Ollie Locke's new twins born secretly six weeks ago as star recalls 'scary time'

20 August 2023 , 18:15

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Ollie Locke and Gareth's babies were born six weeks ago (Image: Instagram)

Ollie Locke has revealed his twins were born six weeks ago, as he opened up on the "scary time".

The Made In Chelsea star finally announced the birth of his son and daughter with husband Gareth, after their long journey to parenthood took over three years. Taking to Instagram, Ollie shared: "Guys, the news we've been wanting to tell you for so many years – we are finally dads!" as Gareth added: ""The twins are here." The couple announced they were expecting twins back in March.

Apollo Magnus Obi and Cosima Emily Bex were born seven weeks early, as Ollie confessed it was "scary" and that the couple didn't want to share news of their birth until they were "safe". Apollo was born weighing 3lb 10oz and Cosima was 2lb 11oz. In the YouTube video shared on Sunday, Ollie said: "The babies were born six weeks ago. It has been a scary time, they have been in neonatal intensive care for quite a long time."

Ollie and Gareth welcomed their twins last month

Gareth added: "It was something we didn't want to share until we had them safe, back home with us and all part of the family. It is down to the amazing NHS team in the neonatal units we've been in that means we've got the kids home now and the real daddying is about to begin." Speaking to Hello! Ollie shared: "Our little monkeys decided to be really strong. They wanted to come out early because they felt they were ready, and they were absolutely amazing. They needed a bit of help, but not as much as a lot of premature babies."

The couple paid tribute to two very special people in their lives with Cosima's middle names. She is named after Ollie’s close friend Emily Hartridge, a YouTuber who passed away in 2019 and the couple’s surrogate, Bex Ward, who gave birth to the twins on 8 July. The couple married in 2020 in front of 13 guests with 48 hours' notice, including bridesmaids Binky Felstead and Olivia Bentley, who have both starred in Made In Chelsea. Olivia has since shared that she has been chosen as Apollo's godmother.

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"Welcome to the world my beautiful godson Apollo Magnus Obi Locke-Locke and little Cosima, you are just wonderful and I can't wait to watch you grow up and go on a million adventures with you," she said. Back in May, Ollie slammed the "daddy police" as he was forced to change his daughter's name before she was even born. "What annoys me is that people say you have no idea how your life is going to change," the reality TV star said on the Twinning It podcast.

"I do understand, that's why we've gone through IVF, it’s not going to be like it was before, but let me go on my own adventure. It’s condescending sometimes, becomes a bit annoying, it’s a bit like ‘you wait for darling’. They say wait for the mummy police, or our case daddy police. We have both names and goodness me that’s a struggle. We tell everyone who we meet what our baby names are. One was a girl I knew years ago a beautiful girl. We came up with a name similar and I told Binky who told her best friend who had a baby called that as well who went mental at me so we’ve changed it somewhat.

"It’s a very similar name but not the same name. We’re not the kind of people who want normal names. We love old Greek, old Roman, old Shakespeare almost names. Cressida was a name we nearly went for River but lots of people have that name. For the boy, I like names like, Obi and Orthello. I found girls' names incredibly difficult but boys names came easily."

Mia O'Hare