{"id":79667,"date":"2023-10-08T22:23:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T22:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/posterboyedit.com\/?p=79667"},"modified":"2023-10-08T22:23:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T22:23:44","slug":"chloe-madeley-explains-why-shell-never-copy-her-parents-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/posterboyedit.com\/lifestyle\/chloe-madeley-explains-why-shell-never-copy-her-parents-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"CHLOE MADELEY explains why she'll never copy her parents' marriage…"},"content":{"rendered":"
As the daughter of the one-time king and queen of daytime TV, Richard and Judy, Chloe Madeley had an idyllic childhood.<\/p>\n
She wanted for nothing and was cocooned by the love of two parents, who even finished work in time to collect her from her prestigious private day school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, she could never have predicted that the privileges bestowed upon her would, in early adulthood, lead to so much vitriol \u2014 from colleagues and even strangers \u2014 that she would be pushed to the edge of a breakdown.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it was inevitable when she opted for a career in television and got her first job, working as a humble runner \u2014 on programmes including The Alan Titchmarsh Show, Loose Women and Market Kitchen \u2014 that accusations of nepotism would be levelled at her.<\/p>\n
Any nepo baby will assert that while your name might get you a foot in the door, you don\u2019t rise to the top if you\u2019re no good \u2014 and it can actually work against you.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Happier and healthier: Chloe Madeley has spent the past few years working as a personal trainer and does group coaching with hundreds of online clients\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018There was one producer, I\u2019ll never forget him, who lost his mind in front of everyone and said, \u201cJust because you\u2019re Richard and Judy\u2019s daughter doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re going to get an easy ride here,\u201d \u2019 says Chloe who is, in appearance, a perfect physical blend of her parents, with her father\u2019s oval face and her mother\u2019s mesmerising aquamarine eyes and blonde hair.<\/p>\n
\u2018I think I\u2019d forgotten to meet a celebrity at their car to take them to the green room and he [the producer] really went for me.<\/p>\n
\u2018I remember afterwards sitting under a table in another room and just crying my eyes out. I was only young [19] and worked hard, and you can\u2019t get everything right every day,\u2019 says Chloe, now 36.<\/p>\n
\u2018At the same time, I was also getting trolled. No one wrote anything about me without mentioning \u201cnepotism\u201d. It was so intense I came off Twitter, it wasn\u2019t good for my mental health.\u2019<\/p>\n
Looking back, Chloe can see that this was when the generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) she was diagnosed with a few years later first manifested.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, it was while she was taking part in ITV\u2019s Dancing On Ice, in 2011, aged 24, that her mental health seriously spiralled.<\/p>\n
Against a chorus of criticism that she was only on our screens because of her famous parents, so intense was Chloe\u2019s anxiety \u2014 which fellow contestants tried to encourage her to channel into her performances \u2014that she stopped sleeping and began self-medicating with alcohol.<\/p>\n
\u2018It felt like people hated me, just for being my parents\u2019 daughter, and got to a point where I was so desperately unhappy I couldn\u2019t function any more,\u2019 she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Close relationship: Chloe with her parents Judy Finnigan and Richard Madeley in London in 2011<\/p>\n
\u2018I couldn\u2019t sleep, I was up all night, either vomiting or drinking, which obviously made everything worse.<\/p>\n
\u2018My dad found me on the kitchen floor one morning, at my worst, and said, \u201cLook, you need help. I\u2019m not a doctor. We don\u2019t know how to help you. But there are people who are qualified and paid to help you.<\/p>\n
\u2018So let\u2019s find them and get you some support.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m so grateful to him. I was diagnosed with GAD and he got me into therapy \u2014 cognitive behavioural and talking therapy \u2014 which pulled me back into reality. It helped so much, I still have therapy now.\u2019<\/p>\n
While therapy couldn\u2019t, of course, stop the critical voices, it has given Chloe the tools to react differently.<\/p>\n
\u2018Back then, being Richard and Judy\u2019s daughter was my identity but now I\u2019m respected and successful in my own field and don\u2019t give a s*** what people say about me,\u2019 she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018If they don\u2019t like the fact I\u2019m my parents\u2019 daughter, that\u2019s their problem, not mine.\u2019<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just therapy that helped Chloe get to this more healthy perspective. At about the same time, she started dating a man who introduced her to weight training, which became such a passion \u2014 a great antidote to anxiety, she says, as it helps channel adrenaline and cortisol and keeps her in the moment \u2014 that she went on to make a very successful career out of it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chloe as a child with dad Richard, who played an important role in getting her the help she needed when she was struggling in her twenties\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a result, Chloe has spent the past few years working as a personal trainer and does group coaching with hundreds of online clients while also giving health and fitness inspiration to her nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram.<\/p>\n
