26 November 2023 , 11:00
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Olivia and Alex Bowen have revealed the reason behind their decision to share less of their son's image online following a creepy experience.
The couple, who met thanks to Love Island in 2016, welcomed son Abel into the world last year, with both Alex and Olivia posting plenty of snaps of their new bundle of joy with their millions of followers on social media at the time. However, the doting parents recently changed their approach to sharing their offspring's identity online.
"At first we were quite comfortable with having [pictures of Abel] online whilst he was really young," Olivia recalled when speaking exclusively to the Mirror at the Football For Change gala over the weekend. "But I think as he's got older, he's started to look more like him."
Olivia and Alex Bowen have revealed the reason behind their parenting decision (Instagram/ @oliviadbowen)
The couple welcomed Axel in JuneOlivia, who was speaking alongside her husband at the star-studded event, then went on to go into detail about exactly why she and Alex decided to reduce how much of their son's life they share with fans. "We had a couple of instances where someone had stolen our photos and made a fake account involving [Abel]," the mum-of-one recalled.
Olivia continued: "I just think it's so wrong. So we made a decision to bring him off [social media] just to protect him from all that as unfortunately that are some people on online [that ruin it]. It's a shame but we still do share pictures - we upload images of him but just not pictures of his face." Alex jokingly added: "He can decide if he wants to go on Instagram when he's older!"
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Alex and Olivia met thanks to both appearing on the second series of Love Island in 2016 and went on to continue their love story after coupling up together in the ITV2 villa. The pair tied the knot in September 2018 and last year announced the birth of their first child, Abel Jacob Bowen.
Earlier this year, Olivia bravely opened up about some of the struggles that come with being a first-time mum and admitted she has been battling "really catastrophic thoughts" since welcoming her son into the world. Writing to her fans on Instagram in July, Olivia admitted: "Being a mum is overwhelming emotionally in general, but I've really been struggling recently with really catastrophic thoughts.
"I see so many horrible scary devastating things happen to people or in the world and it just scares the s*** out of me, so much so I just feel sick constantly. Children are so bloody precious and innocent and it just frightens me. "Just sharing because I don't want to feel alone and I know we must all worry. I want to protect him from everything. It really does make you ache how much you love them. It's almost unbearable at times."