Sam Faiers reveals ‘ridiculous’ reason she banned son Paul from his iPad

Who knew that too much screen time could cause this?

Sam Faiers son Paul

by Daisy Hall |
Updated on

It’s a dilemma facing many parents today, especially during lockdown, but Sam Faiersand her partner Paul Knightley have made the decision to ban their children Paul, five, and Rosie, three, from their iPads.

Sam and Big Paul decided to reduce their kids’ screen time after noticing that Little Paul appeared to have developed a blinking issue.

In a clip from The Mummy Diaries, the former TOWIE star explained their decision, “We literally just took it (the iPad) off him and said out of sight out of mind. We put it in the cupboard and that was it.

"With little Paul there was this one game and he ended up being obsessed with this game and I was like, ‘I’m not doing this anymore’.”

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CREDIT: Instagram / amychilds1990

Amy Childs

The first of the really big names to come from TOWIE, Amy quit the show in 2011 and welcomed her first daughter, Polly, in 2017. She also has a son from a different relationship who she's kept out of the limelight, but accidentally revealed his name was Ritchie in an interview.

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CREDIT: Instagram

Georgina Cleverly

Georgina Cleverley – née Dorset – was only on the show for two series and went on to have a two sons with her footballer hubby Tom, who she keeps off social media.

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CREDIT: Getty

Sam Faiers

Sam is mum to daughter Rosie and a son called Paul, who she named after her husband, also called Paul. "We always wanted him to be named Paul after his dad," she said."It's traditional and we didn't have any other names on the list, so he's Paul, and his middle name is Tony after Paul's brother, his Uncle Tony."She's made a household name for herself and her family with her hit reality show, The Mummy Diaries.

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Billy Faiers

Sam's lookalike big sister Billie is also a mum to two kids of her own, sharing daughter Nelly (five) and son Arthur (three) with her husband Greg Shepherd.

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CREDIT: Instagram

Kirk Norcross

Despite being TOWIE's original bad boy, Kirk has overhauled his image in the last few years to be the ultimate family man. He's dad to son Harry, three, and daughter Violett, four - although Violett doesn't feature on his Instagram after her mum made it clear she didn't want her in the public eye.

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CREDIT: Instagram

Maria Fowler

Maria is mum to four-year-old Evie who she shares with husband Kelvin Batey, and earlier this year revealed on Instagram that they were preparing to welcome baby number two.Back in 2018, Maria revealed she had suffered a miscarriage, writing on Instagram, "I feel silly even referring to it as a baby as we were really early in the pregnancy and had not yet had a scan but I did grieve and I did feel like I had lost something very special."I feel it is such a cruel twist of fate to get such happy news and then have it taken away. Just like that. No explanation."

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Chloe Sims

Chloe was already a mum when she joined the cast of TOWIE back in 2011. Her daughter Madison is now 15, and largely stays out of the public eye, although last year Chloe finally revealed Madison's dad was still a close pal, posting a picture to Instagram and writing, "So lots of people have always been interested in who is Maddie's dad, well, here he is..."I was 18, he was 24... all you nosy f--ckers who wanted to know, here he is!"

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CREDIT: Getty

Dan Osborne

TOWIE lothario Dan Osborne already had a son, Teddy, with ex Megan Tomlin when he joined TOWIE. After he was booted in 2015, Dan married EastEnders star Jaqueline Jossa and they have two daughters together, Mia and Ella.

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CREDIT: Instagram

Lucy Mecklenburgh

Lucy Mecklenburgh quit TOWIE all the way back in 2013 and since then has had success as an influencer and fitness guru. In 2020 she welcomed her first child with her fiancé, Corrie actor Ryan Thomas, a son they named Roman.

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CREDIT: Instagram

Lydia Bright

How cute is this? Long-term best pals Lucy and Lydia were both pregnant at the same time and gave birth just weeks apart. Lydia is going it alone as a single mother to baby Loretta, after splitting with Loretta's dad Lee Cronin during her pregnancy.

