Strictly star Emma Weymouth has been supported by her family, friends and husband Ceawlin Thynn during her dancing journey, but two fans who are sadly too young to cheer Emma on at the BBC studios are her children John and Henry. Emma and her husband Ceawlin, Viscount Weymouth, are the proud parents to The Honourable John Alexander Ladi Thynn, four, and The Honourable Henry Richard Isaac Thynn, two. The little boys occasionally feature on Emma's Instagram account, including recently in a video where they tried to talk to their mum through the telly. Adorable! Read on to find out more about Emma's brood…
Emma and Ceawlin's first son John
The couple, who married at their stunning home Longleat in June 2013, welcomed their first child John in October 2014. The baby was named after the 16th-century builder of Longleat, Sir John Thynne. Speaking to HELLO! when her son was just a few months old, Emma said: "We both love the baby so much, this person we've made. It's extraordinary how nature works."
Emma's sons John and Henry cheer her on from home
As a future Marquess of Bath who will one day inherit the Longleat estate, with its 900 acres of landscaped parkland and safari park, little John's future is already mapped out. He was the first baby born at the 10,000-acre estate in Wiltshire in 40 years, with Emma admitting: "It feels like a renaissance. It's always been vibrant here – there's always been something exciting going on – but it's a new generation, a new dynamic." She added: "He's learned to roar from being around the Longleat safari park lions and the animatronic dinosaurs. He can make monkey noises, too."
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Emma and Ceawlin with their two sons John and Henry
After becoming a mum for the first time, Emma told HELLO!: "Having a baby is the best thing in the world. It's even fun just staring at him." Although the Strictly star admitted that she changed, saying: "I'm different to how I used to be but then I think having a baby changes everyone. I'm worrying a lot and thinking about the stuff that's not even happening, the What Ifs. And I can't run around like I used to – I overestimate my energy and then crash and I'm emotional, so emotional. But I just have to get over it and get a grip." Of her firstborn, who is now four, she added: "John comes everywhere with us and is the happiest baby. He's got a great sense of humour, he's brave and chatty and flirts with girls. He's very charismatic."
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Emma and Ceawlin hope that their son will end up running Longleat estate, just like his father. "Hopefully he'll love it here as much as we do," said Emma. "He says 'rah, rah' to the lions. He doesn't know yet that it's not normal to have them in your garden."
The family live at the stunning Longleat estate in Wiltshire
Emma's difficult pregnancy
During the later stages of her pregnancy, Emma developed a rare and serious condition of the pituitary gland. She was on holiday in France when she started to suffer, what she described as, chronic migraines. She was admitted to hospital for four days, where an MRI scan revealed a swelling on her pituitary gland, which was at first diagnosed as an adenoma, a non-cancerous tumour. Emma was also told that she'd suffered a bleed on the brain.
"It was terrifying," she told HELLO!, welling up. "I'd never been ill before and I was 36 weeks pregnant." She was given injections to make John's lungs develop faster in case they needed to deliver him early. John was delivered at The Lindo Wing by emergency C-section, with Emma remarkably admitting: "It was fun. The gas and air gave me the giggles, which was embarrassing, but it was a really professional, quick, efficient process. They lowered the screen so I could see him come out and I've never seen anything so incredible. He was looking for a drink, sucking his thumb. Ceawlin held him first and then put him on my chest. I was just like, 'Wow.' You forget everything, nothing else matters once you have a baby."
Their second son Henry was born via surrogate in California
Emma and Ceawlin's second son Henry
Following Emma's pregnancy struggle, the couple welcomed their second child, a son Henry, via a surrogate in Los Angeles in December 2016. At the time, Emma told the Daily Mail: "We are simply ecstatic. His arrival has completed our little family and brought us so much happiness." Ceawlin added: "Never did I imagine that in West Hollywood I'd become father to John's little miracle baby brother. It's a wonder of modern science that the Longleat Bath family has been completed (for now at least) by Emma and I having a much-loved son, helped so crucially by a tremendous surrogate in California, to extend our family." Henry was named after his great-grandfather, the 6th Marquess.
The couple dote on their two little boys
The family rift
Ceawlin notoriously cut ties with his mother Anna Thynn, Marchioness of Bath, after she made racist remarks about Emma, who is of mixed heritage. Emma is set to become Britain's first black Marchioness, and is already Britain's first black Viscountess. How does she feel about her children growing up without contact with their grandmother? "I think John has got so much love from everyone who is around him that we're providing a fantastic family environment for him," she told HELLO!, years before her second child was born. "He's loved and looked after, so yes. He has such a wonderful, loving family, he has enough." The couple still see Ceawlin's father, Lord Bath, occasionally.
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