She’s one of the UK’s best-loved TV stars with 5.1m Instagram followers who pore over pics of her brilliant home hacks and adorable young family.
But last week Stacey Solomon showed a more vulnerable side to her family life with her fiancé Joe Swash and their five children.
Fighting back tears on her Instagram stories, Stacey, 32, admitted she was feeling “a bit emotional” over her eldest boys – Zachary, 14 and Leighton, nine – spending the weekend at their dads’ houses.
Stacey shares Zachary, who she gave birth to at 17, with childhood sweetheart Dean Cox, while Leighton’s dad is her ex-fiancé, Aaron Barham, who the X Factorstar split from in 2014.
The family, including Stacey’s two children with fiancé Joe, 40 – Rex, who turns three next month, and six-month-old Rose – spend most of their time at their new £1.2 million family home, “Pickle Cottage” in Essex, and Stacey has previously admitted to feeling “sad” when her blended family unit are pulled apart.
During lockdown last year, Stacey revealed how her eldest sons had asked to stay with their dads for longer, admitting, “I’m really missing the big pickles today. I do get sad when they don’t want to come home, but I know how happy it will make their dads, and I never want to stop them from making memories with their family.”
The Loose Women presenter has also admitted to facing criticism over having children with three different fathers, and has spoken openly about how navigating a blended family hasn’t always been plain sailing.
Stacey previously told Closer, “I did feel guilty about having babies with different dads. I didn’t want my kids to have a negative or confused upbringing.
“There’s a stigma about having babies with different partners – I’ve definitely felt pressure from people – people I don’t know, and even people I do know.
“I used to really beat myself up about not being able to offer them a ‘normal’ and ‘perfect’ family all under one roof.”
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On co-parenting, the mum of four added, “No break-up is nice and there are reasons why you broke up with that person, but I think trying to remain as positive, uplifting and happy about that person is the best thing we could’ve done for the kids.”
But Stacey hasn’t shied away from admitting that at times it hasn’t been easy and Joe, who also shares his son Harry, 14, with his ex-fiancée Emma Sophocleous, has previously revealed they “have some issues and problems we have to deal with”. And a source tells Closer it’s something Stacey still finds “emotional”.
“Stacey has no regrets in her life because she is so proud of all of her children and can’t imagine it being any other way. But that doesn’t stop her from feeling extremely emotional when it comes to saying goodbye to her eldest boys,” says the source.
“She knows she can’t keep them with her all the time, but sometimes she wishes that she could – and she really struggles when she realises that isn’t a possibility.
“She does take comfort in the fact that Joe knows how she feels because of his son Harry – but that can also send Stacey into a spiral as she loves when she sees all of their children playing together but worries they miss out when they leave.”
And the source adds how this feeling has been magnified after welcoming her only daughter Rose on her birthday last October.
“She’s also upset to think that by the time Rose gets to their age, some of the boys might be ready to leave home. She doesn’t want Rose to miss out on the joy of having a big family, or miss the other kids when they’re not there.”
But despite her worries, Stacey is said to feel “incredibly lucky” and has been focusing on changing her mind-set over her blended family.
She previously revealed, “Families come in all shapes and sizes and what’s important is that the love is there no matter where it comes from.”