The Netmums Podcast - S1 Ep78: Joss Stone on the highs and heartbreak of parenting

Episode Date: May 31, 2022

She may be a global superstar, but talking to Annie and Wendy about her new album 'Never Forget My Love', the mum of one (with one on the way) reveals she's still a Devon girl at heart.

This episode is sponsored by Fry's Family Foods to celebrate the launch of their new tea time saviour, the totally delicious and 100% vegan Stars and Moons. The breaded shapes are a great source of fibre and protein, ideal if you want more meat-free meals for the kids. They cook from the freezer in just 10 minutes, which means I already love them. A fuss-free kids tea time that you know they'll polish off, yes please. Now, on with the show. You're listening to Sweat, Snot and Tears, brought to you by Netmums. I'm Annie O'Leary. And I'm Wendy College. And together

we talk about all of this week's sweaty, snotty and tearful parenting moments. With guests who are far more interesting than we are. On this week's show. My friend come round and he goes, do you know that cocamelon is abusing your child's brain and it's like crack for babies and it's going to hurt her. I was like, I spent like a month worrying about this, looking online, like trying to find data on that, trying to find what, what a load of bollocks. It's completely fine. And she loves it.

And it's okay. Welcome to another episode of Sweat and tears i am feeling tired wendy can you pick me up please i've just been involved in like full school run drama so i can pick you up with the news that on the evening pickup today one lady in a very beat-up little old car managed to smash into another lady in a brand spanking new Tesla. And you can imagine the fun that happened on the school run. Was there shouting? Was there swearing? Well, I don't know because I stayed at the car with the windows up because I was a bit scared.

I'd have gotten out and been like, what's going on? Of course you would. Yeah. But I was like trying to desperately get back because this is like one of the guests I've been most excited about talking to. And I'm thinking I can't rock up late and say really sorry, this particular person. I've just been listening to a school run now. Please introduce the guest and maybe she can help. I hope that she can. Welcome Joss Stone. How are you now? Oh, that was sweet. I'm fine. How are you girls? Well, it sounds like you're very stressed.

You can't see her, guys, at home, but she's looking mega glam. Where are you and what is going on? So we are doing a photo shoot for a Christmas album. Christmas! I know. Oh, so have you got to channel all things Jingle Belly today? Yeah, so it's very Christmassy the last few weeks. I've been in the studio recording like amazing orchestras. So are you in Nashville? Where are you? Where are you? Yeah, so right now I'm in Nashville. Everything happens in Nashville, like all the studios are here. I've never been and

it's somewhere that I would absolutely love to go oh yeah you'd enjoy it there's a lot of fun things lots of music you should pop over have a little party bring your kids well it beats the school run I might do it was it an actual proper crash or just a little bump at low speed it was a a little dink just a speed, too many people in one very small residential street dink. You know, the usual school run. See, yours are too little. You've not got to this particular hell yet, but it's coming your way. Don't you worry. Congratulations on the pregnancy, Lady Love. Oh, thank you so much.

You've got a one year old to run after as well right so on top of the joys of a bump and the joys of writing an album which is obviously not that tricky I'm sure but it probably kept you busy it's easy when the song's already there it's fine it's just tiring yeah I kind of there's been a few days where I have just said look I'm gonna get get an Uber in or something because I can't keep my eyes open. And I feel like that's dangerous. Yeah, so maybe driving's not the best idea. Yeah, I feel like that's not the right thing to be doing

when you've got a little babe in there. It's like, well, any day it's not the right thing to be doing, but even more so. So Cody sometimes will drive me in. babe in there it's like well any day it's not the right thing to be doing but even more so so Cody sometimes will drive me in but yeah it's uh it's dangerous on that freeway when you're as tired as I am but when you get into the studio it's fine everyone wakes you up and life happens around you and music kind of gives you that spark and then you're all right again I was gonna say does music help yeah it's like coffee.

I was driving home. It takes 45 minutes to get home because the traffic's like worse at that time. And I always like to get back so I can put Violet to bed and that because I don't like missing that. That really upsets me. So I'm driving home literally at the time everybody else is. And my eyes started to kind of take long blinks. I was like, no.

