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Emma and Damian’sdaughter Edie is delightedwith the new arrival. “She’sreally overwhelmed by howshe feels,” says Emma, 37.“She’s got a kind of maternalinstinct, which is sometimesterrifying because I’ll turnaround and she’ll be carryinghim across the kitchen”

H eart FM’s Emma B describesher nine-week-old son Billy

Ray as a “little fighter”. “I feelvery, very lucky,” says the 37-year-old DJ, who lives in Greenwich,South London, with her hus-band, A&R manager DamianWilson, and their five-year-olddaughter Edie.

While all babies are special,Billy Ray’s arrival is all the moreremarkable because the couplehad been told that they wereunable to have another child.“Doctors have said that it’s amiracle he’s here,” says Emma,who has also had top jobs on BBCRadio One, BBC 6 Music andTV’s Top of the Pops.

When she was expecting Edie,Emma had pre-eclampsia –a blood pressure condition thatcan endanger mother and baby –but it wasn’t until she begantrying for a second child that shediscovered she had furtherproblems and subsequently suf-fered two ectopic pregnancies.

“I really struggled emotion-ally,” she reveals. “You haveto go in and have a generalanaesthetic, and then you feeldreadful for weeks and weeksafter. And no one really gave mean explanation for why it washappening.

“Not only are you dealing withthe loss of a baby, but you’re thenhaving to deal with just beingdischarged, like you’ve been into have an ingrown toenail seento. The lack of support was over-whelming and I felt very lost for along time.”

BAD NEWSEmma and Damian decided tovisit a private doctor to find outwhat was wrong. “I woke upafter a laparoscopy and thedoctor just said, ‘It’s reallybad news, I’m afraid’,” recallsEmma. “He told me that I hadreally bad endometriosis, whichhadn’t been picked up before,and because of my ectopicpregnancies and having had aCaesarean section with Edie, myfallopian tubes were essentiallybroken. They had to remove partof my left one and my right onewasn’t working at all.”

She was also told that becauseo f s car r ing in her u terus ,she would be unlikely to carryanother baby to full term.

“It was an abrupt halt to adream that we’d really pursued,”recalls Emma. “I know we hadEdie, but when someone takesthat choice away from you,you feel like you’ve failed as a

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‘Doctors havesaid that

it’s a miraclehe’s here’

WITH THE BABY THEY THOUGHT THEY’D NEVER HAVE

DJ EMMA BAND HUSBAND DAMIAN WILSON

INTRODUCE WONDER BOY BILLY RAY

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‘This is what I wanted. WhatI never thought wouldhappen has happened’

For Emma and Damian, Billy Ray was the perfect present for their fifth wedding anniversary, which they celebrate next month. The Heart FM DJ says thatDamian is an “amazing” dad. “He’s the calm to my storm,” she reveals. “I’m a Sagittarius presenter, so I’m up and down. He’s level-headed and doesn’t gethassled by anything. I used to think he was out of my league when I met him, as he’s too handsome. He’s also very romantic and incredibly thoughtful”

woman. There were some big feel-ings of guilt – maybe it was my faultthat my body didn’t work.”

They then decided they had tofocus on the positives. “We spent sixmonths going, ‘Isn’t it fabulous thatit’s just the three of us?’ and we wenton lots of holidays. Then, themoment it seemed to become okay,Billy came along.”

Their second child was con-ceived naturally and “absolutelyout of the blue”, but they wereboth wary of getting excited toosoon. “People were saying, ‘It’samazing, you must be over themoon’ but I think I was terrified, tobe honest. Then it progressivelybecame more obvious that thingswere going to be okay.”

Emma gradually began to enjoythe pregnancy, and says that she wasmore relaxed than when she wasexpecting Edie. “With your firstchild, you lounge around onthe sofa neck-high in Dr MiriamStoppard books going, ‘It’s day 27,my baby is this big’, and, ‘I mustdrink carrot juice’. Then with thesecond one, you haven’t got time tosit and indulge in what’s happeningto you.”

BACK ON THE AIRWAVESEmma has re turned to workalready, presenting her Sundayafternoon show on Heart FM, butadmits that it took a while to getfunctioning again. “I look insidemy brain at the moment and all Ican see is beige,” she says. “When Iwent back to work, I was sittingthere looking at all these buttonsthinking, ‘This might as well be theStarship Enterprise…’”

Emma plans to return to her4pm-7pm Drivetime show afterChristmas, but for the time being,she’s enjoying these precious earlydays with Billy Ray. “I’m just having areally nice time with him,” she says.“I’ll be sitting looking at him going,‘Oh my God, aren’t you cute’, thenI’ll realise how many hours havepassed.”

“This is what I wanted,” she says,contentedly surrounded by herfamily. “What I never thoughtwould happen has happened.”

EMMA’S LUCKY DAYBilly Ray was born on 28/08/2008,weighing 8lb 1oz. “The Chinesewould say that he is extremely luckybecause eight is their lucky number,”smiles Emma.

She had wanted a natural delivery,but had to have an emergencyCaesarean. “I have no idea why any-one would want a Caesarean if therewas no reason to,” she says. “It feelslike you’ve been run over by a bus.”

They named their son afterDamian’s grandfather, Billy, and alsothe Billy Ray referred to in DustySpringfield’s Son of a Preacher man.

So how is Edie taking to her newbrother? “She’s been begging for abrother or sister for ages and she’sreally overwhelmed by how she

feels,” says Emma. “I think becauseshe’s a little bit older, she’s got akind of maternal instinct, which isterrifying sometimes because I’ll turnaround and she’ll be carrying himacross the kitchen.”

The couple had prepared her forthe new arrival by reading storiesabout babies, and also taking heralong to a scan. “She saw him onthe screen and the doctor said, ‘IsMummy having a boy or a girl?’ andshe said, ‘It looks like a puppy dog.’”

Are they strict parents? “I think weare,” says Emma. “We’ve got clearboundaries and hold values likegood manners high up on ourpriority list. But there’s nothing wedo that we haven’t got straight offSupernanny.”

INTERVIEW: DAWN EMERYPHOTOS: MIKE DAINES

STYLING: MARIE MCCAVERHAIR: DAVID WRIGHT AT CHANDLER WRIGHT

MAKE-UP: SALLY CAIRNS

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