Helen Skelton is wowing the crowds weekly on Strictly, but it's public knowledge that behind the scenes she's dealing with an upsetting split from her husband Richie Myler.
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The former couple are parents to three children, Ernie, seven, Louis, five, and Elsie, who turns one in December, and it transpires that Louis had quite the dramatic entry into the world, when he was born in 2017.
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The Countryfile star gave birth to her second son while alone with her eldest child Ernie in France, since husband Richie was in England at the time.
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Neither Richie nor any health professionals made it to her in time, so she gave birth on the kitchen floor, surrounded by "French firemen".
She opened up about the experience during an appearance on Lorraine in September 2021, when host Lorraine Kelly said: "Yes, because your son Louis – he was born unexpectedly when you were in France on the kitchen floor for goodness sakes."
© Photo: RexHelen Skelton's second child arrived dramatically
Helen replied: "I know, God bless him. I can't tell if he was sort of proud or embarrassed. He says, 'I was born in the kitchen?' and I'm like 'Yeah,' and lots of my friends think it's so lovely, a home birth.
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"Nobody wants a load of gorgeous French firemen at their feet while they're delivering a baby, which is what I had…
© Photo: RexHelen Skelton has three children with her ex, Richie Myler
"They'd never done that before and were so excited, I just said, 'Get back around my head please'."
Helen also went on to admit that her third pregnancy, with daughter Elsie, had been the most challenging. "It definitely gets harder as you get older," she explained. "Or maybe it's just the first two times around, you're doing that thing where you're like, 'I'm independent, I don't need a chair, I don't need special treatment.
"Whereas now, I'm a little bit older, I've got the kids and I'm working. Now I'm like, 'Oh, has anyone got a chair for me, has anyone got a chocolate for me?' I'm really rinsing it, you know. It's my last one so I've got to make the most of it."
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