Mum's The Word! The Parenting Podcast - I Nosedived Straight Into Perimenopause' | Natasha Hamilton on Five Kids, Mum Guilt & Finishing Her Story Her Own Way

Episode Date: June 28, 2026

This week Georgia Jones sits down with Atomic Kitten's Natasha Hamilton for a chat about motherhood across four decades, perimenopause and reclaiming her music career on her own terms.Natasha gets real about becoming a mum again at 43 after IVF, the emergency surgery that followed, and what it was like being a 20-year-old pop star with postnatal depression and a newborn on a world tour, back when the right support just wasn't there.Then it goes deeper: the mental breakdown that led her to therapy, parenting a 24-year-old and a toddler at the same time, the terrifying social media experiment that changed how she protects her daughter, and why HRT gave her her life (and her marriage) back.Plus the music: her new EP Extraction, the deeply personal track White Feather written for her late grandmother, and the family-filled video where her daughter plays a young Natasha.Grab a cuppa and get comfy.A Create PodcastFind Natasha:EP – Extraction, out nowSubstack – https://natashahamiltonnotes.substack.com/Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/natashahamilton/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Mums the Word. I'm Georgia Jones and today I am joined by the brilliant Natasha Hamilton and fangirling ever so slightly because you'll know her as founding member of Atomic Kitten. But these days she's also the boss of her own record label, Marful Records, and gearing up to release her new EP. On top of all that, she's a mum to five. Her eldest is in his 20s and her youngest This is just two, so she's navigating life as a new mum in her 40s, whilst also going through the perimenopause. Few, that's made me exhausted. We'll be chatting about motherhood across the decades, the invisible load of being everything to everyone, and raising confident kids when you're finding your own feet too.

So, grab a cup her, get comfy, and let's jump in to a brand new episode of Mum's the Word. So, Natasha, thank you for joining me. Lovely to be here. It's been a minute. I know, where we were just saying before because I was sure I had been on a night out with you before and then when I met you then I was like, no, George, don't be uncool, just be like, oh, nice to meet you and you were like, we've met before.

We got very drunk in London many moons ago. And because we were very drunk, I don't think either us can really remember where we were or what we were doing. Back in the day when you could just have these impromptu night out, go out, meet interesting people, get really drunk and not have to suffer the consequences of a hangover. Well, suffer them, but not with children. So you have, and I can't believe this, five children.

I do, yeah. How do you look so absolutely immaculate? I mean, I'd be on my knees. Well, they're not all our home. Believe it or not, my eldest is going to be 24 this year. I can't believe that. Crazy. And he was, he recently got married.

Oh my gosh. Yeah, so life is lifing. You're a mother-in-law? I am a mother-in-law. She's beautiful. Oh, great. Love her dearly. I've been very blessed.

Oh. They're so sensible. Like, when I was 23, I was mental. My God. So she's 23? She's 22, I think, almost. Wow. Is this what age we're getting married now today's then?

They're quite old school. They remind me of, like, the notebook. Like that kind of old-fashioned love together forever. And long may they love for each other rain. Oh, how lovely. I know. So cute. Oh, it's great that she's a nice daughter-in-law.

though, that's my fear. I was sat there at the wedding thinking, oh, we've done well here as a family. We've done well. She's just gorgeous. Oh, well, that's wonderful. So you've got your lovely son. And then what else have you got in order of...

Okay, so Harry is 21. Yeah. He's in Australia. He's in his third year over there. Is he? How did you feel when he went off to Australia? I mean, part of me was excited for the adventures he was going to.

going to go on. The other part, Matt, was saying, please don't leave me. Please come back. Yeah, but I left home when I was 16. Yeah. So, and Josh left home when he was 16, he joined the army, which was just crazy. You know, so him going off to Australia, I was like, okay, I can cope with this because the army was quite intense. I've got to say, I feel like your children are doing the most traumatic things it could possibly do to your mom. I was like, was life that bad that everyone's run away from me. But I suppose I've just raised them to follow their passionate, like I had the opportunity to do so. So the two older boys, you know, they're living their life, they're doing their thing.

And then at home, I've got Alfie, who's just about to turn 16, doing his GCSEs. Just the most incredible kid gets on with it, super focused and wanted to be a professional tennis player when he's older. Oh, wow. Yeah. So he plays for like Wales and Wrexham. And he played at Wimbledon last year. Oh, my gosh. She's not messing about.

No, he's really, really good. Oh, that's incredible. It's on his vision board. He wants to go to Wimbledon when he's older. And he will do it. Then Ella, my first daughter, she's coming up to 12, about to go into high school. So we've got all the hormones and all the emotions of, yeah, moving into big school. And then the baby who's two, almost three.

