Paloma Faith reveals the childbirth agony that left her struggling to walk for two months as she unveils her pop comeback
THE birth of her first child proved to be a terrifying ordeal for PALOMA FAITH.
The singer was left struggling to walk for two months after enduring a traumatic 20-hour labour before having an emergency Caesarean last year.
Paloma told of the experience while marking her comeback with an exclusive first interview on my Bizarre Life podcast — which you can download from Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast provider.
She reveals: “I had this amazing birth plan that was set to be all natural and amazing and then just like, everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong.
“I had 20 hours of labour, and a premature one, and then I wasn’t dilating. The baby was in jeopardy and so I had to have an emergency C-section.
“But I did nine hours of labour without pain relief then just lost the plot completely.
“Because I’d been in labour for a long time I had something called PROM which is a premature rupture of waters.
“Then I just had so much other stuff go wrong afterwards because I also had an infection of the womb and really bad mastitis.
“I wasn’t very well for a long time afterwards. I don’t think I could really walk properly for a good two months.
“Afterwards I was in bed. And I was in bed for a while before as well because I didn’t want to go into labour too prematurely.
“I had bed rests to stop the baby coming too early.
“The only way I can explain it is that I went to the gates of hell and I brought back an angel because it is just so incredible and I wouldn’t change a minute of it for the world because I just think I have made the best person ever.” Despite her traumatic experience, Paloma said she was “treated so well” by the NHS, who delivered her tot at University College Hospital, London — and showed her support when we met with a T-shirt dedicated to the health service.
The star, who has kept the gender and name of her nine-month-old baby private, struggled to regain her pre-baby body.
Once she was back on her feet, Paloma was determined to get fighting fit for her musical return.
She tells me: “It was all really awful and I don’t think my body was designed for it.
“Not to mention putting on 3st which I’m sure your readers would love to hear about.
“I borrowed EMMA WILLIS’s personal trainer. Emma’s had three children, you would not think it. And she’s had a few Caesareans. I was just like, ‘How do I do it? This is insane.’ And she was like, ‘Call this number’.”
Paloma’s birth hell might put some mothers off having more children, but that is not the case with the singer.
She says: “I would do it again. I would.
“I also feel like my heart’s opened up to a capacity that I never thought it could fit any more love in. And I just feel now like I want to adopt, I want loads because it’s just so amazing.”
Paloma also revealed she has no plans to marry her French artist partner of four years, Leyman Lahcine.
Her marriage to New Zealand chef Rian Haynes in 2005 ended after eight months and she is reluctant to walk up the aisle again.
She explains: “I feel the fact that we’ve got a child together is way more bonding, than a piece of paper.”
There is no ruling it out though, as she joked: “When I’m like 80 I think I want to get married and try heroin.”
Less than a year after becoming a mum, Paloma is returning with her fourth album The Architect, which features new single Crybaby, out today.
As the only British female artist other than ADELE to have her last three albums go double platinum, and having been named Best British Female at the Brits in 2015, she has a lot to live up to.
But Paloma is not afraid to tackle big issues. She adds: “It’s important people don’t look at me and go, ‘Oh, it’s a political album’.
“I very carefully try to say it’s social-political, because I am not watching Prime Minister’s Questions every week and I don’t know the ins and outs of everyone’s manifestos or whatever.
“It’s literally just observations from my perspective as the common man, sort of thing, saying, ‘This doesn’t seem right’.”
Paloma has also been very vocal about the London Grenfell Tower fire in June, and insists the death toll must be closer to 150 than the official figure of around 80.
She tells me: “I grew up in Hackney and I’ve got a half-sister who lived on a big housing estate.
“I don’t know anybody who has ever lived in a council flat with the number of people that they said were there.”
Paloma is never afraid to say what she really thinks.
Her new album will certainly be no different.
How Bizarre
Oddest story
BEAR with me on this as I’ve got baby brain still and I’m not very quick. The most bizarre story I’ve ever heard about myself? That I had a fling with NIALL HORAN. I’m afraid not.
Weirdest outfit
MANY people would say probably everything, but there was one where I had a quiff and a sparkly orange jumpsuit and an orange jewelled jacket. It was for a film premiere. That was pretty nuts.
Strangest advice
THIS one’s dark and from my mother. She said: “If you find it difficult to have a child with your boyfriend, find somebody who looks like him, sleep with them, get pregnant and don’t tell him.”
Unusual party
THE Met Gala in New York in 2013, where I met PHARRELL WILLIAMS who I then worked with. They don’t let you bring a guest so I had to go up that long walkway, up the stairs by myself.
'I love the underdog'
YEARS spent grafting for a record deal put Paloma in the ideal position to become a coach on TV’s The Voice.
But she won’t be returning to the singing competition after her stint on the show last year, admitting she disagreed with former LIBERTY X star KEVIN SIMM being crowned champ.
Reflecting on her experience, she says: “I found it quite difficult. I don’t like the word ‘judge’, I’m naturally the type of person who wants to help people and cultivate talent.
“I guess my ideologies were a little bit pricked because of the outcome of it, because I’m a big fan of the underdog.
“I love the idea of the underdog rising up and I felt like that’s what I wanted to happen, and it didn’t. But I don’t think that the final result was correct.
“As somebody who’s a bit of an underdog myself, carving my way up through loads of people not believing I could do it, I wanted to do that. And I don’t know if that was the right platform for it.”
With her own music to focus on, she is better off without the show.
Digital detox: what Paloma can't live without
App
Photo-editor Snapseed
Whatsapp contact
My kid's dad
Instagram account
Chrissy Teigen. I love her
TV channel
I don't watch TV
Twitter account
David G Arnold
Gadget
It's become so boring in my life that it's the baby shush-er. It just goes shhh
Podcast
The Bizarre podcast
Listen now
Hear Paloma's interview on my podcast.
Subscribe by searching for Bizarre Life with Dan Wootton on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast provider.
U2 emerge from the Blackout
U2 surprised fans by dropping their first new music in three years last night.
With trademark guitars and a thumping drum beat, The Blackout is the first preview of their upcoming album Songs Of Experience – the follow-up to 2014’s Songs Of Innocence.
A black- and-white video unveiled on the band’s Facebook page showed them performing the track in Amsterdam. But the first single released from the album will be You’re The Best Thing About Me, on Wednesday.
Next week U2 return to the road for the US leg of their mammoth The Joshua Tree Tour.
They’re keeping busy.
No bushtucker trial for Shane
SHANE FILAN won’t be following his WESTLIFE pal KIAN EGAN into the TV jungle.
At my Facebook Live session yesterday Shane sang Unbreakable from new album Love Always, out now, plus a cover of BRYAN ADAMS’ hit Heaven.
Asked if he’d go on hit show I’m A Celebrity, he said: “I probably wouldn’t. Kian’s won it. He’s the king, so I can’t take anything away from the king.”
I wouldn’t be keen on a witchetty grub, either.
See Shane's performance at
— SPY romp Kingsman: The Golden Circle’s world premiere is so big it will be held at the Odeon and Cineworld in Leicester Square on September 18, with Sir ELTON JOHN, HALLE BERRY, COLIN FIRTH and CHANNING TATUM.
— NEXT year’s Brit Awards show will be on February 21 and broadcast live on ITV, and for the eighth year running it will be at London’s O2. The 2017 show, the 37th, raised £1.5million for charities War Child and The Brit School.