So I put on, there's this song that my publisher sent me just for fun. It's called Love Theory by Kirk Franklin. And it's a gospel song with Kirk Franklin's like the preacher that shouts over it like, yeah, praise the lord everything's great oh my god this song woke me up I cranked it up and I just had the best drive it literally was like a shot of espresso times a thousand okay Wendy I think you and I need this in the mornings but nobody needs to hit the differences people would pay to hear her do it but no one needs to hear, the difference is people would pay to hear her do it, but no one needs to hear us do it. That's the thing.

So why did you move all the way to Nashville? How did that happen? Well, I've lived in different places and I think basically I wasn't really living anywhere. I was doing this total world tour where I wanted to play in every country. So that meant that I would go away for a month and do that as much as I could and then come back. I was coming back to Devon, England, and then I thought, no, I want to move somewhere else because I wasn't finding what I wanted there. So I moved to New Jersey randomly, took all my dogs and everything, set up a life there, never really lived there. Then I met Cody along the way on my world tour, just at the end of it. And he was living in Iraq, but you know, I wasn't going to move to Iraq with him. It's, he was like living in the embassy. So it wasn't really his home. You can't just like

move in. Although I did really like Iraq so I thought no no we're not going to live there but then the pandemic happened we still didn't have anywhere we went down to Florida to see my mum with all the dogs and then I got pregnant and I was like okay we should probably live somewhere you know know? And he's American. So I thought, right, my dogs are over here. So let's just stay here for a bit. Because the drama of getting him to England and all that, we're not married or anything.

So we just, I made a record here when I was seven months pregnant with Dave Stewart, which was a lovely experience. The musicians here are just so good I mean the level is it's through the roof amazing so I thought well let's live here and now we're here and do you think you'll stay is it Nashville forever or what's gonna happen no I'm gonna come home it's interesting you still call England home yeah yeah yeah we're like on holiday here you know it's not real it's not real we don't know anyone we just you know come in and come out and say hi to the neighbours they're super sweet has it been weird having a baby somewhere that you don't think of as home has that been like I think did you miss having a kind of known support network or did you build one of your own my mum came out which helped, because that's really the only person that I want to be around in that time.

I don't really want a lot of people around. But yeah, I did always think I was going to have my baby in Devon in Exeter. That was kind of like always in my head. But I was here and I really liked the doctor, even though he sometimes says things I don't agree with. I like him because he's really straightforward and he's like a no nonsense type of chap. And that made me feel really safe. So I think once you start to get a relationship with your doctor or your midwife, you don't really want to change it because you trust them. And so he's your

doctor for this one as well yeah he will be yeah because I'm I'm just going to do the same thing I'm going to stay here because I feel like well Violet's alive and well don't rock the boat let's do that again yeah yeah exactly but the rest of them that hopefully I'll get to have later on in life I will will be home by then so I have to start again and that's actually quite scary is Violet chatting um she isn't really chatting she's she says bum a lot that's a very English word that's a very English word I know I know she's so funny it would be but if it was American so bum is she's obviously got it from you I know she just every time she's she like plunks down on the safe she goes bum and it's the cutest thing she shouted it out in church right so I'm sounding like I go to church a lot I don't but my friend Rhi came over and she was here on

um an Easter time so of course we're in Nashville she's like please let's go to a church so we found this lovely place to go and it was so sweet really small little country vibes and Violet was perfectly quiet she was listening to the music having a lovely time until the preacher started to talk and he was quite serious like it wasn't like it wasn't like he was super bright sweet things he was saying really serious things you know it's a baptist church and she started going bum bum bum oh i love her i think she should be in my mind already i love her and what did he do did he say anything no he just kept going he just didn? No, he just kept going. He just didn't, you know, he didn't lock eyes. And he's like, if you don't believe in this, you will be going to hell.