Wow. Yeah. I mean, started all over again. Yeah, so obviously. I mean, not obviously, actually. You are in your 40s, which I am baffled by. So how old are? How old are you?

I'm 43, almost 44, yeah. Wow. You look fabulous. Thank you. Well done you. Try me best. How was it starting again in terms of motherhood? Because obviously you've got your eldest and you've, well, and all the ones in between.

But a baby, it's just a different ballgame, isn't it? I think going into my pregnancy, we were super excited because it's mine and my husband's first child together. Right. And we'd struggle to fall pregnant. So after blood tests and everything, it was like, oh, you're going to have to do IVF. Ah, okay. So we did a round which didn't work. And I found it quite traumatising in a sense of I just lost who I was with the hormones.

like the influx of hormones. Yeah. I felt terrible. I felt rotten to the core. Become quite consumed with it as well, don't you? Like it almost becomes a bit of a job, doesn't it? Uh-huh. As opposed to something that should be good fun.

Yeah, absolutely. And every day you're just constantly worried. And I just felt, I just didn't feel like me at all. Huge respect to women who have to go through this round after round. I mean, it's so intense. And I just said, look, I don't want to do that again, because of how it's made me feel. And he'd seen it.

He was like, it's fine. And lo and behold, four months later, I fall was pregnant when we're just not even thinking about it. Yeah, yeah. So I was so excited to be pregnant. The pregnancy wasn't that bad. I was a bit sick, but nothing too bad. I mean, I was being treated as a geriatric pregnancy.

And I was like, this is ridiculous. We have guests on it. We're like, yeah, I was a geriatric mother. I'm like, I hate that word. So much. It's awful. We need to just move away from that. You should just get rid of it, I know.

So I had a lot of, like, extra appointments and all that. But it was great. It was post-birth for me. I felt like I just ended up in this body. I did not recognize. Physically or mentally. Just physically how everything felt after having a fifth child. I had, like, an emergency surgery because my placenta.

But it stuck? Yeah, it wouldn't detaching. I was hemorrhaging, so it was... A lot happened. Were your other pregnancies previously all quite straightforward? My second son was really difficult. I went into labour at 20 weeks with him. Yeah, I had like this recurring...

Did you have him at 20 weeks? No. No, they ended up putting me like on steroids. Right. And everything slowed down. But it was like once every four weeks, these contractions would start again and I'd be rushed in. So I got...

I ended up getting to like 38 weeks. Oh, wow. So I did really well live, but it was just a lot of stress. Pre and postnatal depression with Ella, my daughter. Really? Really? Struggled the whole way through that. Do you think, was there any, like, anything that you feel, like, triggered that? Oh, my God, yeah.

Oh, well. Yeah. Yeah. I fell pregnant quite quickly into my relationship with Ella, off the back of having a lot of complications, ruptured cysts and being told I was never going to have children again. So it was just a lot of happened previous to that in my life personally.

Having her, I just made that decision knowing that there would be a lot of consequences with how people felt towards it close to me, my family, being in the public eye, what people would say. I think I got a bit of, there was just a lot of negative and not nice things said about me. And it just ate away at me and I just went under quite a lot with my mental health.

It does eat away, doesn't it? Like, I feel like the press just don't learn anything. And the public, in fact, from like things that have happened in the past, they haven't learned that, like, you know, people in the public eye are people. Yeah. We're not like robots. We have feelings and emotions. And especially when you just had a baby and your own,

such a vulnerable position mentally and physically everywhere. And you're trying to keep a human alive. You're just going about your business trying to be a good mum, a good person. But then you can just fall into this trap of seeing the negative and focusing on the negative. And when you know, your hormones are all over the place, having babies, that can be quite easy to just latch on to that. Because you're not feeling great about yourself anyway. I've been on such a journey after having my daughter. I'd like a mental breakdown.

Did you? Yeah. How did you get out of that dark time? Therapy. A high five to you on that one. Yeah. And actually now where I am in life, if I feel overwhelmed,

I get quite excited to booking therapy. Like it's something that I go, oh, I actually feel like I need this. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I just need someone impartial. Like my husband's amazing. He's a great support. Sometimes I just don't want to say it to him.

