o describe Rochelle Humes as sunny is a bit like
describing the actual sun as a light bulb – a total
understatement. There is serious warmth emanating
from her as she arrives at the Women’s Health cover
shoot in Mallorca – gleefully FaceTimeing husband
Marvin to show off – and a certain glow of positivity,
too. Of course, you’d have to try pretty hard not to be
upbeat if the day job required posing poolside and
chatting about your kids with the WH team over an
al fresco lunch between snaps with the photographer,
glass of wine in hand. But, a few days after the shoot,
I meet Rochelle on an unseasonably bleak rainy day
back in the UK, in the midst of a childcare crisis, and
can confirm that the glow remains undimmed.
Dashing into a West London restaurant, she greets
me with a hug, then apologises for being soaking wet.
Fresh from appearing on Loose Women with Marvin
(to promote The Hit List, the prime-time quiz show
they present together), she’s pulled on an old sweatshirt
and jeans, which are now rather rain-spattered. Marvin
had to dash straight home because he’s on pick-up duty.
‘Childcare issues,’ she explains, with the rueful grin
of someone who has learned to embrace the chaos.
Rochelle reveals that motherhood has dramatically
improved her confidence. As has turning 30, which
she did back in March. In fact, just a few years ago,
she wouldn’t have had the confidence to take part ina project like WH’s Naked issue, which,
as part of our Project Body Love campaign,
aims to highlight how wonderfully diverse
women’s healthy bodies are. ‘I wasn’t as body
confident as I am now,’ she admits, tucking
into a saku tuna poke bowl. ‘And I would
have been worried about what people might
think, like, what are my motives for doing
it? But I don’t really care about what people
think any more. And I’m so happy with my
body, because now I know what it can do.
I’m in a happy place, so why the hell not?
Stretch marks and all, here I am.’
Rochelle clearly wants to give her
daughters – Alaia, six, and Valentina, two- the same kind of grounded upbringing
that she had, and is keen to replicate in
them the healthy relationship with food
and body image that her own mother,
Roz, a paramedic, fostered in her. ‘I’ve
got friends whose mums used to mention
weight so much when we were kids and
still remember that now,’ she sighs. ‘My
mum would never. And now those friends
are so conscious of thinking they’re being
“bad” when they eat certain foods. I don’t
like anyone talking about anything like that
in front of the kids. Raising two daughters,
that’s really important to me. That kind
of self-awareness is why Project Body
Love resonated with me so much.’ Rochelle
doesn’t follow any specific eating plan,
preferring to enjoy ‘everything in
moderation’, and instils healthy habits
in her kids by setting a good example.
‘My eldest came to watch me run the
marathon in 2018 and she was so proud,’
she grins. ‘She said, “Mummy, when I’m
older, I’m going to run a marathon.” And
I was like, yeah you are! It’s hypocritical
if you don’t lead by example. And it wasn’t
easy for me. I literally couldn’t run a mile
when I started training. But if you set your
mind to giving your body a challenge, it’s
amazing what you can do.’
Although she won’t rule out ever clocking
up another 26 miler, Rochelle admits that
running isn’t her favourite form of exercise- particularly the relentlessness of
marathon training. ‘It might be snowing
outside but you’ve just got to go and do
a 15-mile run,’ she remembers. ‘For me, it
takes the enjoyment out of training.’ She’s
also willing to admit that she struggled with
the meditative aspect of running, which is
oddly the thing that many people love about
it. ‘I see people on Instagram saying, “Just
been for a long run and it’s cleared my
head.” Running didn’t do that for me at
all,’ she laughs. ‘It made me
start going through in my
head all the things I need to
do. I didn’t find it therapeutic.
I prefer Pilates because there
isn’t time to think.’
Adorably, eldest daughter
Alaia likes to join in when her
mum’s doing Pilates at home.
‘I’m just trying to get them used
to exercise being a part of life,
whether that’s walking the
dog or doing a Pilates video on
YouTube together. Obviously,
Alaia doesn’t do it properly,
she just thinks she’s doing
the same as me,’ Rochelle
laughs, doing an impression
of a six-year-old clumsily
rolling around on a mat.Two years ago, Rochelle had
a wake-up call about the effect
her own behaviour can have
on her daughter. Alaia began
saying that she didn’t like her
naturally curly hair, because it
wasn’t straight and swishy like
her friends’ or the princesses’ in
the books she read. ‘I was like,
“Well, you know mummy has
curly hair,” and she was like,
“No you don’t.” And I realised
that she had never known me
to have curly hair.’ Rochelle
immediately stopped using
chemical straightening
treatments, which she’d used
since she was a teenager,‘I don’t really care about what
people think any more – and
I’m so happy with my body’
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