And she goes, bam! Honestly, I love my girl. She's the best. So is it true that you wrote your new album, Pregnant? Yep. so is it true that you wrote your new album pregnant yep how does this happen when you're not when you're feeling sick how do you create something good or are we going to have lots of songs about sickness and vomiting yeah right I feel awful I've noticed that um there is an amount of and it only lasts a certain amount of minutes I'd say but there's an amount of time that you can um turn on or just turn on in general and then you have to turn off so like the fact that Violet is a toddler now I just thought

when I was with with her in the first four months I was so sick and so tired. I remember I called my mum, I said, mum, how do, how am I going to do this with the next baby? Because I'll have this baby to look after. And she said, Jossie, you just will. I don't know how or why, but you just will. And I've realised that there are those minutes that you can just go, right, I'm going to sort this out now. Right. Time for bath time. Right. It's time for breakfast. Right. It's time to, you know, brush your teeth or whatever. You find those minutes and you just, your energy just goes, okay, time to turn it on. And then you, and that's the same with songwriting, I think. So when I was doing that, when I was writing with Dave, it's very quick. We don't faff about, we spend an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Good, good's very quick we don't faff about we spend an

hour maybe an hour and a half good good woman I don't like faffing yeah I hate faffing it's so annoying isn't it and then I get tired it's a waste of time waste of life so if he went to the bathroom or you know out for a breath of fresh air I would just lie down on the sofa and that would have been six maybe six seconds yeah and then you come back in and I pop right back up and go yes so about that bridge how about like this I remember when I was pregnant I used to go I used to take my coat and have power naps in the work disabled toilet because it was because it was the only place I could lie down very quickly I could only be as long as anyone thought or we might take so again very short but sometimes just

need those little power few seconds don't you just a few seconds is sometimes yeah sometimes good have you had two kids two yes and the disabled loo was involved in both and we've both had we kind of tried to outdo each other's track record for vomiting the most in unappropriate places basically oh my god really I just remember laying there the CBeebies bedtime hour would come on and I knew that that bought me half an hour of not having to move yep because moving made me sick so I would just literally lay there and I still can't hear the soundtrack to some of those TV shows without gagging. It's just inbuilt. Oh, no. Just the memory of how awful it was.

And you know what? The guilt, though, that comes with those TV shows. So over here. And in fact, I think it's in England, too. The Cocomelon stuff. Oh, yes. Oh, my God. I love Cocomelon.

Thank you. Thank you, God. Thank you for Cocomelonon because that gives you five minutes. And then my friend come around and he goes, do you know that cocamelon is abusing your child's brain and it's like crack for babies and it's going to hurt her? I was like, I spent like a month worrying about this, looking online online like trying to find data on that trying to find what what a load of bollocks it's completely fine and she

loves it and it's okay my eldest was brought up on a diet of pepper pig and she's 10 and absolutely she's a little bit odd but I think she'd have been old anyway yeah it's fine yeah no we've got to do what we've got to do and just like we all just need to kind of find our own balance like my son loves computer games which I know that a lot of people are very against and like no no but you know what his other true love is reading and to be honest I can't get his head out of a book most of the time so you know what a little bit of what you fancy does you good I reckon yeah it's whatever makes them happy I think really that's what we want we just want happy babies it's all we want I mean yeah I give up everything just to put a smile on her face but obviously we

want her to be healthy and and all that and then there's food choices god I have noticed that being part of this mummy community it's a really beautiful thing and it's great because you there's lots of Facebook pages and stuff where people will help you if you're confused about stuff or worried or why isn't she sleeping or you know is she teething I don't know you, should she be smacking me in the face or is that not a good thing? So there's lots of amazing things that come with that. But then there's also that judgment that I think we do have to ignore a bit. We have to literally let it wash off us. You have to.

You have to steer your own course because only you know what's right for you and only you what's right for them but it is it's hard isn't it who do you turn to for support in that do you have a little mummy gang do you just turn to your own mom like what's your what's your mojo um my friend lucy and my mom of course my mom but i've been asking her questions about babies since well for about 35 years so since i could talk so I'm I know exactly how my mum would do it because she's trained me um but yeah my friend Lucy she has two really great kids and she's a really straightforward no-nonsense type of girl and I love I love asking her for advice oh big shout out to Lucy we all need a Lucy don't we yeah we do we do I think Wendy's my Lucy she's who I message at 1am yeah I feel like I've been a bad mum that day oh oh it's so good to have isn't it because you don't really know I'm not