I just want to keep something to me that I can just blurt out in a non-judgmental environment. And that thing, isn't it? Like, I feel like a lot of the time, like, you know, you've got your friends and you family and your partner around you. And it's not that they're judging you. It's just nice to have somebody that just doesn't know anything about you

or only knows what you're kind of like vocalising. And they can give you their like honest. unbiased advice on something and not worry if they're going to offend you and not really if you know yeah because i love my husband but he also does my head i'm the same things sometimes you just want to go yeah yeah and then say thanks thank you for holding space to let me get that out but it's funny because before i had therapy i was like why on earth would i talk to a stranger and then it's like the complete opposite it's like why would you talk to somebody that isn't a stranger talk to a stranger is just different it's just different and it's just different

it works. It does. I think we were brought up with parents who would never talk about their emotions. Yeah. Like my parents, I love them dearly, were so close, but I remember my dad's saying on many occasions, there's no such thing as depression. Yeah. So when I started experiencing depression, anxiety, it was never taken serious by me and it festered for months and months I had postnatal depression at the age of 20. I was at the height of my career. I had this beautiful house in London. I had financial stability.

But I was deeply unhappy. And I just thought I was ungrateful and going insane at the time. I've got a number one in the chart. And I'm looking at the girls and they're so happy. And I am crying myself to sleep every night. I am worried, sick. That's something bad's going to happen to my baby. or I'm at the other side of the world without him.

And the right support wasn't there for me as a young mother being a pop star. Oh, back then as well especially. It was crazy because nothing changed. There was no allowance for the fact that I had a baby. And then when I started to say, look, this isn't working. I need help. The response to that was, oh, well, we'll just get your mum to come along with Josh, which was wonderful.

but sometimes I'd be out of bed in the morning before he woke up and I'd be back in bed when he'd be asleep. Oh, Natasha, that's... I mean, some days, my mum would just be driven around so we'd be in Asia somewhere and someone would come and collect them and they'd be driven around to all the sights

in the back of like a minibus. I mean, we'd be looking out the window going, yeah, lovely, lovely, because it was either that or sit in a dingy studio all day long. Were you on full on tour then? Full world tour. Oh my gosh, so that was like as soon as he was born?

I mean, I was back at work when he was six weeks old. Oh, my God. In a pair of high heels, doing dantry routines after having an emergency C-Section. You had a C-Section as well. I actually can't believe that happened. Oh, my. Because we all know how sensitive and vulnerable and we need nurturing. And to be like on a stage in front of thousands of people feeling really uncomfortable in your body.

Yeah. Like aching. Joints, knees, ankles, sweating, profusely boobs. Because my body's like, what is, like, what is the stress? Yeah, we've just birth, grown and birthed the child. And you're shoving me on stage. Like, hi, guys.

Yeah, you're like, it's just crazy. The things we did. I think, like, I can no doubt imagine, like, that that almost, like, masking 100% contributed to your personal mental depression. Because when you've got to put on this, like, perfect front, really, because you were going on stage, you had to have your hair and your makeup done. look a certain way and make sure you were performing to like, you know, a top level. That is so much at the best of times when you're feeling wonderful and you've not just

birthed a child. Add a newborn into the mix and being in a different country. Like even now, thinking back of like holidays, trying to get one baby out on holiday with us. And that was going and just relaxing. Yeah. We're stressful. Let alone working at the same time. I mean, bloody hats off to you. I'm surprised I did. put you off for like. Well, I mean, Josh was never the issue.

It was just the circumstance, wasn't it? And ultimately, I had to make a decision that ended my career with the girls. And now, out the other side of everything,

I just think, God, that's so sad that it had to end like that because that was my dream at all I ever wanted. Like, would I have ever thought I was the one that tapped out and said,

I can't do this no more? Absolutely not. It kind of makes coming back to music now even more sweeter because part of me feels like I now get to finish the journey I started and finish it and enjoy it on my terms. Oh, you're getting goosebumps. That's so lovely. Yeah, so it's just a continuation.

And do you feel like your children seeing this side of you? Because obviously your eldest would have seen, you know, that journey to a point. Whereas your younger ones haven't so much seen the... like the atomic kitten side of things. They've seen bits. Have they seen bits? They're not phased by it at all. For them it's like, oh, mommy just goes off

and does gigs and sometimes we go. Yeah. But like the baby now, she'll go, Mommy, your song. She's so, like, tuned in musically to what it is. I do it. I'm not at home playing my music on the music.

Learn mommy's music. Yeah, you must learn this music. I went through it stage with Cooper. I was like, should I maybe play some of Danny's music? because Danny won't do it. But then Cooper's going to his shows, not knowing the songs.

Well, I got Ella up on stage recently and put the mic in front of her mouth and she just went, I don't know this song. I'm like, baby toll again. Everyone knows the words. She's like, I don't know this bit.

Yeah, it was quite funny. That's brilliant. Do you feel like a sense of pride being able to, like, be back and show them what you can do and on your own as well. Like, it's you. God, yeah.

