The Overshare with Gemma Atkinson - The One Before Episode One...

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Ahead of Episode One of The Overshare, Gemma Atkinson chats to her Producer Matt Foister about the arrival of Baby Thiago and how life’s changed since becoming a Mum of two, plus they tease us with what’s to come in Series One of The Overshare. Here’s where the journey begins...

This room's a bit odd. I've not been in here for a while. Welcome back to work. Welcome back. How's it feel? It feels... It's alright. It's a lot cleaner than when I left.

I don't know if that means it's me who makes the mess. Do you feel nervous or a bit strange by the way? No. I feel with this more relaxed than the radio. Okay, that's good. I strangely do. I think you'll be good. Because you are essentially on maternity leave still for a year.

You don't have to work if you don't want to. I shouldn't be here. No, HR would hate this. This is slightly different. First of all, hello, I'm producer Matt, known as producer Matt. I'm Matt Foyster. You won't hear me on the other episodes.

Don't worry. What I thought we'd do is have a little chat with Gemma ahead of the much anticipated, long-awaited launch of her debut podcast series, The Overshare. Just as a brief warning, there is some grown-up content in this little podcast here, in case there are some young ears lurking. It's not work, this, is it? It's nice. It's chatty. That's what every new mum needs, is communication, and not just, hello, darling. Oh, have you been bobby? Do you know what I mean?

But right now you're thinking, is Tiago okay? Can't wait to get home to him, yeah. Is Sans in charge? Is she alright? Yeah. Is he dribbling? Is he fine? Has he got a bib on?

Has he done his nappy? Has she dropped off during Levain? That's what you're thinking, isn't it? Yeah. So you've got Tiago with Sandra now and Mia's at school. Mia's at school. She's settled in okay, is she?

She's loved it. I didn't even get a look back. So I psyched myself up for day one thinking, this is going to be really hard. She's going in OK, she? She's loved it. I didn't even get a look back. So I psyched myself up for day one, thinking this is going to be really hard. She's going to cry. She's going to ask me not to leave her. I'm like a best friend. We got there, got to the door and I went,

are you all right? And she just went, yeah, see you later. And she didn't even look back at me. So then I was like, whoa, what? You know, that hurt even more. But then I thought, do you know what? She's a little independent, raised her OK. It's fine, off you off you go and then I was thinking will she be able to open a snack box what if she goes to the toilet and it's a number two because we've mastered cleaning herself after

a number one but after a number two we've been practicing it's up her back it's little things like that that go through my head so the last time I saw you you went on maternity leave and you were adamant on this water birth. Yes. You were going to have this water birth. It's going to happen, Matt. I was going to have a water birth, candles. You were concerned about the bath being filled in time.

Who's got time to fill a bath? How was the water birth? I'm still waiting for it. There you go, the bath's still running. The closest I got to a water birth was a bit of rain as I pulled up at Bolton Hospital for my C-section. No, it didn't happen. I had 24 hours in labour, so I got to labour this time,

which isn't that good anyway. I kept saying, with me, I didn't labour, so I wanted to know what it was like. It's not really nice, labour pains. Do you know what I mean? And Gorka was a little bit miffed because my waters broke on the day of the Wimbledon final again. This tennis thing again? Yeah. So when my waters broke at like half four the Wimbledon final again. This tennis thing again for him?

Yeah. So when my waters broke at like half four that morning, I woke him up. He said, oh, Gemma, not again. It's a good game today. I said, well, I'm terribly sorry. It's like you planned this. Yeah.

So I spent the full day labouring at home, and I got to the point where I had to go off on my own upstairs, and he kept nipping in and I said just leave me please and then we called the midwife I said I think I need to maybe come in they're every six minutes really painful and then they stopped completely stopped and she said well it could be called stalled labour it does happen do not worry potter about see if they come back they didn't come back so I said to go Ia, I'm going to bed because nothing's happening. So he's thinking tennis can happen.