sure my recommendation of a large gin and tonic is often the right recommendation but you do need someone in your back pocket don't you you do need someone who you can turn to and go I'm okay I'm getting this right aren't I ish sort of yeah it's all right so is Lucy in America with you or is she in Devon and you're ringing her at silly o'clock in the morning. Yeah, she's in Devon. Good old Devon, eh? Yeah, I know. All my friends are there. It's kind of like, it's a lovely thing. Devon is a nice place to be from because, well, I say I'm from, I'm actually from Dover,

but brought up in Devon. So it's nice because when you go back, nothing has really changed. And that can be boring for a younger person, like 15, 16 year old, that's like, oh, it's so boring here. But it is wonderful to go back to. You know, it's protected. It's like a area of outstanding natural beauty where we're from.

So even the roads and the hedges, they're all protected. They're going to be there. They're not going anywhere, you know. And that's such a comforting thought. So yeah, I can go back and hopefully it will be just as lovely for her as it was for me yeah that's a nice thought yeah my sister's having had a baby my brother's had a baby my other brother's having a baby in July I'm having a baby in October it's lovely for Violet as well to have cousins cousins are really important I think yeah. Very important. So that's another reason why we have to go home. Now, back to Fry's family foods. Totally tasty stars and moons. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for

easy ways to feed my kids more plant-based meals. And these fun-breaded shapes are just the job. A source of protein and fibre, they make a brilliant swap for the usual chicken nuggets. They're also Netmums recommended, which if I say so myself, is kind of a big deal. In a poll of 50 Netmums members, 98% said they'd recommend Fries, Moons and Stars to friends and family. That's good enough for me. Pick up a pack of Fries, Stars and Moons from Iceland or the food warehouse. Now back to the guest. So you've been very candid about what, in your words, was a horrible miscarriage.

And I just wondered what made you go public with that? Because lots of people, we've been there. It's awful. And it's a really private thing. What made you decide to share so it it was the most awful thing I think that's happened ever in my life um and I don't think that I needed to share it so everyone could feel uh like uh I don't want people to feel sorry for me or anything like that. That's the worst thing. So I didn't share it for a really long time. But then when I got pregnant again, I say really long time,

six months. For me, it felt like a long time. When I got pregnant again, I don't know, I just felt like I did have a baby before and no one knew him and he wanted it to be acknowledged yeah it was like how can I just say oh right okay yay we're having a baby again and it's so good and it's like yeah but what about my little baby before like he I think he was a he I don't know because it was it was only nine weeks but he was my little baby and now he's somehow still part of my world so it feels like if I was to mention this one and not mention him it seems like almost like not it's like a it's like not talking about one of your kids and And that made me feel bad. No, I totally, that makes total sense.

It's such a sad, horrible situation. I think no one wants to talk about sad things. And I'm one of those people. We need to sometimes though. We need to, don't we? Yeah, I guess we do. And it's, I don't know if it helps um definitely doesn't help me with it because it just is what it's just sad but maybe someone else it might help someone

else knowing that they're not alone you know so my doctor was like um now this has happened you're going to realize that you're part of um a massive amount of women that this has happened to um and the reason why you wouldn't know before is because people don't talk about it so you feel you might feel very very lonely in this but you're not lonely in it because so many women have gone through it i don't know if that makes it better i'm i don't think it does, but it does kind of mean that you're not on your own in that terrible scenario. And not being on your own is a big thing. But yeah, I just wish that didn't happen. But it did. And now I feel like there are things that we can do to avoid it. And that's another thing that bothers me about the

whole scenario so first of all people don't want to talk about because it's really sad obviously that's um can make you quite lonely um and second of all people doctors um the professionals will say there was nothing you could have done that does not give me comfort at all I find that the most annoying most frustrating like part of this is that I am not in control of that and I I feel like uh so that means if there's nothing I could have done, nothing, that means that next time I'm pregnant, I'm going to run that same risk and I'm going to worry the whole time. Yeah, it's quite anxiety inducing, isn't it? Yeah, very much because it takes all the control away from you. So it's kind of like, they want to give you comfort.

