Survivor host Joel Dommett and his wife Hannah Cooper welcomed their first child, son Wilde, last September, and the TV star, 39, looks to have mastered fatherhood when we chat on a video call.
Having timed Wilde’s nap perfectly, he proudly shows off the playpen that the new parents have created for their son, who is nearly walking at eight and a half months.
“Hannah’s out today, so I’m on daddy duty,” reveals Joel, who has teamed up with Pampers Baby-Dry Nappies after new research showed that one in three UK parents lose sleep because of night-time nappy leaks.
Here, he talks fatherhood and why he's in his element with baby Wilde…
Joel, how is it going with Wilde?
I didn’t even know this love existed, the amount of love I feel for this child. Yet it’s so hard, especially at the start; you’re so sleep-deprived. I almost love the relentlessness of it in a weird way, the routine, because my life is so all over the place.
One day I’m presenting Lorraine, the next day The Masked Singer, the next I’m doing a stand-up gig at 1am in a nightclub. It gives my life some sort of hellish consistency.
© Jo HaleYou celebrated your first Father’s Day last week…
I still can’t believe I’m a dad. I never thought I’d be responsible enough to have a child, and luckily, I’m doing it with someone I like and love very much. We help each other out and that feels good.
Tell us about the name Wilde…
We got married at a hotel in Mykonos, in Greece, called The Wild. I was weirdly going to get a tattoo that said ‘wild’, and then when Hannah was pregnant, she said: ‘What do you think of the name Wilde?’
I was like, ‘What, as in the hotel?’ She said: ‘Yeah.’ It also has Dutch connotations and Hannah’s Dutch. Now we’re just grateful that we didn’t get married in a Travelodge and have a baby called Trav.
Is he a good sleeper?
He’s getting there now. We’re super-scheduled people; we’re the worst. We’re those people you hate hanging out with. At a barbecue, we’ll say: ‘Sorry, we’ve got to go – it’s 12.55pm.’
The only things that really wake him up at night are his explosive poos. They blow my mind. But Pampers have a Stop & Protect Pocket that prevents the poonami from going up the back.
When Hannah was pregnant we bought all these cute clothes for Wilde, but we’ve used none of them. He lives in pyjamas with two zips. When we leave the house, I put a cardigan on top. Who are these people getting their children dressed?
© BBCWe love your podcast with Hannah called Never Have I Ever. She’s very funny…
She’s great, isn’t she? Wilde finds her so funny and it annoys the hell out of me. I’m like: ‘What are you doing that I’m not?’
I’m supposed to have 15 years of stand-up comedian experience and I’m doing all the faces, then she comes along, goes ‘peek-a-boo!’ and he loses his mind. She’s so funny to babies.
To help you and your little one experience uninterrupted sleep with leak-free nights, you can now try Pampers Nappy Pants and get £6 OFF*. Simply download the Pampers Club app and use ‘NEWPANTS6OFF’ code today! Visit the Pampers website for full T&Cs.
To read the full interview, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! on sale in the UK now. You can subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