He's thinking tennis, Alcaraz can win, as he did. And then the following morning when I woke up, still nothing. And then the policy is if your waters break, you have to go in after 24 hours. If the waters don't break, you can have 48 hours. They took us in and it turned out he'd done a poo. So it's the macronium. Basically when they poo inside the sack that they're in, then it becomes out he'd done a poo so it's the macronium basically when they poo

inside the sack that they're in and it becomes dangerous because they can be swallowing it and it's yeah so then she said you can have the artificial hormone which will induce labor which is what I had with Mia and it was horrendous or we can do a c-section and I said when would the section be and she went about two hours and i said i'd rather that than because the induction i had with mia was an emergency c-section anyway then a hemorrhage so it didn't work and i always think sometimes things are meant to be they said we'll get the surgeon to come and say hello to you beforehand so you'll meet them i said okay the surgeon that came in

an hour later was the same surgeon who delivered Mia. Ah, the stars are aligning. She just happened to be on call that day before going for like a three days off.

And she said, I will be delivering Tiago. So you're thinking now is the right time. I was like, right. It works for everybody involved. Yeah. When we had Jack

via C-section, my wife, a bit like you, carried on straight away. She was so keen to get the new pram out, the new buggy out, go for a walk. But you've been through a major operation. I can't. But you've not stopped really, have you? You're still doing stuff.

But I've had big sands. I've had my mum on board. Yeah. Because we had a week at home together, but then Gorka had to go on rehearsals. So my mum moved in and it was incredible. She lived with you, didn't she? She lived with me it was fabulous I mean she's there a lot anyway isn't she

yeah but she was she had a room she brought all she bought a suitcase brilliant she rocked up with the suitcase how long has that been

stayed for I've got a bag where I've done mum and like she brought her own butter and Peter dropped her off I've never seen Peter as happy and I said to him

a week in I said are you kind of enjoying your time alone Peter I said you know is it okay and he went I really am and I said to him a week in, I said, are you kind of enjoying your time alone, Peter? I said, you know, is it okay? And he went, I really am. And I said, he said, I watch what I want. I eat when I want. I can go to bed when I want.

He said, I don't get told off for falling asleep. I'm just missing the butter. I know that both you and Gorka were quite scared about Tiago's birth. Did you know, by the way, you were going to call him Tiago? No. Do you know, Gorka's mum chose the name. I liked Raphael and I loved Thomas, but Gorka didn't like Thomas. In Spain it's Tomas and he said,

Tommy Marquez sounds like he'd beat you up. And then his mum said, Tiago. And it's a Portuguese name. His mum's Portuguese. My dad's middle name was Thomas. So we had Tiago, Thomas, Marques and he gets Tio. Well, you're both really scared about Tiago's birth

because of the ordeal with Mia. Yes. Did you find it as scary in the end or were you just so distracted by the events that took over? The only bit I was frightened of was hemorrhaging again and I probably annoyed the midwives because after he was born, I kept pressing the button

and asking them to check my pad because you do bleed after quite a lot. And they kept coming in and saying, you're not bleeding, Gemma, you're not hemorrhaging. And every time they'd go, I'd say to Corker, can you just have a look? And he'd be like, oh, for fuck's sake. Yeah.

But I was frightened to death of hemorrhaging again. And I said to them when they were sending me home, I said, there's no risk of that now, is there? And they said, well, you could have a secondary hemorrhage. And I went, oh my God, can I stay in? They said, no, that can happen anything up to six weeks, but you won't. She said, everything is fine.

You will not. But until I got to that six week mark that's all I kept thinking it was uh yeah I think once you've been through that you do think it'll happen again but it doesn't not always How's the W Channel show going? Life behind the lens? That's done very well, yes. We've learnt a lot about Gemma and Gawker. Do you know what?

We were talking about another series and we said let's just see how this one goes first. And it's done really well. So thank you to everyone who tuned in. And I think what's really important is, if you wonder what this podcast, The Overshare, will be like, watch some of that because every scene you are oversharing, I'm pausing it, explaining some stuff to the kids.

Yeah. I'd have preferred not to, Jemski. With that series, we said there's no point doing a reality show whereby it's not real, as in you've had two hours hair and make-up before you're on camera, as in everything pristine and polished and shiny in the house. It's got to be real and raw and everyday, and it's done incredibly well.

And I think that's why this will be good. Why now a podcast for you? Why now? Well, we started working together. It was about three years ago, wasn't it? Three years, yeah. And we kind of realised off air on the radio that we're very similar

in kind of sense of humour wise. Yeah. Quite dark. That sounds bad, doesn't it? Yeah. Not in a nasty way. Quite negative.