Like, it's kind of, of showing them that never give up on your passions and what it is you want to do and you're very much in control of your destiny. Sometimes you just have to take the reins and do it regardless of the outcome. Yeah. Do you feel like the way you are, like, you know, the fact that you are so striving to achieve, you know, what you put to rest for a little while, now you're back and you're like, yeah, I'm going to finish this story. Do you think that's where your children get there, like, tenaciousness and ambition? Yeah, their attitude for like, yeah, going out and grabbing it.

I'm going to go and play tennis. I'm going to go to Australia. I'm going to, you know, get married to the love of my life. Well, for them, they've always had a mum that left has to leave home to go and work. I think usually mum is the constant and it's dad that goes and does that traditionally. Yeah. For me, I've always had to go and earn money. I've spent many times as a single parent.

I've been in the West End. I've had to tour musicals and come home once a week. And I've always struggled with mum guilt. If I don't do this, what else am I doing? Because one, it's my passion, two, it pays the bills. How else can I support my family? I've been very lucky. I've always had an incredible support system.

My husband's been amazing. Even quite early on in our relationship, I was like, look, I've got an opportunity to do this tour. But you'd have to be with the kids a few days. a week because I don't want them not to be together. Yeah. And he's like, I'll do it. Like, of course I will.

And so they've always seen mum move about, go away. And they've seen me pivot so many times because after Atom a Kitten, it was literally who am I and what am I going to do? And I've done so many things. I've had so many different businesses. I've worn so many hats. And I'm just like, right, okay, I've got an idea. I'm going to do it.

And I think it just gives them the confidence to just go up there and, and, and, you know, embrace life the way they want to. Yeah. What a story though when you're like great grandma, you're like, well, what I did during my career was this and then this happened and then, I mean, you've got a hell of a story to tell. I don't know. I'll be like, go on YouTube. You'll see me when I was young and fabulous. It probably won't be a thing then, will it? I don't know why I'm going to talk like that when I'm old. I'm sure you're going to be a old and fabulous grandma. God, got all that to come, haven't we? Imagine when we're a man. But what's funny? But what's funny? as well, just talking about like YouTube and things like that,

is when you started your career, and it was the same like when Danny started his, I'm only relating because you're obviously both musicians, is there wasn't any social media. Actually, no Instagram when your son was bought, because Instagram, your first son, because Instagram, Instagram, Instagram. There's a thought.

Instagram has only been going for 15 years, I think it is. Yeah, I mean, we used to have like chat rooms on websites. Like MSN Messenger. Yeah, and even that used to frighten me because I'd be like, what do you mean, there's like strangers in this room and we're going to speak to them by it. I don't understand, like, can they hurt us? Did you ever have my space?

I feel like that was a very musician. I did have my space. I used to put lots of stuff on my space, but management ran it. I was such a technophobe. How old were you when you got into Atomic Hitton then? I was 16. You were 16?

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Anything technical, I was like, no. No. So how do you feel now? Now then, obviously, having been a parent through times where there's been no social media to now, I suppose, were you second eldest, second youngest, sorry, your daughter that's, like, you know, quite an impressionable age.

How was parenting changed? I feel like she is way more interested in social media than my boys ever were. So Alfie does have social media and his dad set it up and I was like, well, I wouldn't have done. done that. But when you're co-parenting someone else, the other parent's not in the house, same house, you have to tread a fine line of, okay, well, this is happening. And it was initially set up to showcase tennis. Right.

And now he's got like a few different, like he's got like a private one for just his friends. He's got a tennis one. But I've always been very straight down the line. Like, you have to be very very. very careful, this like strange people out there. Yeah. And there was a time I remember when he accept, like he must have tagged him or something.

And he'd taken his account off private. Oh, yeah. And he was quite young. And then he was accepting people. Because obviously people that follow me, you're like, oh, it's Natasha's son. Yeah. But I was like, you can't do that.

You cannot accept anyone you do not know. Yeah. Because we don't know who these... I don't know them. To you, they're strangers. So I've had these conversations once before Ella posted something on my TikTok of herself dancing in the room

so I was like absolutely not because she wants to film what all the kids are doing and I say you can film it and save it to my drafts but you're not putting it out to the world so that was a conversation and now she's going into high school and even though she's not old enough

to have social media she's on it already so when I'm this when I get this can I do this can I do that and she lives between two houses So she does have a phone. And I've got to a point now where I've got a folder where I save important posts that parents are doing. And one of them was a parent, a mum, who set up a Snapchat account pretending she was 14. She was like, I want to see what my 14 year old is going to be shown.

Oh, great idea. I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she was like, I will try a list. And if it's okay, she can have it. Right, right. And it was terrifying. It was self-harm, suicide, depression, really dark content.

