Binky Felstead reveals boyfriend Josh ‘JP’ Patterson is ‘thinking about marriage’ after surprise baby India saved their relationship
YOU won’t clap eyes on a better advert for new motherhood than Binky Felstead.
Not only has she made it – on time! – to our cover shoot (no mean feat with a six-week-old baby in tow), but there’s no hint of tiredness, stress or worry.
Her skin is positively glowing, and she happily breastfeeds little India while having her make-up done as if she’s been doing this shizzle for years.
While she seems a complete natural at the whole thing, Binky, 27, says all credit must go to India herself.
“She’s such a good baby – so I’ve been told anyway. Like, I don’t know any different! But she sleeps good stints at night. She goes to bed with us at about 12am and she’ll wake up at 4.30am to feed.
“I was told it was going to be horrific and that I’d never be able even to shower. But I’ve actually only had one night where I burst into tears on FaceTime to my mum, like: ‘What do I do?!’
“I’m not counting my lucky stars yet, though, because I know it could all change at any minute.”
One contributing factor to all this serenity must surely be the new period of calm in Binky’s relationship with Made In Chelsea co-star and India’s father, Josh “JP” Patterson.
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These are uncharted waters for the couple. After two turbulent years of being off, on and off again, they are now very definitely together. Rejoice!
So together, in fact, that following an awful lot of deliberating, JP has finally taken the plunge and moved into Binky’s newly renovated Fulham pad. The two are thoroughly enjoying finding their feet as wet-behind-the-ears parents.
“Weirdly, I feel like everything has fallen into place,” says Binky, whose real name is Alexandra although she’s been known by her nickname since childhood.
“We’re really happy. It’s been very tricky and quite hard work and we just kept ‘missing’ each other. Now it feels like we’re both in the same place.”
Ask her how JP is with India and she pretty much melts.
“Oh, he’s so gorgeous with her. He adores her. He loves getting involved at bath time and with nappy changes. The only annoying thing he does is when I finally get her to sleep and she’s very peaceful, I’ll turn around and he’s putting sunglasses on her and taking a selfie or something stupid like that.”
All of this will be music to the ears of anyone who has followed the not inconsiderable ups and downs of the Binks/JP double act.
They weren’t together when Binky discovered (to her immense shock) that she was pregnant, and the sobering news forced both of them to do a lot of soul-searching and growing up fast. But despite his goofiness and propensity for playing the fool, 27-year-old property developer JP has proved himself to be Binky’s rock.
“I was his first relationship,” says Binky, explaining why he struggled with the idea of settling down.
“He was a Norfolk country lad and didn’t know about London. I don’t think he realised how big the show was and how it would affect his life.”
So has he surprised her?
“He really has. He said to me he feels new-found love for me, which is really nice, and I think it brings you closer together naturally. I think he has a lot of respect for what I’ve produced.
“You know, it’s not like a silly relationship [any more]. It’s now serious. We’re Mummy and Daddy and we have this special bond.”
Not so close that she’d allow him anywhere near the business end during the birth, though. Binky was adamant that JP remained firmly positioned at the top at all times.
“Oh god, yeah. He definitely stayed up with me. No way was he going there. We want to be able to have sex again one day!”
India Elizabeth Felstead-Patterson was safely delivered on June 12 at central London’s St Mary’s Hospital’s exclusive Lindo Wing, where Prince George and Princess Charlotte were also born.
Terrified of the pain of childbirth, Binky opted to be induced a couple of days before her due date and had an epidural shortly after labour started.
“I went in on the Sunday night and was 2cm dilated already. I had my waters broken the next morning, had an epidural and she came out at 3:42pm. In the end it was over really quickly, like, a couple of pushes and she was out. It was really undramatic.
“I thought Josh was going to be really irritating and annoy me but he was actually really good. He cut the cord and it was all really lovely.”
It’s not like a silly relationship [any more]. It’s now serious. We’re Mummy and Daddy and we have this special bond.
Binky Felstead
India latched on “straight away” and has breastfed from the off without any major hitches. And apart from having to “sit on a doughnut for a couple of weeks” following the birth, Binky’s recovery has been textbook.
Tonight night, viewers can watch how she and JP have coped with the first few weeks of parenthood in the second episode of spin-off show Born In Chelsea. Binky hopes it will lead to a series after the first instalment was so warmly received.
“Everyone had really good stuff to say about it, which obviously makes me very happy. We’re very proud of it and it would be lovely if it was commissioned.
“It was very real wasn’t it? It was basically baring all. I wasn’t wearing make-up for half of it, but I didn’t care about looking pristine and perfect. We both enjoyed it and we’d like to go down that kind of route. And I have to have a job,” she adds.
“I have to do something to keep a roof over our heads!”
