I’ll take the Mickey
SOPHIE ON BEING MUM AND NEW TOUR
PMurder on the Dancefloor singer has welcomed child No5 to her family but she plans to keep on performing.. by taking tot on the road with her
OP star Sophie Ellis-Bextor has revealed she might have a new addition on tour – her baby son Mickey. The Murder on the Dancefloor singer will be performing at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on June 11 as part of The Song Diaries tour. Sophie will be touring with an orchestra as well as her band – performing ensemble-backed versions of her hits along with disco songs.
She’s married to Richard Jones, who’s the bassist in her band and The Feeling, and the couple have five sons – Sonny 14, Kit, nine, Ray, six, Jesse, two, and Mickey, who was born in January.
And when she hits the road from June, the 39-year-old singer says she might bring her new tot along.
“I haven’t officially decided but I think there’s a good chance he’ll come because he’s small and portable and I haven’t had any time away from him yet,” Sophie said.
“I’m not in a big hurry to leave him at home when I go to work.
“My husband is in the band so he’s definitely coming. I’ll use childcare like other people who work.
“This is my fifth baby now so I kind of know a bit of what to expect. He does wake in the night. You come to expect it don’t you? That’s what babies do.”
Sophie’s mum, ex-Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis, is busy with her career as a novelist.
“She’s a wonderful grandma but she works as well so I have a nanny,” said Sophie. “My mum has her second book coming out so she very much works as well.”
Family definitely comes first for Sophie – but she’s never considered giving up her career. She added: “I guess I had my first baby at 25 just after my second album had come out. It didn’t really occur to me to stop doing what I was doing.
“I’m fortunate. I don’t have a proper job – it’s not like I have a nine to five. I can take my baby to work with me. I did some radio interviews this morning and Mickey came with me.
“I can take advantage of the fact that my job allows for that.”
Sophie has a tattoo of a red heart on her upper arm with the word “family” on it – and says becoming a mum had a big effect on her.
“I think certainly when Richard and I got together and had Sonny, it made me feel grounded and happy in a way I hadn’t felt before,” she said.
Sophie got pregnant soon after the pair met through the band in 2002 and they married three years later.
She insists she has “no idea” if they’ll try for a sixth child and insists she’s never pined for a baby girl.
Sophie said: “I think when you have your children, you just want the children you have.
“You don’t think about that. Life
doesn’t work like that. You don’t think, ‘Oh I’d wanted a baby with this colour hair or whatever’. “You have your children and that’s the kids you have and that’s the life you have.” Sophie got Richard flying lessons for his 30th birthday and now he loves piloting a small plane. He was snapped in 2016 on a flight with Meghan Markle, which was posted on Instagram. Sophie said: “We met her a couple of years ago and got on well and she ended up going out for a day flying with him. “Richard has seen her in the last year. She’s lovely. She told me she liked Murder on the Dancefloor.” She says flying is great for Richard: “For him, it’s a really good way of releasing any stress. He loves it so much.” Sophie shot to fame in 2000 when her single Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) beat Victoria Beckham to the top of the charts “I don’t think there’s any hard feelings,” Sophie said of Victoria. “We did cross paths and she seemed very friendly. I’ve had loads of exciting times. The whole time when Groovejet came out was amazing. And releasing my first album and making my first few videos and the tours were incredible. I keep going really because I love what I do.”
Sophie toured with George Michael but never got to meet him.
“It’s not that uncommon to not meet a headliner,” she said. “It depends on what else is going on. With George at that time, he’d turn up and do his gig and then go again.”
But it was different when she toured with Take That. “We hung out a lot and I saw them all the time, they were really lovely hosts,” Sophie said.
She is sometimes spotted when out and about – but people often don’t always know it’s her.
Sophie added: “The most common thing people say is that I look like me. They say, ‘You look like that singer’.”
The star keeps her true self to the people who are closest to her.
She said: “If you’re going home to small people, they don’t want to ask me how was your work – they want to tell me what’s going on in their lives and that’s completely right.
“Children are very much the centre of their own world. And that’s healthy.
“You feel as long as everything is OK with the fundamentals of your family, then work is something where you can afford for things to succeed or fail a bit more.
“Because as long as they’re really happy and healthy at home, then that’s the most important bit.”