Nothing about young girls just living life and being free and happy. Doing the hair and makeup and stuff. It was really harmful, dark content. That's frightening, isn't it? And then she set one up for herself, like a mum in a 40s, and it was like curtains and, you know, cairl and tongs. That is petrifying, isn't it? It was disturbing for me, but. Are you more...

I showed her it. Oh, did you? Yeah. I like, I need you to understand why this isn't going to happen. And she watched it and she said she didn't like it. And yes, she understands. And she's not a sense. That's like, like, exposure therapy almost like showing them this could...

This is what you will be exposed to. This is the, unfortunately, this is the real world. The world we live in, isn't it? Like, this is not, you're not at home with your friends now, texting each other. this can filter into your everyday life and there's no way I'm going to allow that to happen. No, and it is hard sometimes when, you know, they live between two homes

because I know it's the same for one of my best friends with her little boy and he was allowed to play on roadblocks at dad's house but mum didn't allow it. And the chat room feature was on. And things got a bit sketchy. And obviously then you've got to try and navigate that as co-parents, which again adds more into the mix.

And it's just tricky, isn't it? Yeah. Do you have an insatiable fascination with the paranormal? Are you ready to dive headfirst into the eerie realms of the unexplained? Brace yourself for the supernatural world is about to reveal all of its secrets on the paranormal activity podcast. And who better to guide you through this air-raising journey than myself, Yvette Fielding, renowned paranormal investigator? Every episode of paranormal activity takes you on an unforgettable adventure into the unknown.

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Yeah. I feel like women, young girls, there's so much pressure to conform to be one, a certain beauty standard. Yeah. to have all your shit together and have this perfect life. And I don't want her worrying about these insignificant mundane things that is going to take her attention of blooming into a wonderful young human. Yeah. Like I want her to be focusing on the right things and not the superficial things.

And Ella's quite deep. Like she's really, like she's an empath, but she's super switched on. she says she wants to be an author when she's older. And I think, you know, the bits I'm showing her is making her realise that's probably not as important to me as maybe I thought it was. Yeah, yeah. And I'm sure she's going to try and push back when other friends do have it. But just having that open dialogue is so important.

I couldn't go to my mum and talk about periods, you know, simple things. Like, we just didn't discuss it. So from quite an early age, I'm like, we discuss things. Good. That's amazing, though. And I feel like our generation have started, have really opened that up. Well, we want to give them what we didn't have. Yeah.

Where were the missing link? Yeah. Where was the chinks in the chain? Well, we had everything. We've experienced everything, haven't we? I think we're almost like the spearheads of mental health, all that side of things. Because it went from, didn't really get talked about. I feel like up north it was even more so, don't you?

I don't recall a single lesson ever in school about mental health. Oh, no. Absolutely not. No, no. Mental health. What is that? I went to like an all-girls school and it was run by nuns Catholic school. Oh, God.

And I remember being basically the whole year being locked in, not physically locked, but we were all penned into the school hall. And we had a full day seminar on abortion. We were shown. As in you shouldn't Yeah, it was Ever allowed to Yeah Wow

Yeah yeah It was And this was year seven So we were like 12, 13 years old It was When I think back now I go That That's crazy

That is shocking A whole day A whole morning and afternoon Day Yeah You just think Scare anyone off then Let's just maybe talk about

Contracetion Yeah yeah Do you think they were just trying to stop anyone from actually having sex. Yeah, yeah, it was really intense, but nothing about mental health or anything like that. Wow, I mean, that is just, you just can't believe that that was in our time, things like that would happen in our time when we were younger.

Yeah, dark. It is very, very dark. Now, something I wanted to talk to you about, because I feel like I'm fast approaching perimenopause. Where are we? Where are we out with it? Because to what I've gathered, it might be, is it? Is it still acid?

Yeah. Oh, God, yeah. Oh, God. So I had the baby and just, like, nose dived into perimenopause, which was a baptism of fire. Do you reckon it's linked, though? Do you reckon because, like, your hormones were doing all that?

Yeah, I think maybe if I hadn't have had the baby, it would have been a few years down the line. Yeah. But, wow, I remember, like, every time I'd watch something like loose women. And they'd go, perimenopause, I'd go, oh, no, that doesn't. I'd just be like, not interested. It doesn't apply to me. It's never going to happen or it's so far away.

And then all of a sudden it happens. And I'm like... Your ears prick up then, don't you? I'm like, where's Tavina McCall? Where is she? I need a book. Yeah. Oh, the first thing I did was download her audio book.

Yeah. And just listen to it. If anyone's just started on their perimenopause journey or they want a good read slash listen. Yeah. It's called Menopause Inc? Yeah. My best friend just bought it for me. It's unbelievable because it's like no bull, everything straight to the point,

and you can make the decisions what you want to do off the back of it. And for me, I just went HRT. Did you? So you're on HRT now then. What were your signs? What made you go, oh. Almost ending up in jail because I wanted to kill my friends. Do you know what?

