Jamie Oliver admits he wants a sixth child but is 'exhausted' with five
Jamie Oliver has revealed how he and wife Jools would have loved a sixth baby.
The couple, who met as teenage sweethearts and have been married 24 years this July, are already parents to five kids – Poppy Honey, 21, Daisy Boo, 20, Petal Blossom, 14, Buddy Bear, 13, and youngest, seven-year-old River Rocket.
Though that’s quite the brood, 48-year-old Jamie and Jools, 49, always hoped to have more children, especially now their eldest are beginning to fly the nest. But their journey to parenthood wasn’t an easy one and Jools only became pregnant with first child Poppy in 2001 following a successful round of IVF treatment in her mid 20s.
Natural pregnancies followed, but Jools has been open about suffering five miscarriages throughout her marriage to Jamie. Two happened before she gave birth to her son River, in 2016, and another three came afterwards, including one during the Covid pandemic.
Grateful for the family they’ve got, Jamie told The Sun: “I am trying to move on to the next stage, but Jools keeps trying to drag me back. Seriously we would have loved a sixth if it happened. But we are so lucky to have the family we have and I am so happy. Exhausted, but happy!”
Jamie Oliver shares his top kitchen store cupboard essentialsAfter welcoming River into the family, Jamie revealed he considered having a vasectomy but decided against it in case they wanted to try for baby number six. Back in 2018, Jools shared she was keen too and “wanted to get pregnant as quickly as possible”.
Speaking to the Made By Mammas podcast at the time she revealed she wanted it to happen before she was 44 as after that she felt she was “a bit old”. But she admitted if it didn’t happen, she was “very happy with what she’s got”.
Asked if she and Jamie always planned on having such a big family, Jools revealed they didn’t – but though she previously worked as a model, her main goal in life was always to become a mum.
And it seems the dynamic works for them, as Jools said: “It’s not like he [Jamie] said ‘no' after one. He was quite keen to carry on. He’s a bit like whatever you want, whatever you want. He was at work, he was like if you enjoy it, that’s your life, that’s your work, carry on – but I don’t think he meant this large! I think the fifth one was pushing it, but it turned out really well.”
Jools has previously shared that she knew motherhood was all she wanted to do from the age of 15 or 16. She said: “I knew I didn’t want a career but wanted to do what my mum did, bring up children. I modelled for a while, but it wasn’t really me. I was never comfortable. I’m comfortable being a mum.”
While husband Jamie didn’t understand at first, he told Hello! magazine: “She just wanted to be a mother and that was it. I didn’t understand at all. Why would you want to just be a mother? We all want to have jobs and careers, don’t we? Everyone around me was the same. Until she became a mother, I never understood how honest she was being. She’s a mum and that’s her world.”