HOLLYOAKS’ JENNIFER METCALFE ON

HOLLYOAKS star Jennifer Metcalfe today reveals how she feels lucky to be a mother after her son’s traumatic birth.

The stunning star, 35, has opened her heart about her turbulent first year of motherhood with baby Daye.

And how her struggles with breastfeeding and online trolling about her post-baby body added to her woes.

As the star returns to the Channel 4 soap as Mercedes Mcqueen, she is speaking out to show other mums that the ideal picture of being a mother is not always realistic.

Her son was born in June last year and called a “miracle” by midwives because he had a knot in his umbilical cord, which was also around his neck.

Jennifer said: “They say it happens to one in 100 babies in the womb and that they usually die. But Daye fought the odds and he is here.

“I am lucky to be a mum because Daye could have died in the womb or at birth.

“You don’t really realise how precarious the labour can be and what can go wrong, so I thank my blessing that he is here and has just turned one.”

Gaunt

Jennifer, a one-time Dancing on Ice star, sparked worries among fans when she appeared at this month’s British Soap Awards looking gaunt and frail.

But she insisted that while she the slimmest she has been since giving her birth she is not ashamed of how she looks.

The actress, who has dropped from a size 10 to a size 6 in the past 12 months, said: “I am probably the smallest I have ever been but I don’t care what anyone else thinks and if they feel I’ve gone too far with my weight loss or that I look unusually skinny.

“I vary from a size zero to a size 10, which I haven’t been for years. I wouldn’t say I am a standard size but I never have been. I don’t know what I weigh right now.

“I don’t have time to keep getting on the scales because I’m too busy carrying a 2st man around.

“He hangs off me and that’s what keeps me trim.

“Daye is a very active baby who is always on the move but he had very bad colic for the first few months so I was totally preoccupied with that rather than what my body looked like.”

A month after giving birth to Daye, whose dad is ex-geordie Shore star Greg Lake, Jennifer posed in her bra and knickers for a selfie to