When we speak on the phone, Charlotte Dawson has had a long morning promoting her new clothing range, she’s rocking her seven-month- old son with one arm and making up his baby food with the other, while the phone is wedged under her chin.
“Life has been crazy, I’m non-stop at the moment,” says the reality star – who gave birth to son Noah in January. “I think because of my job people think I have a glamorous life, but I really don’t!”
And in a world where social media is full of polished and preened images,Charlotte – who shares Noah with fiancé Matt Sarsfield – has never shied away from showing real life on her Instagram page, from the sleepless nights and the baby sick to her postnatal body. She is well loved for posting underwear shots embracing the changes her body went through during pregnancy and afterwards, and for Charlotte, helping other people feel confident is one of her aims.
“It’s good to show the realness of things, we’ve got lumps and bumps and bodies to be proud of, it’s important for young girls to see that,” she explains. “I’ve had so many girls message me about it and it’s so lovely for them to feel good and empowered after seeing my posts. Loads of my followers now embrace their stretch marks.”
Charlotte, 28, has become well-known on social media for proudly talking about her tiger stripes – her name for stretch marks – and her tummy “pouch” after giving birth.
“When Noah was born, I did look in the mirror and think, ‘Oh my god’, but I looked at my baby and thought, ‘I want to embrace this body because it made Noah’,” she says. “After we’ve given birth, we shouldn’t be ashamed of our bodies, we have created a beautiful little human. I absolutely love my belly and tiger strips!”
She adds, “I started to use Bio-Oil when I was pregnant [to prevent stretch marks], but then I thought, ‘I just can’t be bothered, I can’t be bothered having an oily body every night getting into bed.’ I thought, ‘If I have them, I have them.’ And then I had them, and now I absolutely love them.”
Before developing gestational diabetes in her pregnancy, Charlotte was known for her love of junk food, joking she lived on “chippies, Maccies and chocolate” – but during her pregnancy she had to completely overhaul her diet to manage the condition. She swapped white carbs and sugary snacks for plenty of fruit and vegetables, and meals like spinach and tomato omelettes and porridge with berries – and Charlotte says she’s kept up with the change since giving birth.
“I couldn’t eat what I wanted when I was pregnant, so I had to give up my chippies and have things that wouldn’t spike my blood sugar,” she explains. “Then, when I had Noah, I went back to having my chippies and everything for a few months until I went back to the doctor and was told I could develop type two diabetes. So I’ve had to change my diet back again and cut out a lot of sugars.”
Check out: Celebs Go Dating's most OUTRAGEOUS moments
Closer celebs go dating most outrageous moments
1 of 39Mark-Ryan bails on Callum for a 'spa day'
Viewers were rightly outraged when one time apprentice reject Mark-dash-Ryan Parsons walked out on his second date with Barbadian Callum (who was, let's face it, waaaaay out of his league) claiming he'd had a spa day booked that he'd forgotten about. The real cincher was the wax sealed, handwritten note he'd left on his departure explaining he didn't want to see him again. Too-posh-to-function Mark Ryan caused dating coaches Anna and Paul a shed load of jip with his penchant for talking down to and insulting his dates.
2 of 39Marty McKenna's agency debut
It's 2022, so you'd think that media-trained telly types would know not to go onto national TV and refer to half the population as "birds" and "pigs". Not so for forgettable Geordie Shore star Marty, who within seconds of sitting down in the agency's newly revamped offices had branded women both and made the delusional claim that he'd "never had any complaints".
3 of 39The fall of Stephen Bear
After a few episodes of Stephen Bear acting as Stephen Bear-ish as it's possible to act, Nadia and Eden decided they'd had enough and chucked him out the agency. Good riddance.
4 of 39Stephen Bear asks for threesome
Speaking of Stephen Bear, remember when he asked those twins for a threesome? Good lord.
5 of 39Stephen Bear
Now we think about it, everything Stephen Bear did was outrageous. Poor blue lips...