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CREDIT: Getty

Ferne McCann

One of TOWIE's most high profile mums, Ferne McCann welcomed her daughter Sunday in 2017following a difficult few months. Shortly before announcing her pregnancy Ferne's boyfriend Arthur Collins was arrested and charged with an acid attack in an East London club that left two victims blind. And weeks before Sunday was born he was sentenced to 20 years.

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CREDIT: Instagram

Mario Falcone

TOWIE OG Mario left the show after 15 series, and in 2018 welcomed a son, Parker Jax,with his fiancée Becky Meisner.

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Chloe Lewis

Chloe quit the show in 2019 after revealing she'd found herself a new relationship and it wasn't long before she and new man Danny Flasher announced they were expecting. They welcomed a healthy baby boy, Beau Lewis, in October 2019.

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CREDIT: Instagram

Jake Hall

Meanwhile, Chloe's TOWIE boyfriend Jake Hall went on to have a family of his own. Despite an at times messy relationshipwith Real Housewives of Cheshire's Misse Beqiri, the couple welcomed a daughter in 2018, who they named River.

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CREDIT: Instagram

Billi Mucklow

Billi Mucklow, who left TOWIE in 2013, must certainly have her hands full with her huge blended family with footballer fiancé Andy Carroll. The couple are raising Andy's kids from a previous relationship, Lucas and Emilie, and have two of their own together, Arlo and Wolf. In early 2020 they announced they were expecting AGAIN. Phew.

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Danielle Armstrong

Danielle Armstrong welcomed her first child with long-term pal Tom Edney in May 2020 after being "pregnant forever" and begging fans for tips on inducing labour. She took to Instagram to update followers on the birth, writing, "My world Is complete ud83dudc76ud83cudffcud83dudc95 Orla Mae Edney Born May 26th at 16:30pm, weighing a healthy 8Ibs11".

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Lauren Pope

Lauren quit TOWIE in 2019 after a staggering nine years on the show. In July 2020, she and her boyfriend welcome a little girl called Raine Anais Keterman.

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Sam Mucklow and Shelby Tribble

After a whopping three-day labour, Sam and Shelby welcomed their first child, a boy, in November 2020. "Shelby and our beautiful baby boy are both well and healthy," he wrote on Instagram. "Shelby didn't have a straightforward labour so she has been in hospital for five days. She has been an absolute soldier."

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CREDIT: Instagram

Georgia Kousoulou and Tommy Mallet

TOWIE's power couple Georgia Kousoulou and Tommy Mallet welcomed their baby boy Brody on 5th May, 2021. They even reveal that "Mallet" is not actually Tommy's surname, when they introduced baby as Brody Fordham.

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CREDIT: Instagram

Lauren Goodger

After years of dreaming of being a mum, Lauren finally welcomed her first child, a daughter called Larose, In July 2021. Sadly when Larose was just a couple of months old, Lauren split from the baby's dad Charles Drury, but is smashing being a single mum.

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Sam continued, “It sort of came out of nowhere. They weren’t really interested in them and then we went through this little phase and I was like, ‘All he wants to do is play this game.’

"We thought, ‘We need to do this now before it becomes a real issue.’ We basically just went cold turkey. I didn’t know what was right or wrong with the whole screen thing, so we just took it off of him and hid it. I think maybe after a day he’d forgotten about it.”

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She then conceded that she would gradually reintroduce them back to their iPads but only when absolutely necessary.

"His eyes were getting sore it was ridiculous so I thought this can’t continue, so we basically went cold turkey with the iPads and they still don’t have them. The only time I would let them have them is if we were on a long journey or something," Sam added.

"They don’t actually need them. I know they come in handy sometimes. I’m not anti-iPad at all. There are just points where you need to think if they’re spending too much time on it then you’ve got to nip it in the bud.”

Sam recently shared a sweet black and white family photo to her Instagram account in order to celebrate the upcoming series of The Mummy Diaries.

She captioned the image, “Over 6 years filming out family journey. So grateful for our loyal followers. Wow it only feels like yesterday I was pregnant with little Paul filming baby scans. Series 9 let’s go!”

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