I was thinking about this on the way in, right? I would love to know how many, because you know, like, there's this age where we get to where everyone starts divorcing. Yeah. So apparently there's a massive correlation between perimenopause and menopause and divorce rate. Yeah. Because you genuinely think I don't love this person anymore. I don't want to have sex with them anymore. They breathe and irritates me. But it's the complete hormone imbalance. And the minute HRT happened or I went on to HRT, it was like, oh, I do love you. You actually.

Come here. And I can only imagine women who have suffered for years and years and years and just got to a point where, you know, they're not functioning at all. And really ruining relationships with not just their partner, but, you know, children and friends because they can't see the woods for the trees.

And with having a toddler and coming back to music, I just felt like I didn't have the time to explore other avenues, like natural therapies. because it would have took too long and I was struggling to get out of bed in the morning. I couldn't think, I could not recall words and just have conversations with ease.

So that's where I'm at right now is the thinking. Yeah. It's like, because obviously with my job I've got to like create content and stuff and I would sit there and I will sit there for about two hours. Mm-hmm.

And two hours passed and I'm like, what have I even done? I've done nothing. The procrastination side of things yet. Oh my God. And then names. I forgot someone's name the other day who is a friend, who has been a friend for a long time.

I was out for a drink with them. I went off to the toilet. And as I went to the toilet, I thought, oh, I must tell so and so that when I get back. And then I was like, hang on, what's their name? What is their name? And you feel like you're going mad, like you're losing the plot. And isn't it mad that back in the day,

HRT was something women shouldn't take? Like, they weren't, you could only take it for, like, really small window. Well, there was all that research was in there that went out saying it was connected to breast cancer and everything. And my mum went cold turkey because she had a sister who'd gone through breast cancer. So she was like, well, I can't take her. And she really suffered for like 15 years plus. And I remember like watching my mum unravel.

It was like, let's just need let's not speak to her because she was like an absolutely. So having that experience as well just made me go. I just don't want to be that person. I don't want to lose years of my life when I could be enjoying it. And I think that's it. That's a really important thing to remember is like I feel like a lot of women almost like struggle on

or go, oh no, it can't be the menopause, it can't be that, it can't be perimenopause, I'll just get on with it. Because I think we're so used to as women just getting on with it. Because a friend of mine, person the other day on her stories and she'd been crippled over with menstrual cramps.

Really? It's quite where she had to go to A&E because she was in so much pain. And they just said nothing we can do for you and sent her home. I bet if that was like a man's bloody... Balls. Yeah. It'd be like all stations go.

Oh, it would. Good test. God, scan them. Let's see what's going on. Nothing. It's really frustrating. And also, the NHS is wonderful and HRT has been amazing, but it is very much a one-size-fits-all. So what I noticed is at the beginning, it worked great.

It was working perfectly. Since like January, I'm like, something's not right here. So I've just gone and had some blood tests. But now I think I need to go private to get all the other tests that are uncovered on the NHS to get the full picture. Yeah. Because we don't have the full picture. The NHS can't afford it. So it's kind of like basic markers.

Okay, where's that? Where's that? And they can do so much. To a certain level. But I'm like, I just don't feel something's not right. Yeah. Even though, you know, your results might come back and it's like, everything's fine. Isn't it math?

You just knowing yourself. You know your own body. So, yeah, so that's like another thing now. I'm going to have to go and... It's always something with us though, isn't it? It's either childbirth, dealing with after childbirth, periods, menopause. Like, I just feel like women. Mental health.

Trying to be the perfect mother-wife. Yeah, trying to work. Yeah. have a career. Do it all. Yeah. And that's the thing. We can't.

We can't do it all. We're our nannies. I think it's okay trying to do it all. It's when we try and do it all and it has to be perfect. I think that's where that's our downfall. For some reason we're like the perfectionists and we're all messy. And I don't mind showing people that are messy. Yeah.

Like it's okay not to be perfect and polished. Like I'm having a good day today because I didn't. I didn't have no kids. I slept in a hotel and I set my alarm early enough to tong my hair and put some makeup on. Like, this is a good day. But I like just getting out of bed and like pony hair. Yeah.

No makeup. Yeah. Just like, that's quite nice. Like no expectations of myself. And I think that's lovely. It's lovely that you feel like you can be like that. Especially when you're someone that's in the public eye. Like, it's lovely to see like that side of you that's just like hair up,

track is on. Yeah. The human. Yeah. We're human. Yeah. I hate it when you see, like, other people out there, and it's just like, the perfect life. Oh, I know. The perfect outfit. And I'm just like, yeah. It was when the trad wife thing came out. I was like, oh, no, don't put this pressure on mum's because we're not all at home cooking in our lovely dresses.

