The second I had Alba my whole life levelled up...
Geordie Shore’s Charlotte Crosby tells RACHAEL DAVIS about new motherhood, love and loss, all captured on screen for her new BBC Three series
CHARLOTTE CROSBY is no stranger to the spotlight.
An original cast member of MTV’s Geordie Shore, she’s shared her life on TV consistently since 2011 – so much so, she says when she was asked if she wanted to make Charlotte In Sunderland, a new BBC Three series about her businesses and personal life, she wasn’t sure if there were any parts she hadn’t already shared with the world.
As it turned out, the year she made the docu-series was a whirlwind. Charlotte, 32, found out she was pregnant, her mum was diagnosed with breast cancer and she lost her grandmother, all while she continued to build her fashion and lifestyle businesses and nurture her relationship with partner, Jake Ankers.
We caught up with Charlotte on the highs and lows she’s experienced in the last couple of years, how she’s finding motherhood, and what fans have to look forward to from her new TV series.
Will people see a new side of you in your TV series?
I’ve lived my life on TV since I was 19 years old. So I’ve been through the ups, the downs, the crazy times, the boring times, like, everything I’ve done, basically, on TV.
When I was approached to do this TV show, they were like, ‘We really want to show a different side of Charlotte Crosby who no one’s seen before.’ And I was so adamant, like adamant, that there was no other side of me that anyone could possibly be introduced to, because I have spent my whole life on TV. I’m an open book, there’s not one part of my personality that I’ve hidden. Now, I kind of had to eat my words. At the end of filming I sat and reflected on everything and I was like: ‘Oh my God, I was wrong, everyone is about to see a whole different side of Charlotte Crosby’.
That’s because the things that happened in my life this past year opened up a side of me where I didn’t recognise myself either.
Because who would have thought that you would have to go through finding out you’re pregnant – this huge high – then two weeks later, finding out that your mam’s got cancer, to then having a baby, and then your nana dying.
So I sat and reflected and thought, oh, this is going to be a completely different side of us.
How are your finding motherhood so far?
I can’t not shout from the mountaintops how much I’m loving it.
It’s probably because we’ve got a really easy baby, because she’s just easy. Or it might be because we’re just amazing parents, who knows! But it’s just been the best.
Life levelled up when we had Alba. I have done everything in life you could imagine. I’ve travelled the world. I’ve partied all around the world. I’ve done more partying than some people would do in a lifetime. What on earth could possibly get better than all of this? This is what I used to ask myself.
And when I was going into parenthood, I worried because everyone says: ‘Oh, it’ll all change when the baby’s here’ and ‘oh, you’ll not be able to do that when the baby’s here’. And actually, the second that I had Alba, my whole life levelled up.
I remember talking to Jake in the hospital that whole night. I was like, ‘Why does life just feel automatically insane?’ And he was like, ‘I’ve never felt this feeling’.
This tops anything I’ve ever done in life before.
How was it having a camera crew there when you were going through some really difficult things?
To have the camera crew there at such times in my life just felt really natural. I’ve been on TV for 12 years and they’ve been capturing absolutely everything, like everything. So I think to not have them there would have been more strange.
My mam really stressed the fact that she wanted her whole (cancer) journey on there. She wanted to get
out there the importance of checking your boobs, to get your mammograms and not missing them. She said ‘cover every single last bit,’ so I think she felt happy to do that.
(Jake) was so nervous. He was really, really nervous and I’m giving pep talks every day, and I was like, ‘Listen, just be calm, everything’s gonna be fine. There’s nothing to be nervous about, we’re just going to do our normal things. It’s just going to be a camera there, just don’t sweat it’.
And I swear to you now that the favourite of this show is going to be Jake. He is just the most amazing person that I have ever met in my entire life – I’ve never actually met a person as amazing as Jake, in my whole 32 years on this planet – and even all the crew see it.
I’ve told him: ‘Just let your guard down and just be you. Because that’s all you need to be, because you’re perfect.’
Your nana, Jean, features a lot in the series. What does that mean to you especially after losing her shortly after Alba was born?
It’s going to be amazing, but it’s going to be so sad too.
I suppose I feel so lucky – who ever has a full memory completely recorded from beginning to end, like every single part of the conversation?
Normally you’d take photos and videos, but you don’t have the camera rolling for the whole time you’re together. So I feel so lucky that I’m going to get to look back. It’s going to be so hard to watch, but it’s going to be so nice as well. Charlotte In Sunderland starts on BBC Three, Wednesday, 10pm
My mam really stressed the fact that she wanted her whole (cancer) journey on there. She wanted to get out there the importance of checking your boobs, to get your mammograms and not missing them.