Yeah. I got cynical. We're both a bit like Victor Meldrew with everything in life. We've both got similar family backgrounds and we just kind of thought

the stories we shared with each other off air tickled us, didn't they? And it was anything from if you had someone round for lunch and it went wrong or I didn't know

what to give my uncle because he's vegan. You know, just random stuff. What's gone now. Yeah, what's gone now if something breaks? And we said, isn't it funny how

loads of podcasts come about? Because I've been asked to be guests on quite a few and I've had to say to you can I leave a little bit earlier on this day to film this podcast and you said what's it about and I've said well they just chat to me so you're like oh and it is a bit dull when it's kind of put someone in the public eye or a celebrity based podcast for me is quite dull because there's a list of questions in advance. You know what you're going to be asked. They go through your agent. Can we ask this? Can we ask that?

It's never really organic and raw. So you said to me, wouldn't it be good to do a podcast whereby it's about everyone else but you? And just to explain the nuts and bolts behind it, the idea was that we'd put on your socials that week's theme of the podcast and then we'd put on your socials that week's theme of the podcast and then we'd get stories from people and turn those stories into the podcast episode. And we get real life, real stories, real people, real emotions. And then we came up with the idea. It's great to do. However,

given some of the topics, we need a professional on board. And the experts have been great, haven't they? The experts have been good. I've been really impressed with the experts. They really seem to, because it was hard to get together because it is a bit like a radio phone-in, isn't it? Yeah. But it's a bit grittier, a bit deeper.

The stories are longer. We can talk for far longer. And finding the expert that was right for that was tricky, but we found some good people, didn't we? Yeah. We were lucky, really. And it's been lucky for us because they've kind of assessed

and give us therapy before we've gone live. For free, really. And it's been lucky for us because they've kind of assessed and give us therapy before we've gone live. For free. Yeah. And even like relationship ones, we've said, listen, thanks for this podcast,

but what does the below mean about this person or that person? And it's been very therapeutic for me in a way because you kind of open up a lot more when it's just someone normal.

You don't need, it's not like I'm speaking to a journalist whereby I have to watch what I say and be panicked that my agent's going to ring. You can say whatever you want's not like I'm speaking to a journalist whereby I have to watch what I say and be panicked that my agent's got a ring. You can say whatever you want.

Yeah. We were doing the radio show a couple of years ago and somebody texted in who'd found out their boyfriend was cheating and you've probably forgotten this but we phoned them back off air

and you had a little chat with them. Yeah. You had some advice and it was that moment when I thought we don't get enough of that from you on the radio and with this we've had a lot of that.

Have you ever left here thinking you've said too much? Because just from memory, you've spoken about exes, you've spoken about sex. Being pushed across the table. Yeah. Penises. It's all in there. What a great tease.

Yeah. Have you ever thought, oh, I shouldn't have said that or I've gone a bit too far? No, because I think if they've got the courage, bless them, to come on and speak openly about their situation, the least we can do is be open about ours. It wouldn't be called the overshare,

would it, if we didn't overshare stuff? If you held back a bit. How has it compared to doing solo radio shows? Because before I met you, you'd never done a radio show by yourself. No. And we've pulled that off in the past few years. Yeah.

Has this podcast helped you do more of that as it is i mean it's massively helped but you brought me on leaps and bounds of it because it's so it's such a relaxed atmosphere it feels like it's a friday night we're having a few drinks talking about mates everyone's drunk so some people cry some people get angry and some people snog and some people just swear or get naked it's one of them like a wild night all done via a podcast

thanks Jemski thanks Mateus all of this and more is to come in series one you know social services did come at one point

did take us away but then took us back there wasn't that love there wasn't that well done there wasn't like let's do your homework there was no praise men lie about the amount of women they've slept with and women lie because

we bring it down and they bring it up Gorka thinks he's number two and he opened on the draft messages of texts and it was a very beautifully written love letter to my sister from my husband. Incomparable to trying to birth a melon through a lemon essentially so men are never ever going to really be able to connect and I think that's why they're so challenged by the experience. I remember saying to my parents I was like oh god I'm gonna be single and 30 and my dad went well better that than 40 and divorced i was like it's true it is true and he trashed my house and he did really really freaky things to the house like emptying the attic out put it all in the bath put loads of water in taking labels off tins of food putting them back in the cupboard to make your light go a bit that's bizarre you know what i need this release