Episode 168: Fiona Bell
Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Kat Rulach
4.8 • 527 Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Fiona Bell is the founder of Their Nibs clothing brand which specialises in night wear.
I first came across Fiona’s shop when pushing my eldest son around Ladbroke Grove in his buggy in the mid naughties. And I still think she makes the loveliest pyjamas in the land!
Fiona has a 25 year old son Finn and an adoptive daughter Maggie who is 11.
We talked about the close link Fiona still keeps with the adoption agency Coram, which made her and her husband Charlie’s adoption of Maggie possible. It has been an emotional journey but so worth it, she says. And her advice to anyone planning to adopt is: 'as an adoptive parent you've got to be selfless because you've got to accept you might not get very much back, but if you work at that, you definitely do'.
Maggie has obviously brought so much joy to the whole family. Listen to the interview to hear why I think Fiona’s next PJ print should be rainbows and ginger cats.
Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Sophia Lusbexter and welcome to Spinning Plates, the podcast where I speak to |
| 0:09.6 | to busy working women who also happen to be mothers about how they make it work. |
| 0:14.1 | I'm a singer and I've released seven albums in between having my five sons aged 16 months to 16 |
| 0:19.6 | years, so I spin a few plates myself. |
| 0:22.3 | Being a mother can be the most amazing thing. It can also be hard to find time for yourself |
| 0:26.6 | and your own ambitions. I want to be a bit nosy and see how other people balance everything. |
| 0:31.9 | Welcome to spinning plates. |
| 0:34.0 | Ola. I say Ola, because I'm in Mexico. But not for too much longer. |
| 0:38.8 | We are waiting by the gate. |
| 0:40.8 | About to fly to Toronto. |
| 0:44.0 | And it has been such a lovely trip. |
| 0:46.6 | We've been here. |
| 0:47.4 | Oh, I think it's only been about 48 hours. |
| 0:49.9 | I know less than that. |
| 0:51.0 | We got here late on Friday night. |
| 0:52.4 | It's now Sunday lunchtime. And yesterday |
| 0:55.5 | we had like a 20-hour day, basically, starting in the morning going out for a good coffee, a jack, |
| 1:03.8 | and tacos for lunch with the rest of the band. We went for a wander and saw the Day of the Dead parade of the aftermath of that, |
| 1:13.6 | so people dressed up and things were sale and things that people have been carrying around on the parade. |
| 1:19.6 | And then went to the venue where we were on stage at 1 a.m. for a big Halloween party. |
| 1:25.6 | So a Halloween Day of the Dead crossover party in a disused film lot. |
| 1:31.6 | So a couple of thousand people really dressed up. |
... |
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