All this while raising her daughter, Bodhi, who turned one in August, with husband James Haskell, the former England rugby player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Suffice to say the pair are a walking advert for weightlifting \u2014 Chloe is a gym-honed size eight, with a rippling six-pack, while Haskell is a 6 ft 4 in muscular man mountain.<\/p>\n
The family features in a new series on ITVX called At Home With The Madeleys, which charts the ups and downs of Chloe and James\u2019s first months as new parents, with doting grandparents, Richard and Judy, making regular appearances.<\/p>\n
Having stopped playing rugby four years ago, James has pivoted to a new career as a DJ, entertaining revellers all over the world, which means he is away from home for several days most weeks.<\/p>\n
Adjusting to parenthood under these circumstances has, Chloe admits, been challenging. So much so that there were times when she wondered whether their marriage would survive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s been really hard and a big theme of the show is me trying to adapt to this lifestyle, as a new mum whose husband is away a lot,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
And having Richard and Judy as role models wasn\u2019t necessarily a useful point of comparison.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chloe with mum Judy, who is now a writer. The pair found that Chloe’s pregnancy with Bodhi was a bonding experience for them<\/p>\n
\u2018In what world is theirs a realistic reflection of a marriage?\u2019 she says, her huge eyes opening even wider.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018They woke up together, they\u2019d go to work together, they\u2019d come home together, have dinner together and spend their weekends together. And that was life.<\/p>\n
\u2018Like any normal couple, sometimes they got on and sometimes they had arguments, but they were forced always to make amends quickly because they had to do the show live every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Growing up with that is, I think, partly why I struggled when James started working as a DJ \u2014 travelling and staying away from home \u2014 because it created a very different family dynamic to the one I was used to.\u2019<\/p>\n
She is relieved that she has \u2018never been happier\u2019 since becoming a mum. She had been fearful of developing postnatal depression (PND), not least because her mother suffered terribly with it.<\/p>\n
Judy struggled for ten months after Chloe\u2019s birth, \u2018living in a thick, black cloud\u2019 and \u2018having panic attacks\u2019 before seeking medical help and being prescribed antidepressants.\u00a0She also credits Richard\u2019s \u2018talent for happiness\u2019 for helping her through.<\/p>\n
As \u2018anxiety and depression are a marriage made in heaven\u2019, according to Chloe, she believes her propensity for the former may have been passed on in the genes.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve inherited a lot of my outlook on life from my mum,\u2019 she says. \u2018And it was never a secret in our house that she struggles with anxiety and depression. She handles it so well, she\u2019s so open and honest and really on top of it.\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chloe with her husband, the former England rugby player James Haskell, and their daughter Bodhi<\/p>\n
And Bodhi\u2019s arrival in the world could certainly have heightened Chloe\u2019s risk factors for PND, as she was delivered by emergency caesarean section \u2014 increasing her susceptibility, according to studies, by 15 per cent \u2014 after the labour failed to progress, and Bodhi was found to be tangled in the umbilical cord.<\/p>\n
An examination soon afterwards also uncovered a small hole in her heart, which cardiologists at Great Ormond Street Hospital are monitoring every six months in the hope that it will close of its own accord. Otherwise, surgery might be required.<\/p>\n
\u2018I felt sick and shaky when the doctors told me, but they also said a lot of reassuring things, which I focused on and helped keep me calm,\u2019 says Chloe. \u2018James is more prone to worrying about it and would like more regular check-ups.\u2019<\/p>\n
Chloe and James find parenting demanding enough that they have no intention of rushing into having a second child.<\/p>\n
However, aware of their advancing ages (James is 38), they have spoken about freezing embryos to buy themselves time.<\/p>\n
Before Bodhi was conceived, Chloe \u2014 concerned that, despite not using contraception they hadn\u2019t had a \u2018happy accident\u2019 \u2014 underwent fertility checks and, after getting the all-clear, was advised by her gynaecologist to \u2018just have lots of sex\u2019.<\/p>\n
So she began to travel with James when he worked away from home, and was pregnant within a couple of months.<\/p>\n
\u2018If any of my friends are really struggling to conceive and ask, \u201cShould I see a specialist?\u201d I say, \u201cFirst, just have loads of sex\u201d, because that\u2019s the key,\u2019 says Chloe. \u2018When you\u2019re in your 30s you\u2019re very lucky if it just happens.\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
