When it comes to being late there are some times in life you can get away with it and some you definitely can’t.
The birth of your first child undoubtedly falls into the latter category, as Joel Dommett found out to his peril when wife Hannah Cooper was in labour.
The Masked Singer presenter confesses to being “unbelievably tight” but had decided to go private, saying: “It was the most money I’ve ever spent on anything.”
But when Joel learned he could have his pick from an a la carte menu at no extra charge....he decided to get his money’s worth.
At 12 hours into labour, he was eating a duck with red wine jus in the delivery room - having ordered Hannah a ham sandwich... Then at 30 hours in, he very nearly missed the birth because he was tucking into another feast next door.
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Joel recalls: “Hannah has an epidural and she has a little sleep, and they said, after you’ve had your sleep, you’re gonna push and your baby’s gonna be born. And while she was having a sleep, I thought this is a perfect time for another meal. And so I left the room. What I didn’t know was that whilst I was out of the room, she woke up and they said, ‘Oh, it’s time to push, it’s time to birth your baby.’”
Joel presenting The Masked Singer, with Owl (ITV)“So she starts pushing and delivering the baby and then suddenly sort of like, ‘Where’s my husband? Where’s my husband?’ And one nurse goes, ‘I don’t know,’ and another nurse goes, ‘He’s next door having a lamb shank’.”
Thankfully their baby son Wilde arrived safe and sound in September last year and life away from home is going pretty much perfectly for Joel too, with a slew of presenting gigs. In recent months he has fronted gameshow In With A Shout, Masked Singer and Survivor.
And ironically the 38-year-old thinks the reason for his success is being on time. “I keep getting all these jobs and I genuinely, I just don’t know why,” Joel admits on the new Nick Grimshaw Dish with Waitrose podcast. “I’m in this odd position where I really don’t know what’s happening. I think I’m going to put it down to the fact that I’m on time.”
Model Hannah, 31, who met Joel on Instagram in 2016, may not entirely agree, but the couple are clearly loving being new parents. Though comedian Joel admits he has one main goal.
With baby Wilde (DAILY MIRROR)
Joel also presents In With A Shout (ITV)“He’s crawling around now. He’s got to this point where he’s started laughing, so my life is now consumed, as a comedian obviously I’m desperate to make him laugh,” Joel says. “With a child, you’ll blow a raspberry on their tummy, and they’ll make them laugh, and you’re like, I’ve got it, I’ve figured out, that’s what makes them laugh. Then you’ll do that the next day, and it doesn’t make them laugh, and it makes me incredibly angry.”
While Joel is loving his current life, things weren’t always so rosy when he first moved to London. He says. “I didn’t know what I wanted to be or what I wanted to do. I had a friend who had a spare room, and I used to live in that spare room for £60 a month.”
His acting and stand-up comedy led him to success and he was runner-up on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2016 before landing The Masked Singer in 2020.
And show judge Jonathan Ross sent a huge pile of gifts when baby Wilde was born, but there was a baffling and unexpected extra - a lifesize version of Sony the robot dog from 2001 A Space Odyssey.
A week later, it became clear, when Joel thanked Jonathan during filming. Apparently Jonathan had instructed his assistant to wrap the pile of presents in the corner of his office and send them to Joel.
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But the assistant also wrapped up Jonathan’s beloved robot dog replica as well. “I said, ‘Oh, do you want it back if you didn’t mean to send it?’,” recalls Joel. “And he went, ‘Nah, I’ve got six’!”
- Hear more from Joel on the new Dish from Waitrose with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett available on all podcast providers from tomorrow, Wednesday May 15.
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