I’m becoming the woman I’ve always wanted to be
Love Island star Camilla Thurlow opens up about baby girl Nell, standing up to vile trolls and fella Jamie Jewitt’s super-stylish surprise proposal
Camilla Thurlow and Jamie Jewitt stole the hearts of the nation in the Love Island villa in 2017 and the pair are just as happy four years on with baby Nell in their lives and a wedding in sight.
Here, Camilla, 31, talks about hitting back at trolls and the significance behind her unusual engagement ring…
Congrats on your engagement. Tell us about your beautiful ring…
Thank you so much. I didn’t see it coming. You can see how absolutely perfect the ring is – Jamie designed it. He did the most amazing job. My mum was born in the same month as Nell [October], so their birthstone is the same [opal] and Jamie put my mum and Nell’s stone into my engagement ring.
What have you learned since becoming a mum?
For the very first time in my life, I look at myself and think, ‘You’re giving this everything you’ve got and more, you’re doing everything you can’. I can look in the mirror and I have so much respect for myself. I’m becoming the woman I’ve always wanted to be. It’s taught me a lot about appreciating myself – I’m doing what’s right for me, for Nell and for Jamie, and us as a family.
You recently hit back after people asked if you were pregnant again…
I felt like the understanding of women’s bodies postpartum is so limited – my body is still changing after giving birth. When I look in the mirror, I’m so grateful for the changes in my body and the way it’s adapted to try to make me as good a mother as possible. I don’t want to be fighting those changes because of outside expectations. For the first time, I look at it and I think, ‘Yeah, you’re a badass, you’re stronger and so much braver’. There’s a huge amount of discussion around women’s bodies now. I wanted to gently remind people that it’s not OK – only a woman has a right to discuss and judge her own body.
What has the response to that been like?
Amazing – but it highlights an ongoing problem with the demands that have been placed on women to appear a certain way at any point in their life.
How are you finding working with Herbal Essences?
I grew up loving all their products, so to have the chance to work with them on the Essences Of Life vegan treatment range has been incredible. l Camilla is a Herbal Essences ambassador.