, I'm super proud of you."
She told us: "I thought so many celebrities post pictures of their perfect bodies a day after giving birth and it’s not reality. It takes a while to get back to normal and sometimes you never get back to normal and that's okay. Women are amazing, I have a new-found respect for mothers. I don't think you appreciate it all until you have done it."
The couple didn't find out their baby's gender in advance
The couple’s first words to their son were "Hi, Cooper", having decided on a boy’s name already. "It came to us one day. We wanted something not too mad or traditional," says Danny. They chose his middle name, Alf, after Danny's grandad. "But we found out Grandad didn’t like his name [Alphonsus] so we shortened it."
MORE: Danny Jones reveals how son Cooper inspired him to write new music
It’s clear who has taken the No.1 spot in the Jones household. "Learning to live with this new little human is amazing. A lot of our time is taken up with just staring at him. Sometimes he looks at us and it’s like he’s really listening to us," says Georgia. "I think he does recognise our voices. He’s chilled and we try to be chilled around him," she adds of Cooper, who was conceived when the couple were on holiday in Palm Springs at the Coachella festival.
Does Danny feel a new responsibility now that he's a dad? "I don’t feel I have to be more responsible… Well, I kind of do but there's even more of an excuse to be a kid. I can’t wait to kick a ball, to teach him things, to build Lego with him."
Danny said they were "overwhelmed" with love for baby Cooper
Danny also revealed that he had been playing music to his son – including his own songs – in a bid to settle him. "Every time I play some tunes to him, just music I've been writing recently, he absolutely loves it. Even before he was born he'd be kicking and then he’d settle if I played the guitar," the proud new dad told HELLO!. "And I sing him a bit of [Bruce] Springsteen and McFly's Shine a Light."
Danny will put no pressure on his firstborn to follow in his footsteps. But as an ambassador for the charity Speakers for Schools, inspiring youngsters and campaigning for better arts tuition, he will no doubt encourage little Cooper to dream big. "I'll be careful not to push anything on him, though. I want him to find it himself and for us to be, 'Okay, that’s cool.' One hundred per cent he can be whatever he wants to be. Our little man's a ledge and we are overwhelmed with love."