6 of 39Joey Essex's burpy date
Some poor old girl who managed to score a date with Joey Essex ended up burping on his face throughout the entire thing. What a nightmare.
7 of 39Jonathan Cheban dates Kimmy K lookalike
This just couldn't have been more classic, could it? Things (obviously) didn't work out, and Kim Kardashian lookalike Chanelle Sadie Paul ended up having an alleged sordid affair with dating agent Eden Blackman. But that's a whole other story...
8 of 39Gemma Collins stands up poor old Laurence :(
Gemma Collins successfully managed to anger the entire nation after failing to turn up to the Eurostar for her Parisian date with Laurence.
9 of 39Joey Essex dates a cougar...
She wanted to dress him as a pony, for some reason.
10 of 39... and Calum Best dates a cougar
He looks like he had a wonderful time.
11 of 39Frankie Cocozza and Charlotte Dawson break the rules and date each other
They were the first celebrity couple to hook up with each other on the show. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be. And Frankie is now happily married to someone else.
12 of 39Their double date ends in awks
Both Frankie and Charlotte's dates ended up walking out of the double date set up by the agents after they couldn't stop gushing about the other.
13 of 39And then MARRIED EACH OTHER
Yes, this is a real thing that actually happened and the snubbed dates, Kieran Patel and Katie Champ are still together.
14 of 39Charlotte Dawson bum massage
Charlotte Dawson made an impression (of sorts) on one oh her first dates by giving a bum massage in a busy pub. Not sure where that lotion came from.
15 of 39Calum Best stands his date up
Calum got in hot water with the dating agents after failing to show up to one of his dates.
16 of 39Gemma Collins storms out of date after he called her 'a diva'
She got up an left like a diva after he called her, er, 'a diva'. Well, she did show up about an hour late...
17 of 39Charlotte Crosby spits milk during her date
Playing hot sauce roulette on a first date was never going to end well...
18 of 39Jorgie Porter's date wants to see her on the loo
After telling her that he'd Googled her before the date, Jorgie's date casually mentioned he'd like to watch her on the toilet. Wow.
19 of 39Courtney Stodden's date gets x-rated
Courtney Stodden shocked viewers after getting her date to rub sun cream on her chest.
20 of 39Charlotte Crosby dates a massive sexist
When Charlotte told Jeavon (who also dated Love Island's Malin Andersson) that she'd slept with 20 men, he said: "that is bad, for a lad it's not that bad." Despite the fact he claimed to have slept with 50.
21 of 39Joey Essex and Stephanie Pratt find love with each other
They broke the rules, but was it worth it? Erm. Probably not, no. Because it lasted about two minutes.
22 of 39Ferne McCann refuses to split the bill
After ordering a frankly humungous amount of food, Ferne didn't offer to help pay the bill at the end of the date. She later burst into tears in the dating agency after the guy gave her a bad review for not doing so.
23 of 39Tom Read WIlson admits he doesn't know who Kim Kardashian is
But... how?
24 of 39Megan McKenna and Pete Wicks reunion
Megan and Pete had a notoriously rocky relationship on TOWIE, so putting them on the same series was a stroke of TV GENIUS.
25 of 39Kerry Katona's rude date
When Kerry Katona's date implied her children had been a "mistake", she handled it like a pro – but the nation watched from between their fingers.
26 of 39Jack Fincham and the Waitress
Jack Fincham was set up with a lovely girl called Carol by the agents, but admitted by the end he wasn't feeling it. Instead he got the barmaid's number, and ended up taking her to the final in Tenerife.
27 of 39Jack Fincham's second date
Jack Fincham abruptly ended the date he wasn't feeling by telling his date he was "tired" and had "had enough", before demanding she finish her glass of wine en route to the door.
28 of 39Jack Fincham's second date
He then got set up with an Italian called Chiara, but quickly took offense when she made a joke about one of the bartenders, calling them over and insisting she'd rather be on a date with them, instead.
29 of 39Lee Ryan gets pied
Ha! Ha, ha ha.
