In the precious weeks leading up to the birth of her second child, Mollie King pictured the moment she would introduce her new baby to Annabella, her two-year-old daughter with her fiancé, retired England cricketer Stuart Broad.
But when the big moment arrived in January, it didn’t play out quite as she had hoped.
“She ran straight past the Moses basket,” laughs Mollie in this exclusive interview with HELLO!, recalling how Annabella excitedly skipped past her brand-new sister Liliana and into the arms of Mollie’s mother Susan.
© Instagram“She was like: ‘Gran!’ – who’d been with her for the past three days.”
When the new sisters met, however, Annabella “could not believe her eyes”, Mollie recalls. “She was over the moon. And she was even more happy when she realised that the baby had bought her a little Thomas the Tank Engine train to play with.”
Mollie is besotted with the new addition to their family. Since welcoming Annabella in November 2022, the BBC Radio 1 broadcaster – who rose to fame in the late 2000s as a member of girlband The Saturdays – had always hoped to expand her family and offer her children a bond like the one she shares with her elder sisters Ellen and Laura.
“I’m so lucky, because my sisters are just amazing,” says Mollie, 37. “We’ve got the same age gap [two years between each sister] that Annabella and Liliana have, so my dream would be that they have the relationship that me and my sisters have. We’re very open and talk about everything.”
© InstagramMollie's support system
And her sisters have been on hand to support Mollie as she adjusts to being a mother of two.
“I was a bit nervous before [Liliana’s birth], because I had no idea how the juggle of two of them would be,” she says. “But Liliana is an angel; she’s such a good little baby, and we’ve probably been slightly more relaxed [this time]. I think that might have rubbed off on her.”
© ShutterstockStuart becomes a dad of two
Radio 1 Future Pop host Mollie says that Liliana has inherited her serene demeanour from her doting dad Stuart, 38. “He’s an amazing dad. He’s so patient; he’s so calm,” she says of her fiancé, who plays upstairs with Annabella while we catch up with Mollie.
“He’s the calm that we love and need in this house, and he’s incredibly hands on. He’s loving every minute of it.”
© GettyThat hands-on approach to parenting has helped the couple – who have been engaged since New Year’s Day in 2021 – delight in discovering Annabella’s budding interests. “Her vocabulary is expanding every single day. She comes out with these sentences where you’re like: ‘Hold on a minute, you couldn’t say that three days ago,’” Mollie says, adding that bouncing on a trampoline is Annabella’s newest passion, after she tried it on a holiday in France last month.
© Instagram“All she wants to do is bounce. It’s the first thing she said when she woke up this morning,” Mollie smiles.
“We don’t even have a trampoline at home – at the moment, we’re popping over to our neighbour’s garden to use theirs.”
© InstagramAs she looks ahead to spending more time in the garden with Stuart and their daughters this summer, the radio presenter is excited about dressing her elder child in pieces from new childrenswear collection Maybe Junior, her latest collaboration with Boots.
The spring/summer 2025 line, which is exclusive to the health and beauty retailer, features affordable pieces for toddlers and children up to the age of six.
© Boots“There’s the adorable Maybe Baby Seersucker Candy Stripe Dress (£10), which is really colourful and delicate – the perfect dress for an occasion in the summer,” Mollie tells us.
Championing clothes that make parents’ lives easier is a priority for the star. “Getting both the girls dressed and out the door on time is difficult enough in itself. I want to make parenting easier,” she says of her approach to the range, which includes designs like the Woven Texture Peplum Top & Wide Leg Trouser set (£16) that can be mixed and matched to create different outfits.
To read the full exclusive interview, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! on sale in the UK on Monday. You can subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
Mollie King's new Maybe Junior Spring Summer range is exclusive to Boots and available in 410 stores nationwide and online at boots.com now. Join Boots’ Parenting Club exclusive to Boots Advantage Card holders for offers. Boots Parenting Club members can also earn 8 points per £1 spent on all baby and toddler products, including Maybe Baby and Junior.
