At four months pregnant and with a two-year-old in tow, you could forgive Charlotte Dawson for lacking in energy, but as she arrives at our exclusive Mother’s Day photo shoot, she’s her usual bubbly self, grabbing her belly while she dances to music, playing with her son Noah, who hilariously calls her “Charlotte”, and making the team laugh with her Northern humour.
“I’m enjoying this pregnancy so much,” Charlotte, 30, beams. “Don’t get me wrong it’s been tiring. Being pregnant with a toddler has been a completely different experience because I need to give Noah all my attention, but I’m so excited for what’s to come. When I ask Noah what’s in Mummy’s belly, he’ll shout ‘bebeh’ and sometimes he’ll come over and kiss my bump, which is sweet.”
Last week Charlotte and her fiancé, rugby player, Matt Sarsfield, 31, took to social media to reveal they were expecting another boy, and while her due date is still five months away, the star, who found fame on Ex On The Beach, admits she’s already planning to expand her brood.
“I’ve always wanted a big family, it’s chaotic but it makes everything more fun,” she says. “I did want a girl, I won’t lie or sugar coat it. I loved the idea of having a mini-me even though that would have been a bloody nightmare! But I’ve got my head around having another boy now. It’ll be a lovely best friend for Noah. I can match them in outfits, and I already know the little monkeys will cause me trouble! We’ll definitely try again for a girl next, but knowing me I’ll end up being a soccer mum.”
Though she’s over the moon to be adding to her family, Charlotte, who is the daughter of late comedian Les Dawson, who passed away when she was just eight months old, admits her pregnancy has a special poignancy after she sadly suffered a miscarriage in April last year. The pair learned they were expecting on Mother’s Day, before losing their baby at 10 weeks and she candidly admits she’s experienced a roller coaster of emotions.
“It’s still so sad for me,” she says. “Miscarriages are so common, but I don’t think they’re spoken about enough. I feel so lucky that I’ve managed to get pregnant again so soon, but it was a massive shock because I never thought I’d lose my baby. It was hard on me and Matt because we knew as soon as two weeks and got excited. People think I always look on the bright side, but I wasn’t able to do that, and I was quite depressed for a while. I’d get upset telling people and answering the same questions. We dealt with it ourselves at first, but when I announced it on social media, so many people got in touch. Kate Ferdinand experienced a miscarriage at the same time as me, and now she’s expecting again too, which is lovely. What really helped me was Noah, he’s definitely got my dad’s funny genes, he keeps us so entertained, Matt and I would be lost without him.”
She adds, “Of course, on Mother’s Day there’ll be some sadness because I’ll be thinking about the baby I lost, but I’m so lucky I have Noah and his little brother on the way.” And superstitious Charlotte believes she’s been sent a sign from the child she tragically lost. “I do think I was carrying a little princess, which sometimes makes me sad. A while ago, Matt and I were watching a film, and a pink balloon came from nowhere and floated onto our balcony. It was only a couple of months after the loss. It could have just been a party balloon, but the other part of me thinks it was a sign the baby had gone to my dad, which was comforting.”
Meanwhile, Charlotte has made no secret of her love of food in the past, often sharing her favourite chip butties on social media, and she’s been having more of the same as her pregnancy cravings kick in. “I’ve been craving chips and gravy, pancakes with loads of icing sugar, chocolates, crisps and Haribo sweets. I have such a bad sweet tooth, but this has been next level.”
The star was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, [a common condition that affects one in 20 women] when she was carrying Noah and was warned she was at risk of type 2 diabetes after she’d given birth, and with this in mind, she admits she’s started to cut down on junk food. “This time round I’ve been reading up on what I should eat. I’ve started to be a bit healthier and change my ways a little bit, and I’ve felt more energetic. I’m getting older, I’ll have two little boys to look after and a partner who adores me and I’ve got to start looking after myself. I’ve been having porridge for breakfast, and dinners like penne Bolognese or salmon with veg and rice.”
But despite trying to curb some of her eating habits, Charlotte admits she didn’t anticipate the amount of trolling she’s received. She says, “I posted a picture on social media where I joked I was feeding the baby with chips and gravy and people said, ‘You really need to be careful with what you’re putting in your body.’” She takes out her phone and reads a string of messages, “One warns, ‘Make sure you eat healthy this time round’, while another one writes, ‘Here comes your gestational diabetes again.’ It’s pathetic, I’m trying to eat healthier, but if I want bloody chips and gravy, I’ll have it! I try not to look at the messages, but if something really offends me, I’ll write back and tell them to chuff off!”
And the star has the same attitude towards trolls who have body-shamed her for posting pictures of herself in underwear. Charlotte has amassed over a million followers on Instagram, where she posts videos of herself poking fun at her body, and vows to keep showing off her figure throughout her pregnancy. “I get trolled for dancing around with my bump. They’ll write, ‘Oh, here she goes again’, but I won’t hide my body because of trolls. I’ll continue to shake my belly, my tic-tacs, my cellulite and rolls – I’m not bothered what people think. I want to make women feel they can show off any part of their bodies, whether they’re fat, thin or pregnant!”
She adds, “It’s normal to have stretch marks and rolls and you just have to embrace it otherwise you’ll beat yourself up. I’m not perfect – I have the worst bum in the world, it’s just an extension of my back – but I don’t care or worry what Matt thinks. I’ve realised by now that if he’s come to love my bunions, Barry and Bill, he can love any part of my body!”
And even though she says she could be tempted with a boob uplift after breastfeeding her second baby, Charlotte admits she’s unlikely to ever succumb to the surgeon’s knife. “I’d never have surgery, even though I’d love to get my boobs done. It would be great to get them back together as, at the moment, one tit is in Australia, and the other’s in Blackpool. I’ll be able to throw them over my shoulder by the time this baby comes. I’m not against surgery, loads of my friends have had it and look insane. You’ve just got to love your body for what it is.”
Meanwhile, since getting engaged to Matt in September 2020, Charlotte has spoken often of her desire to have an extravagant wedding, and reveals she’s lining up a seven-day affair in France.
“We’re hoping to get married next year so our baby will have turned one, and my boys can walk down the aisle together. I wanted to get married on my dad’s anniversary in June, but it’s too much pressure as I’ll not long have had the baby, so we’ll do it in September when Matt proposed. I know my dad will still be with us, I can always feel him around me.
“I’ll have a week long wedding because I don’t want it to ever end,” she laughs. “It will all start with a big pre-wedding party. I can’t do anything by halves. I hate that feeling at the end of a party when it’s all over, I just want it to continue. I loved Katie Price’s wedding when she had a horse-drawn carriage, but recently I watched the wedding scene in Emily In Paris and now I’d love to get married in a Chateau in France.” She adds, before laughing, “The only difference is, I’ll have 15 bridesmaids, hundreds of guests and chips and gravy at the buffet!”
