CELEBS...CELEBS...CELEBS...CELEBS...CELEBS...CELEBS...CELEBS...

‘YES, I’M ALWAYS TIRED – ISN’T EVERY MUM?’

MOTHERHOOD HAS BEEN AN EXHAUSTING EXPERIENCE FOR MYLEENE KLASS. BUT SOMEHOW SHE’S FOUND THE TIME AND ENERGY TO BRING UP BABY AVA AND LAUNCH A FUNKY CLOTHING RANGE FOR KIDS

Interview by Kathryn Knight
Photgraphy by Simon Fraser

Singer, presenter, model, classical musician and now fashion designer. Just thinking about Myleene Klass' long list of achievements would leave most people in need of an aspirin and a lie down. Add the fact she's also a new mum, and Myleene pretty much falls into the category of all-round Superwoman. We're impressed – and feeling inadequate.

Myleene, however, takes it all in her stride. Even during our photo shoot, surrounded by a sea of gurgling babies and with energetic toddlers charging around, she's an enviable island of calm. So how does she hold it all together without going into meltdown?

"I used to get stressed," she admits. "But now I've taken the pressure off myself and just take it one day at a time. Thankfully, it's easy to carry Ava around at the moment so I can take her to work with me most of the time."

Nonetheless, the 30 year old, who sprang to fame with pop band Hear'Say seven years ago, seems unusually driven. Sneak a peek at her work diary and it reveals that in the past year she's juggled TV presenting work, a weekly radio show, released a classical album, written a book and, of course, starred in those famous Marks & Spencer's adverts.

As if that isn't enough, she's just designed a range of baby clothes for Mothercare, which she's unveiling today with the help of our cute child models. She confesses that trying to be a have-it-all mum is exhausting. Not helped, one would imagine, by the fact that she manages to cram in all this without the help of a nanny.

"Yes, I'm permanently tired. Yes, I have to multitask, but doesn't every mum? I'm not the sort of person who can sit at home on the sofa. It's not like I'm perpetually trying to be at the top of my game, but when you are being given opportunities you want to take them and enjoy them," she says.

Myleene has been candid about the pressure on new mums, once saying she had never felt so lonely or isolated after giving birth. She says life is much better a year on, but she's forthcoming about how scary she found the whole experience.

"When Ava was born it seemed there was lots to do, and it overwhelmed me," she says. "There's so much to remember and you're so frightened – you've got to get it right. The pressure is immense. Then there's the sleep deprivation!

"There's almost a conspiracy between women because you don't want to be the one who says you can't cope. After I talked publicly about it, I had so many letters and emails thanking me."

The impact of having a baby wasn't just felt by Myleene – her relationship with her fiancé Graham Quinn, her former bodyguard, also became strained.

"It was difficult in the beginning because Gray had to learn there was a new hierarchy," she admits. "He still says now: ‘It's Ava, then the goldfish, then me.' There were times when you wonder: ‘Am I going mad here?' Like everything he said was wrong. But you know we're normal – normal as can be."

Like many new parents, time alone as a couple has been the main sacrifice since Ava was born in August last year. "We haven't managed to pull that one off to be honest," she admits.

However, she has now set aside one day a week of uninterrupted family time for Graham and Ava.

"I love it when I close the door behind me and it's just the three of us," she says. "No computers or phones. We barely answer the door."

After Ava's birth, Gray bought Myleene a stunning diamond eternity ring to wear alongside her engagement ring, but to date there's still no wedding band.

"People ask all the time when we're going to get married," she says. "We will. There comes a point when you think: ‘We need to get on with it.' The problem is, thinking about the dress, the hair, etc, just feels like hard work, so it would have to be something very different. But even without a wedding, we're knitted together for the rest of our lives, we're a team."

And, inevitably, with Ava now past her first birthday, family and friends are wondering if she would like another baby.

"If you'd asked me that a few months ago, I'd have thought you were insane,"she admits. "But I'm warming to it now. All my memories have my brother and sister in them and I'd like Ava to have the same memories."

For now, her Mothercare range is her new baby. The business venture was prompted by Myleene's irritation at "drowning in a sea of pink" baby clothes after Ava was born.

She says: "I know people will ask: ‘What does she know?' But I've been really involved, sourcing every single bit of material, and going on research trips to New York and LA. I didn't go to design school but I am a mum, and I'm thrilled with the results."

With so much going on it's little wonder she's excited about the future.

"Turning 30 was a big moment," she admits. "Saying goodbye to my 20s was quite invigorating. I wouldn't want to go back to being 21 for all the money in the world – you're so confused. Now I might be a bit more wrinkly, but I earned those wrinkles, I earned those stretch marks. So what if I've got trousers I can't get into because my bum's bigger? And I think it's silly to try to recreate what you looked like at 18.

"I'm not a dieter and I don't exercise," she adds. "That, for me, would be a waste of time. I have a one year old to run around after so I haven't time to be neurotic about the way I look."

In any case, getting older and having a baby has helped her to stop worrying so much about what people think.

"You will never be able to please everybody. There will always be someone looking at you thinking: ‘You do too much of this and too little of that,'" she says. "But you know what you need, and you know what your baby needs. Nobody else."

And with that she's off to make pasta for dinner. For all the assignments, she is still a mum who needs to feed the family, albeit a very glamorous one.

Myleene's Baby K range is available now, exclusively at Mothercare.