While she’s not exactly about to join the dole queue, two months ago Binky announced that after being on the show from day one, she wouldn’t be returning to MIC, preferring to concentrate on “the next big chapter”. She says today that she’s relishing being “away from the drama”.
“I’ve done it for six years. I’m now a mother, and that just doesn’t interest me any more.
“I can’t be bothered to hear about who has cheated on who or god knows what. I separated myself a lot from that in the last series. I wasn’t really in it very much because I just didn’t want to be a part of it.
“The door will always be open and I’d love to go back to the odd thing, but I feel like the next stage for me is to do something else.”
Impressively, Binky has managed to negotiate her way through said drama over the last few years to emerge universally liked and arguably the programme’s most popular character.
“I think you get a lot of people pretending to be something they’re not or trying too hard, and I’ve never really done that. What you see is what you get.
“It might sound silly because I’ve been on a TV show, but I’ve never been fame-hungry. Made In Chelsea was nothing when I first started and it’s massive now. That progression has been huge and the people on it now… they want to be famous and they want to cause a stir because it makes good TV. But for me, that’s never been what I’ve been interested in.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love it. They are still my family, and obviously I’m here now because of them so I’d never slag it off. This is just a new chapter for me.”
Quite what that new chapter will entail is still up in the air, although the obligatory celebrity baby range must surely be in the offing. She also has plans to start up a “mummies’ retreat”, where new mums can go with their babies to recharge, work out and “return to their husbands feeling glamorous and happy”. How terribly Chelsea.
“It’ll be in the country and we’ll have nannies looking after your baby while you work out. It’s somewhere you can take your baby and go to get things back on track, have your hair and nails done and make yourself feel a bit healthier.”
There’s no doubt that Binky has enjoyed the fruits of a privileged upbringing, growing up in the East Sussex countryside and boarding at the £10,700-a-term Taunton School in Somerset. But she is irritated at any suggestion of silver spoonery, insisting that she’s always earned her own money and has never been given anything for free. When she started on MIC she was working as a PA for an investment company.
“People assume I’ve got loads of family money and I get handed it on a plate. It’s just not true. I haven’t been given pocket money since I was 15. Everything I have, I’ve earned myself.
People assume I’ve got loads of family money and I get handed it on a plate. It’s just not true.
Binky Felstead
“Obviously I had a lovely childhood and a lovely education, but then I went straight to work waitressing and in bars. I hate people assuming you get given everything and I’m this posh snob.”
She has a simple tactic for beating the haters.
“Block and delete,” she says.
“These people are so vile. Vile! I can’t believe they’re allowed to bloody comment! I mean, I know it’s a free world but some of the stuff those people say, it’s shocking. What kind of person does that?
“I ignore them because really, what is the point? I want to keep India away from it [social media] for as long as possible. I want her to be a little country girl with her ponies, like I was, away from make-up and boys.”
Replicating Binky’s idyllic childhood will “probably” mean sending India to boarding school.
“I’d like to,” she says.
“It’s so bloody expensive, but that’s the ideal. Josh wants her to go to Gordonstoun in Scotland, which is where he went, but I was like: ‘No way, that’s too far.’”
They’ve got the house, the baby and the dog – Binky’s King Charles Spaniel Scrumble is a celebrity in his own right – so the next logical step is surely marriage. Who’d have thought that was a possibility this time last year?
“Oh, we laughed about that yesterday,” says Binky.
“He says he is [thinking about it] and gives me a wink. Who knows? I think we have got the main thing for now.”
Binky’s parents split acrimoniously when she was 15. Has this made her wary of marriage?
“I like the idea of it. It’s what every girl dreams of – having that perfect family and perfect husband and perfect house. But obviously my parents divorced and it was messy and I didn’t speak [about it] until Dad died [in 2015]. So my head’s not in the clouds about it.”
Ask her if she’d ever consider popping the question herself and she looks aghast at the very thought.
I like the idea of [marriage]. It’s what every girl dreams of – having that perfect family and perfect husband and perfect house.
Binky Felstead
“No! I asked him to be my boyfriend and that went really badly. It’s all on the f**king show. He ditched me!”
Binky’s formidable, no-nonsense mum Jane, who has made several appearances on MIC herself, has been on hand constantly since India’s birth.
“She’s told me to do what I want, to trust my instinct and not to listen to other people. She goes: ‘B*****ks to what other people think. Get on with it!’”
More children are on the cards (“I’d like three”) but for now Binky is hopelessly devoted to India, who has been contentedly snuggled into her mum for the duration of the interview. Binky says she’s the best surprise she’s ever had.
“She wasn’t planned. God, no. I didn’t think I’d get pregnant very easily because I had pre-cancerous cells and had some of my cervix removed. And I was on the Pill!
“It was exciting and shocking at the same time. But she’s a gift.”