So say, it's not your fault. Of course, it's not your fault of course it's not your fault you didn't mean to do it I get that so there's like it's very sensitive these words are very sensitive so like the word fault would mean you meant to kill your baby I don't think so but you are responsible for your body and I have done things differently this time um I don't know I don't know I just wish that we there was more answers so then we can avoid it for the next one so there's this little place that I go to 10 minutes down the road for me it's like a window to the womb scan place I have been in there four times I think that is something that people who've been through miscarriage and then gone on to have bronchitis

can will be able to relate to world over because you I think you just want the reassurance that everything's okay right yeah and you don't know and it's like especially at the beginning because you can't feel them and you nothing changes, really. You feel sick. Yeah, yeah. But that's no indication of everything being okay or not. No. So you just end up, you have to just go and say, can I have another scan, please?

Just tell me. Yeah, I just want to make sure he's okay, you know. And I don't know, I just, it's a stressful thing. And then you're thinking, if I get too stressed I'm going to lose my baby and I can't get too stressed because I love my baby so I have to calm down so it's a real head fuck I think what you're highlighting is so true that actually lots of people say oh it's okay you're pregnant again but what nobody really acknowledges is how hard that pregnancy then is where you try and negotiate with yourself all the things you think

you did or didn't do and whether you did or didn't do anything exactly it might have been nothing it might just be in the chromosomal abnormality or it might have been something outside of that all throughout my pregnancy people were like congratulations you're pregnant and I'd want to look at them and say until I've got that bloody baby in my arms can you all just stop with the bloody congratulations like just can we all just back off let's throw a party the day the baby's like here and well and we're all alive right my dad said something to me on when I was pregnant with Violet he goes um well just look after yourself and uh he's so funny I got to the end and they told me she was growth restricted um

and they were worried that this is this is my favorite doctor that I always argue with so he's like look something wrong with your placenta what's going on with your blood you tell me I said I don't know you're the doctor is something wrong with you I'm like no no it's fine he goes no your baby is massively growth restricted we may have to take her out I said don't worry about it she's gonna be fine yeah I'm gonna grow her I'm gonna mentally how many weeks were you when they were saying that to you oh I was like probably 29 weeks or early 30s I said quite early on yeah and then I was going back and back and he was saying nope

nope still small still small still small we're gonna take her out oh no she's growing oh no she's too small man it was so annoying I just I kept going in there and I was like hi doc are you come to check on my massive baby I just decided in my mind that everything was fine and um it all turned out okay in the end but we had to have a c-section so how big was she when she came she was six pounds 14 she was fine oh she's fine so she in the last in the last innings literally on the 39th week he goes this is mind this is a mind over matter story so he said to me there is nothing you can do and this is how i feel with the miscarriage thing, is they say there is nothing you can do to affect any part of your body. How ridiculous. Of course, there's something I can do.

You are a doctor. You can't do anything for me right now, apart from tell me information. I can either drink a pint of beer or a pint of water. There are so many things that I can do and I can do meditation and I can do affirmations and I can do running if I want. There's lots I can do. So anyway, I decided that that wasn't true and I was going to eat the world. And I did. I ate the world. I bought a sofa. It was fun. I had cream on every single thing I ate. And I just was like, no, I'm growing my baby.

And I go back for the last month. And I could hear him outside the door. I'm like ready to have a whatever he's gonna check my vagina for something I don't know what whether it's open or closed or something and he's got me in this outfit and I could hear him on the other side of the door and he was swearing he was calling the guy that gave me the second opinion he was like hey you remember Mrsrs stalker i'm like i hear him talking about me he goes her baby is in the fucking 49th percentile he couldn't believe it he was like what has happened this is so weird it's all that devon chiclotted cream on everything hey yeah i know

so you know you can affect your body and you can affect what's going on inside it meaning the child that you're growing you might not always get it right but you can you can try eat more cream get a sofa and lie on it see mine was the opposite mine was eat less cream like we rugby players that was the problem yeah I was diabetic so they kept saying you're eating too much I'm so hungry they kept saying you're going to have this massive baby and she was like eight pounds it wasn't that big at all really oh so I could have eaten more cream god damn it the opportunity is not lost you can you can bake bake for life but I'm not growing a baby so I don't have an excuse so how are you gonna handle two how's life and touring and mega stardom with two in tow I don't know how I'm gonna handle two but I don't know how I'm going to handle seven. I want like so many kids. So I really need to plan.

