My son bit other kids ... so I bit him, says T V Andrea
IT is a punishment unlikely to be promoted in any parenting books.
But TV star Andrea McLean has disclosed that she stopped her son from attacking other children when he was younger by biting him.
The Glasgow-born presenter said she gave her son, now aged 17, ‘a little nibble’ to teach him he was inflicting pain by biting other youngsters.
The Loose Women star’s confession left her fellow panellists shocked during a discussion about bringing up children.
Guest star Rebekah Vardy prompted the remarks when she revealed: ‘I bit someone and my mum bit me back to teach me a lesson.’ Amid shocked murmurs from the studio audience, Miss McLean went on to admit that she had done the same thing.
She said: ‘I think it’s slightly different if you’re really little.’
Host Nadia Sawalha asked her: ‘Would you do it?’, to which the 48-year-old Scot replied: ‘I’ve done it.’
Miss McLean added: ‘I was like, “This hurts, see?” and gave him a little nibble.’
The broadcaster added that the pain must have shocked the youngster as he never bit another child again.
Her admission comes only days after she had to apologise to viewers when guest Bruno Tonioli, the Strictly Come Dancing judge, swore live on air.
The former GMTV weather presenter shares custody of Finlay with her ex-husband, BBC producer Nick Green, and daughter Amy, 12, with Our House presenter Steve Toms.
She has since found love with Nick Feeney, whom she married last month in what she described as an ‘amazing’ romantic yet intimate ceremony.
Their first date was set up by a Loose Women make-up artist and the couple became engaged last August. Mr Feeney is a director of One Night Stand, a glamping pod rental firm.
Miss McLean underwent a hysterectomy in September 2016 after doctors discovered that endometriosis, a painful reproductive condition, had spread to her large intestine.
She said her recovery was aided by gym workouts and by adopting a near-vegan diet.
Speaking before Christmas, she said: ‘I only got the all-clear from that at the beginning of the year, so the beginning of the year started quite dark.
‘It triggered something in my head to seize the day, as you don’t know how long you have. I always wanted a nippy sports car, now I have one. And little did I know Nick was planning to seize the day too and at the end of the year I’d be married.’
In 2011, she said she was ‘gripped’ by postnatal depression for two years shortly after Amy’s birth in 2006.
At the time, she said in an interview: ‘It was a dark time for me. I felt completely miserable, but I didn’t want to burden anyone with what was going on.
‘So in breaks on the show I would run to the loos and cry my eyes out. I’d cry and cry, then take a deep breath and sort myself out and go back out with a smile on my face.
‘I managed to hide it very well for a long time.’
Miss McLean was raised in Trinidad and Tobago. The family returned to Scotland when she was 15 but later settled in Chester.
Besides working on GMTV and Loose Women, the star has also appeared on Dancing on Ice and BBC gymnastics show Tumble.
‘I gave him a little nibble’