Episode 91: Katie Melua
Spinning Plates with Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Kat Rulach
4.8 • 527 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2023
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Katie Melua had massive fame at the age of 19 with the release of her first album 'Call Off the Search', and then 2 years later with her hit 'Nine Million Bicycles'. She has brought out 8 albums since then, with her 9th album 'Love & Money' which she recorded last year while she was pregnant, just released last month.
We met recently at her house when her gorgeous baby boy was just 3 months old. She talked about how her thoughts about parenthood have changed over the years from wondering whether parenthood would ever be part of her life; to realising following a nervous breakdown in 2010 that she did want to be a mum; meeting her partner Ollie in lockdown and freezing her eggs; but then having their treasured little boy naturally.
Katie was very open about how she suffered a dramatic burnout, and she paid tribute to psychiatrist Dr Mike McPhillips who helped her make a full recovery. We agreed it shouldn't be taboo to talk about such experiences. Katie said as soon as he is big enough, she will be talking to her son about ways of dealing with anxiety or panic attacks, as she wants him to be equipped to deal with them, whether that's for himself or his friends.
It was great to hear Katie say that her confidence as a woman went up when her son Sandro was born. This is not something I hear very often from new mums. But she deserves this happy time, and is looking forward to touring with her babe in tow, in May 2023. Yes - next month - and I'm going to see her!
WARNING: Contains conversations around suicidal thoughts and mention of suicide
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. |
| 0:14.4 | I'm a singer and I've released seven albums in between having my five sons aged 16 months to 16 years, |
| 0:20.4 | so I spin a few plates myself. |
| 0:21.6 | Being a mother can be the most amazing thing but can also be hard to find time for yourself and your own ambitions. |
| 0:27.6 | I want to be a bit nosy and see how other people balance everything. |
| 0:31.6 | Welcome to spinning plates. |
| 0:33.6 | Oh my goodness, hello. How are you? It's been a while, hasn't it? How have you been? I am speaking to you from |
| 0:45.0 | springtime, April, London, but I'm going to be, honestly, I'm going to give this spring so far three out of five. |
| 0:55.7 | And that's quite generous because it's been very rainy and grey and cold. |
| 0:59.1 | Like today I had to wear my puffer jacket when I was out and about. |
| 1:01.6 | And I just, quite frankly, I want more from my spring. |
| 1:05.7 | My birthday month, I'm very familiar with it weather-wise. |
| 1:09.4 | And it's usually really nice spring. It's just a bit |
| 1:13.2 | cold and I'm a bit fed up of that. And how British of me to start with an analysis of the weather. |
| 1:20.7 | But that is a very small part of the picture really. I've also been having, well, quite a nice time of it, actually. |
| 1:27.8 | We're midway through birthday season this month. |
| 1:30.5 | So Richard, my husband, is the 6th of April. |
| 1:34.4 | Then I'm the 10th. |
| 1:35.5 | We both turned 44. |
| 1:37.8 | Then not tomorrow, but the next day is my eldest boy, Sunny. |
| 1:41.7 | It's his 19th birthday. |
... |
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