No, nothing ever fits me properly. Even with jeans today, I've got a massive gape on the back. Oh, it's because you've probably got a lovely bottom and a tiny waist, though. Just remember that. I'm always walking around. I'm like, I must get these fixed and taken in or whatever. taking up. I never have the time. Like, my trousers are dragging on the floor. We never have the time. My hair's falling out. Two different colours because I haven't had time to get it coloured. Well, you look God.

You look God. Now, before we go, because we're chatting. I know. I need to talk to you about your bloody career and your music and restarting this passion. A little bit crazy because the music industry is a complete minefield. It's super difficult and I'm doing this as an independent artist. So I don't. I don't.

have the backing of a major like I did back in the day. This is like all the pennies that I've saved. Yeah. And the deeper I've gone into it, you start going, God, will this, will it ever resonate? You start getting the doubt. Yeah, of course. You think, will I ever make my money back? Or is, you know, people like, will people like it?

Will people this? And then you just have to go, hang on, I'm not doing this. This is not a popularity contest. I'm doing this to fulfill the dream of what I started years ago. And you know, I've just stumbled upon Substack. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What, to write down all your thought where you... Yeah, because I feel like...

I love Instagram. I feel like that's my safe space with social media, but there's only so much you can say. Yeah. Then you've got like your little channel inside it, but it's so small and I always feel like, I want to say more. And I used to, I miss the day of the blog.

I loved my blog. I had a parent and blog years ago called Gurgles and Herdles. Great name. Great name. And I loved doing that. And then all of a sudden, I've been hearing about Substack and I was on the train. I mean, I literally set it up yesterday. But I woke up thinking about it this morning.

Oh, my God. That's a good. Because it's like a dear diary, blog. And I feel like it's a base where I can be like, this is really what it is. Not the highlight reel. Not a few words here. there, like come in and follow me. Do you know what? That, yeah, as well.

Like, we need that connection. I'm sick of the superficial shit. Well, exactly. Like, if you were, you know, going and, like, do it either doing, like, your photo shoot or doing a show, then you sat down and wrote exactly what it was like. Like, you know, I felt really shit going on stage and then I went out there and the crowds were amazing and this and that and this happened. That would be so interesting for people to read. Like, I love reality.

I love people saying how it is. I think the mind's a beautiful thing. And like this morning I was just reading the musings of other people. Yeah. And it was just so inspired, like an unfiltered reality. But surround it with so much creativity. Yeah. And I was like, oh, it's a bit of me this.

Because I know I've got so much to say. So this morning I was just like writing things for it. Right. Now you're on substack. How do we find, what do we do? Do we go on like? So if you've got the substack app, I'm Natasha Hamilton Notes. Okay.

All one word. Right. And then you just subscribe, don't you? You can. It's free at the, like mine's free, but you can support other people's writing. Yeah. I just found, I think it's going to be a really interesting space for me to be able to hang out and tell the real stories of everything that happened.

Yeah, it'll be really cathartic for you. It's like therapy all, right? I use my songs as therapy which I've absolutely loved doing like I ended up in a writing camp last year in Spain it's the first time I've ever gone abroad to write and not have any distraction of family life and all of a sudden within like 10 minutes of sitting in the studio

I was like we're about to open Pandora's box I just felt so pulled to just let go and let it out and I feel like up into that point I kind of boxed up a lot of how I was feeling because I was scared. I was scared to admit, oh, look, what I've been through was tough. Yeah.

And now it's like I'm having all these conversations around mental health and what I've been through and being truthful to their past at my experiences. And I feel like an actual, like, heard person. Yeah. Which is wonderful because back in the day, there was a lot of, like, smoke and mirrors. And also,

a lot of people telling you what to do and what to say and how to act. And not a lot of life experience. Yeah. And a fear of saying something because back then the tabloids were like so obsessed with us. You'd say a tiny thing and it would be blown so out of proportion. I mean, honestly, it is... Yeah. It makes me so angry because so much of what you see and I still think people don't quite realize is such bullshit.

And it's like you might have said, God, I remember this was... years ago I made a joke about something. Oh, I can't remember what it was, but it went into the press and I was like, oh my God, I didn't mean it like that. It was just a joke. But I think now we've got the right to reply on our own platforms and the people that mean something to us will listen and hear what you have to say. Whereas back then, I love it. I love when people fight against it. Like I saw Stacey Solomon do something recently because some... Was it about a sister? Yeah. I great. That really, really pissed me off because why you're trying to pull this poor girl down

for being Stacey's sister? But really belittling her, like she wasn't important. It was disgusting actually. And I was like, absolute round of applause, Stacey, for standing up for her sister, and for standing up against the media bullets. Like, it was incredible. I was like, oh, more of us should do that, actually.