While working as a personal trainer, Chloe also gives health and fitness inspiration to her nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram<\/p>\n
She has never previously been shy when it comes to discussing her sex life, once claiming that she had \u2018reaped the benefits\u2019 of her husband\u2019s rumoured 1,000 sexual partners and boasting that, pre-Bodhi, she and James had sex every night.<\/p>\n
Just this year she admitted that \u2018getting back into the swing of a good, healthy sex life has been quite difficult\u2019 since having a baby.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, for someone previously so uninhibited, she\u2019s surprisingly tight-lipped when I ask whether things are now back on track in the bedroom.<\/p>\n
\u2018I have made a promise to James, and he to me, that neither of us is going to talk publicly about our sex lives any more,\u2019 she says, shaking her blonde hair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Every time I do, it becomes this awful embarrassing headline and everyone\u2019s like, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with this girl? Why can\u2019t she keep her mouth shut?\u201d So no more sex talk.\u2019<\/p>\n
This must please her parents, particularly her mother, Judy, now an author, who has shunned the limelight since she and her husband\u2019s departure from their eponymously named show on Channel 4 in 2008.<\/p>\n
However, Richard is still a regular on TV, including as a presenter on Good Morning Britain. \u2018With Dad, what you see is what you get,\u2019 says Chloe, laughing affectionately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018He\u2019s a peacock. He\u2019s a performer. He\u2019s also a very brilliant journalist. Mum is a very private lady. She\u2019s a family woman, she\u2019s a mother, she\u2019s a reader, she\u2019s a writer. She\u2019s brilliant, but she is not a performer or an entertainer and doesn\u2019t seek the limelight.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was amazed that she agreed to be in any part of the show [At Home With The Madeleys], but she did and I think she steals every scene she\u2019s in.\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chloe and James hire a nanny a couple of days a week or when they enjoy a night out rather than relying on their parents to look after Bodhi<\/p>\n
And Bodhi has brought Chloe and her mum even closer. \u2018Mum absolutely went on the journey with me \u2014 short of having a baby bump, she was pregnant and having a baby as well \u2014 and I\u2019m so happy about that.<\/p>\n
\u2018She just cared so much. She texted, called or invited me over every day, saying, \u201cHow are you feeling? What\u2019s going on? How\u2019s the bump? Send me a photo. What did your scan say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I never felt like she was interfering or stepping on my toes or being neurotic. It was a real bonding experience for us.\u2019<\/p>\n
Although her parents adore Bodhi, Chloe has not left her in their charge yet, preferring instead to hire a nanny a couple of days a week or when she and James enjoy a rare night out.<\/p>\n
\u2018She started walking at nine months, so needs watching constantly, and my parents are not in their 50s [Judy is 75, while Richard is 67],\u2019 says Chloe. \u2018She would run them ragged.\u2019<\/p>\n
When Bodhi is a little older, and a little less hard work, Chloe is looking forward to being able to leave her with both her own and James\u2019s parents, who live in Sussex and also love spending time with their granddaughter.<\/p>\n
Chloe and her brothers, Jack, 37, and twins Tom and Dan (who are a decade older and were born during Judy\u2019s first marriage), had a pretty extraordinary home life, thanks to their parents.<\/p>\n
As well as the family pad in Hampstead, North London (Chloe and Jack went to the fashionable King Alfred School, where Annie Lennox and Liam Gallagher sent their children), there was also a holiday home in Cornwall.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reflecting that it was her ‘normal’, Chloe wasn’t phased by the famous people who used to frequent the family home when she was growing up\u00a0<\/p>\n
House guests, over the years, included the late singer George Michael, Jamie and Jools Oliver (though Chloe is disappointed her father insisted on cooking instead of letting the Naked Chef take the reins) and comedy duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas.<\/p>\n
\u2018It wasn\u2019t weird having famous people round \u2014 it was just my normal, I guess,\u2019 says Chloe.<\/p>\n
\u2018But I\u2019ve never seen my mum as excited as she was when George Michael came over. She was his biggest fan and I remember thinking, \u201cHow sweet!\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n
While unable to entice her mother into the gym, Chloe is delighted that her father has asked her to help him start building muscle. \u2018I said, \u201cOK, great, just let me know when,\u201d \u2019 says Chloe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019d love to train my dad, but I won\u2019t nag him \u2014 I never want to be one of those preachy health and fitness k**bs.\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to imagine this kind of straight-talking appealing to Richard, who may soon be looking rather buff on breakfast TV.<\/p>\n