But I have to say, the only way that this is really a possibility is because of Cody. So when I met him, he was working away every three months or every month. I'm sorry. He would work for three months away in Iraq and then come home for a month. That was his thing. Then when we decided to have a baby and move, he was like, okay, I'm going to quit my job and come up with something else. So luckily in the middle of the pandemic, he managed to get this job that's working from home. So that means that I can pop to the studio and he's looking after her all

day you know we're not hiring anyone there's no nannies of course grandma's not down the road here so um so we can't call her that's interesting that you say that because I think we all assume that when we talk to a kind of megawatt star like you that you'll have like 87 nannies yeah I don't want that night night nurses and things coming out of your ears is there a lot of kind of do you feel a pressure as a kind of superstar to do it in a very starry way or are you just like I'm doing it my way and I don't really care what anyone else thinks no I think that I've done, I've done enough. Do you know what I mean? Like, I know that sounds like a silly thing to say, but I've wanted to be a mum for so long. It's, this is the thing I want to do. So the other things I've been doing, oh yeah, I like singing. Yeah, it's nice.

I like writing songs and stuff, but it's often for everyone else so my job is to give good feeling to everyone and to try and do that to try and make music that will make people happy that's my job but this is for you yeah yeah and I would like to do that so if I can set up my life so my dream is to like write for other singers I can do that from home oh wow yeah that's great yeah so I could drop Violet at school and come home write some songs and then go pick her up that's what I would love so if I can set my life up like that then that will be the perfect scenario how do you move into that do you write songs and like send them to people and say would you like to sing my song or how does it work I don't think I know yet I've just started so I've got a publisher a new publisher now

BMG and this is guy here called Chris and he um if I have any spare time from touring and stuff, he'll set up writing sessions with me, and then I'll send him those songs, and he knows who's looking for songs. So then he'll go, oh, Joss Stone wrote this one. Do you like it? Oh, wow, so he's like your middleman. He's my middleman, yeah.

Has it happened yet? Has anyone taken any yet? Oh, I have over the years, but um in this new kind of effort I've literally had three writing sessions so this is the very beginning of it's really exciting I hope it works out I hope people like want to sing my songs I don't know if they will but I'm sure they will if not I'll have to keep singing them and then I'll be tired but I don't I just don't want to leave Violet I don't really want to do that and touring with them in tow is hard like it's fine when they're small touring with babies when they're small is completely doable you know and on the bus it's perfect Cody works from his

computer on the bus he walks me to the stage with Violet. I say, okay, night, night, baby. He goes back, gives her a bath. By the time I'm finished on stage, it's time to put her into bed. So it's like perfect. But when she's going to school, that is not going to be a thing. Who was it that was saying? It was Paloma Faye. Oh, yeah? She'd just done a tour with her little girl at school age

and was about to do one with two and was like I just this is trial and error I'm not sure how this is going to work and she felt really torn and conflicted about it and so did what's the other singer called who we had Jessie Ware she was saying she found it really hard as well because she said you just want to be in two places at once and you can't be I think yeah for me I completely have let go of it like um of the idea of I'll only be doing the touring stuff when she's going to school if I can't keep the lights on any other way because I'm good I've done my touring that's a brave move I think I think it's a decision like you have to make because I um don't want I don't want uh my kids to grow up look at mummy or daddy or anyone that they

look up to and see them being uh cheered on by thousands of people because I've seen this in um kids I've known growing up that are um children of stars so um I don't want them to think that that is what makes you valid and what gives you value yeah it certainly would come across that way yeah exactly so I mean we what we do is we put on a show it's not real it's not real we don't wake up with makeup on we don't walk around with a spotlight on us we don't always have a microphone in our hands that's not real but it's a show it's entertainment so when thousands of people are going, oh my God, I love you. It's like, okay, that's fine for the hour that it's happening. But if your child grows up and is watching that constantly, they're going to think, well, no one will love me unless