I just find the media quite dull. Certain media. Because for me, it's just the same stuff, like 25 years, 27 years on. You're telling the same story that's trying to belittle me as a woman. There's certain ways I'm spoken about or that I'm introduced. And the minute the article starts, nothing empowering or respectful towards you as a person. I mean, I don't really read anything anymore. but there are certain outlets where you just go.

Really? But what has happened is that narrative of how women are seen and spoken about is just trickled down to a generation of women now who just say these derogatory things about women all the time. They're saying it on social media. And really you can't blame them because that's all they've ever had. It's what they've learned.

It's a learned behavior. I saw someone recently post something about how like we were brought up to hate other women. Yeah. women were brought up to hate on women and hate ourselves. Like we were just brought up in a world to like put everyone down and it's terrible really when you think about it. Like yeah. Yeah. So and either you change or you carry on going down that slippery slow of being a hideous person. Luckily we're not. We're lovely. We're really lovely, aren't we?

But going back to your music. So you have an EP. I too. Tell us a little bit about it. Tell us some of Some of their singles that you have released. Yeah. So the EP is called extraction. And it really has been a beautifully painful extraction of life experiences, shedding the old versions of me that no longer save me. All my creative energy and juices. It's been an incredible journey.

We start with numb and the open and love. line to numb is R-I-P to me. It's a bit dark. As I said, when I was opening Pandora's box, I was like, I can't continue to be that girl, that woman anymore because now is the time. Now is the time to just grow and bloom and flourish. So it was a song about rebate and just getting rid of the old me. Yeah.

Then we move on to fantasy, which is actually a love letter to yourself on about refined in who you are, who are you as the woman you stand today. White feather then lands as the heart of the EP and it's a song I wrote about my grandma and the belief that I get sent signs from her, especially in times of need or times when I'm, I don't know what decision to me. And I'll often get these white feathers.

And I just see it as a reassurance that everything's going to be okay regardless of my decision. Yeah. I'm a massive believer in that year. I always see a robin and I'm like, or a rainbow. Rainbows, robins, butterflies. Yeah, I think you can either really believe in stuff like that or absolutely not. But I love the comfort in that.

Yeah, me too. It's just like spirituality belief. Like what do we look to or turn to when times are tough? And so we shot the video and my daughter plays the young Natasha. Oh my gosh. She was a red wig. She was a great actress in that. She's so, I was like, this kid needs to get some acting.

Not that she doesn't need acting classes. She was a natural. I was like, I was like, really invested in it. I was like, oh, I just sat back and she just went and did it. I was like, she's so, like she's brilliant. And like my nan plays my nana and that's her mum. Oh, how look. I wondered whether that was who's playing.

Yeah. And then my dad hands my daughter, the feather. Oh. It was such a sentimental day. I bet it was. It was like a big lump in my throat. But the fact that, you know, my husband was there and like fans who have supported me for years,

they were like the extras, the artist that painted the artwork for White Feather was there and the artwork is in the background. And it just felt like these people believe in me, like my family believe in me. And yes, it's tough. What moments like that just make you go, this is what I should be doing.

Yeah. And then the, The rest of the EP is yet to be released, but the next one is a celebration of who we are as people. And I mean every single person, like in the Garden of Eden. Yeah. Everyone is accepted. Like...

And is that what the song's called? It's called Garden of Eden. And one of the lines is that's where we'll find freedom. And so in this garden, you know, the story usually is about exile and it doesn't end very well. but what if this garden is within each of us to nature us and protect and help us experience life to become the fabulous people we end up becoming?

So I'm really excited for everyone to hear that. Oh, I was mesmerised by your talking then. That's incredible. Honestly, you know what? You've given me goosebumps about five times whilst I've been sat here. It's the a-con. It's not the air-con.

Natasha, thank you. I'm so excited to listen to the fully. and I'm going to go and read my menopause book and I'm just going to try everyone should just try and be a bit more Natasha in their way of thinking because you are an absolute positive ball of energy so thank you for coming on

Thanks for having me, it's been gorgeous. That's a wrap on another episode of Mum's the Word thank you so much for joining us today as we were joined by the amazing Natasha Hamilton. Don't forget to leave us a review. Follow us on socials at at Mum's the Word underscore pod and subscribe to our YouTube channel

where you can watch our episodes in full, just search Mum's the Word. Until next time, I'm Georgia Jones, and this is Mum's the Word. And we'll be back, same time, same place, next week.