30 of 39Lady C's sexual innuendos
Just like narrator Rob Beckett said, the woman is an absolute SAUCE POT - just check out her traffic light analogy. Blimey.
31 of 39Malique Thompson-Dwyer's 'predatory' flirting
After getting slammed by viewers for his 'predatory' flirting at the first mixer, Malique offended one of his dates when he was forced to date two women at the same time, and made his preference for Jakeeme clear - with Danica storming off as a result. awks.
32 of 39Tom's birth affirmations
Anna Williamson is heavily pregnant in series eight and so lovable receptionist Tom devises some birth affirmations in case her waters break at work - "which could happen", points out Anna. Nuggets from Tom include "I am lactating generously" and "my vagina has retained its' elasticity".
33 of 39Amy Childs showed her deep and intellectual side...
When she asked her date, "If you were a sandwich, what would you be?"
34 of 39Malique ACTUALLY fell in love!
And then immediately fell out of it the following morning, after he "had sex all night" with his date, Jakeeme. He was - quite rightfully - told off by Anna and Paul.
35 of 39Liv Bentley walked out on her date
He was "late, stand-offish and entirely humourless" (fair), but his incessant talk of "pumping" was the final straw for Liv, who left halfway through (also fair).
36 of 39But he was totally convinced she was into him
Despite Liv doing a runner in the middle of their drinks, self-confident Otto was still convinced Liv fancied him and accused her of making "f-ck me eyes" across the table. CRINGE.
37 of 39Amy Childs' toilet 'romp' with Jamie
Does this take the biscuit for CGD's most outrageous moment? During a double date with Olivia Bentley, Amy STRADDLED her date in the restaurant before scuttling off to the toilets, returning later looking dishevelled. They claimed to have only kissed... but we weren't born yesterday, hun.
38 of 39Wayne Lineker and Chloe Ferry get engaged
Every series there's a 'forbidden romance' between the slebs but none was more outrageous than the betrothal of Geordie Shore star Chloe Ferry and old-enough-to-be-her-granddad (and brother of national treasure Gary) Wayne Lineker. The internet was agog when they announced their engagement, but it turned out to all be a subtle nod to sophisticated humour with Wayne admitting they "just wanted to see what people would say". Oh, you guys.
39 of 39Chloe Brockett's secret row with Marty McKenna
Although this moment never made it to our screens, Chloe Brockett recently revealed she'd secretly fallen out with co-star Marty McKenna and stormed off set following a row. She explained, "Soooo... something that no one knows about us is on the last day of filming me and @Marty_GShore had an argument. He kept winding me up all day... kept talking over me and I just lost my sh-t. I stormed off and called him a c--t."The pair soon made up though as Chloe continued, "We was friends five minutes later, but yeah, that would have been funny to watch. He annoys me like a brother lol."
Type two diabetes runs in Charlotte’s family – her dad, comedian Les Dawson, who sadly passed away when Charlotte was just eight months old following a heart attack, had the condition, and her mother Tracy has just been diagnosed with it. For Charlotte, the doctor’s appointment was the wake-up call she needed.
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Charlotte Dawson: ‘I’m embracing my tiger stripes and jelly belly’
Charlotte Dawson 'can't cope' with edited pics of her dad and baby Noah
“Type two diabetes is really, really in the family and obviously I want to be here for Noah and be healthy for him,” she says. “I knew I needed to sort out my diet anyway. All my friends and family would say, ‘Charlotte, you can’t eat chippies every day for the rest of your life’, it’s not really healthy. I still have the occasional one though!”
And while Charlotte and Matt settle into life as new parents, she admits that despite the huge life change and lack of sleep, having Noah together has strengthened their bond.
“Being parents has tough times of course, but having Noah has made us so much closer,” she admits. “I think we appreciate each other more, Matthew has seen how different I am now with Noah and how well I’ve done. And I love seeing Matthew and Noah together. As soon as Matthew comes in, Noah’s face lights up and he’s laughing, he absolutely idolises his dad. Noah’s at a lovely age now and I feel like it’s just going to get better and better.”