there's thousands of people screaming my name. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think that's what I want. So I have to really think hard about that and just let her go to school like a normal person and roll around in the mud. So what, I guess, is next? You've told us that you're trying to maybe segue into some songwriting for other people. You're currently glammed up, ready to do Christmas in May which is just standard what what else what else is going on got my baby coming well yeah there is the bun in the oven business as well well I think cooking for me is a really fun thing I've been doing a lot of that um I mean I've been doing a lot of that in my life I love to cook okay if you were cooking for me and when tonight I love talking about food what would you cook for us um do you love pasta yes I love pasta honestly

it's just delicious isn't it I know it's not the you know it's not light on the hips there's a lemon pasta that I make that is delicious with like parmesan cheese and garlic and basil it is lush I'll send you a recipe is that what's for tea tonight do you know I fancy it now oh god we shouldn't talk about food what are we doing is Violet good with her food or is she fussy she is a little bit fussy but it depends really what day it is I just keep trying the same foods she loves noodles but she mostly loves to throw them around. That's standard. And then she'll eat one and then it's fun. Yeah, and she loves peanut butter. And Marmite, thank God she likes Marmite.

And she likes Branston Pickles, so I feel it's going well. We wouldn't be able to give her a British passport if she didn't like Marmite and Branston Pickles, would we? I know, exactly. And beans, she's obsessed with heinz baked beans she's out again she sounds like our kind of girl oh i can't stand to bake bean oh you don't like them i love heinz baked beans annie i've stolen all the questions so you can ask the last one because i've just been yabbing away okay and the last question i promise you

we're not just asking you because you're a singer. Hold on one second because the darlings are being loud again. Stop, please. Thank you very much. She's quite scary. She's so good. How old are these babies? Ten and eight, which I think might be the most challenging ages. You've got all this to look forward to, Jo.

Oh, I can't wait. We would like you, please, to imagine that you're tucking us into bed, that we're Violet, and we can't sleep. So we need you to sing us your lullaby, please. That's the sweetest, sweetest question. OK, so I've made a lullaby especially for her. You're too cute, mister. Well, it's because she kept crying so much and it was like the saddest cry.

And why do they cry so much when they're tired? It breaks my heart into a thousand pieces. So I wrote this little song just singing away and now it's turned into something. So here we go. I say in my most quiet voice, and by the way, I had to find my voice for her because I think I was too loud at first. And at first I didn't even want to sing to her because I was too embarrassed. Cody was like, you should sing to her. And I'm like, yeah, but what if she doesn't like my voice? Like, what if it makes her cry? I was so worried about her not liking my voice. Isn't that silly? I

never thought I'd feel that, but I did. Anyway, so here it goes. I'm holding my little baby. I say, it's okay to be tired. It's okay to be tired. Mommy gets tired So raise your head on my pillow Go to sleep little one It's okay to be tired It's okay to be tired Daddy gets tired too And it goes on. There's another verse and another verse.

Are you ever going to record it? Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I think so. It would be nice to do a little lullaby, like a little EP, like a lullaby album. Well, I was about to ask, from the bottom of my heart, could you do a lullaby?

Because lullabies are shit. Some of them are. And they're really rubbish. So just you do a lullabies because lullabies are shit some of them are really rubbish so just do a nice lullabies album for all of us that are sick of lullabies yeah and then that way some mummies can just have a rest and press play and i'll sing their babies to sleep it's like ah and i i have one of those little owls that, you know, you press the hand and it makes a song. And some of those songs, the heartbeat's great, but the songs, they're annoying. They really are. They're like, yeah. So I thought maybe I could make something to go in one of those teddy bears or something that's a bit softer and has like different, more thicker tones.

There we go. Solved. Excellent. Thank you, ladies. Well, Merry Christmas. Off you pop. Go and do some Christmas. Yes. Ho, ho, ho. Yeah.

All right, lovelies. Thank you so much. Oh, good luck with the pregnancy. I hope it all goes to plan and everything is cool. Thank you so much. And thank you for being a lovely guest. Yeah. Lovely to chat with you too. Thank you. Thanks so much, Joss. Goodbye. Thank you.