Kimberley Walsh: ‘People just assume I didn’t want 2 boys – it annoys me’

“It does annoy me, because if you’ve got 2 boys, people just assume you didn’t want 2 boys. That you’d want a girl.

“But I wanted a boy, and then I wanted another boy, because I wanted them to be close together. I’ve always wanted boys for some reason.

“And it does annoy me a little bit, because they are full-on but they’re also full of character and hilarious most of the time, and they give the best cuddles in the world, as boys do, and mine are the best.

“All they ever get is cuddles from me, and you don’t always get that from girls, do you?

“I actually think on that level, I would never look at somebody else’s situation and make a judgement. Why would you?

“My sister’s got 3 boys and people do it to her all the time, and she doesn’t really have those boisterous boys so she’s like, ‘Well no, they’re fine’!

“Mine are [boisterous], mine are nutters,” Kimberley laughs. “But I find it entertaining.”

'Shopping for boys? Boring!'

Kimberley recently launched her own range of kids’ clothes, Kimba Kids, purely because of her 2 boys: 3.5-year-old Bobby and 19-month-old Cole.

“I just found [shopping for boys] really boring,” she tells MadeForMums, rather candidly.

“I wanted more colour, cos Bobby suits colour. More fun prints and stuff – I did find it quite restrictive and obviously that’s because the market just go for what they think the consumer wants.

“A little bit boring: blue, nautical, stripes, dinosaurs. So I was like, ‘Surely we can come up with something a bit cooler?’ And that’s where it started.”

The range isn’t just bright and colourful for boys, though – there’s also plenty for girls, and many of the pieces could be gender neutral.

Unisex options were something she thought about, she tells us. “Whatever your child leans towards,” she adds. “If they want to put it on, they’ll put it on!”

Bobby and Cole, though, it seems, are very much into what you might traditionally call ‘boys' stuff’.

“To be honest, they are all about Spider-Man, Transformers, Storm Troopers – that’s just the way they are. Believe me, I’ve tried to get them to watch Tangled and The Little Mermaid.

“They’re not so much like that [with toys], they’re not like, ‘Oh no I won’t play with that it’s a girls' toy’ - they’ll have pushchairs and babies if they’re playing with girls, but I think at the moment Bobby in particular leans towards things that he watches on TV.

“Cole just copies Bobby. It is cute, he just copies whatever he does, bless him.”

Copycat Cole vs Big Bro Bobby

“It’s hard, the phase that we’re in at the moment,” she continues. “As Cole’s trying to keep up with Bobby, Bobby thinks he’s sort of fair game now because he’s walking and communicating with him, so he’ll just challenge him a bit too much.

“It’s obviously Cole who always ends up getting hurt. And then you can see Bobby feels bad.

“[I] end up shouting at the older one, because Cole’s only a baby, but part of me can see how it is hard for Bobby too, because [Cole’s] constantly trying to take his stuff. He’s not gonna give it up every time, is he?

“Bobby would never actively try to hurt him or go for him, but Cole does go for him though. He’s in that biting phase, it’s awful, but he doesn’t bite anyone else but Bobby."

“It winds him up more than anything else. I just see it and I’m like, ‘Is this the future? Me like pulling them apart’ but they either love each other or they clash.”

Kimberly does admit to ‘pretend telling off’ Cole, for Bobby’s benefit, to try and – shall we say – keep the peace.

“If he hurts Bobby, I don’t want Bobby to think, ‘Well, I get told off for everything I do and that Cole bites me or smacks me and gets nothing’.

“Cole is so in tune now with everything, although he’s not really speaking, he is understanding everything, so I can say 'Go on the step' and he’ll sit there.

"He doesn’t really stay on for more than 2 seconds – but Bobby can see he’s getting the step as well. I’m trying to keep them both happy. It is hard.

“But most of the time Bobby’s fiercely protective over him and looks after him – most of the time.”

Kimberley’s internal Horrid Henry debate

Since they’re naturally rough-and-tumble, Bobby and Cole need no ideas for how to get up to trouble!

Whether that be TV, Youtube, movies… though there is one show that complicates things for Kimberley. Quite a lot.

“I heard a mum friend of mine saying she’d absolutely banned Horrid Henry,” adds Kimberley, “but this is a tricky one for me because I’m actually in Horrid Henry: The Movie, and Bobby loves it because I’m in it.

“I’ve been very much like, ‘he’s horrid’, explaining the word ‘horrid’ and making clear he’s a naughty boy, so [Bobby] likes it but goes ‘but Henry’s horrid, he’s really naughty’. I’ve tried to teach him that’s not how you behave.

“I can see why mums think it’s giving them ideas! Mine don’t need any more ideas on how to be mischievous, they do it all by themselves."

“I do care about what they watch, though, for example if he’s watching Power Rangers or something with his older cousin, you can see them get in that fighting zone…

"It is normal for boys to get into play fighting and all that, but sometimes you’re waiting for them to go that step too far and hurt somebody, like ‘Calm down, calm down, chill out’...

"It’s full on [looking after the boys] but the weather helps, I can get the sprinkler on in the garden and they’re happy for about 10 mins."

Baby no 3: are the rumours true?

Recently, Kimberley confessed she's thinking about (planning?) baby no 3 - and yep, you guessed it, it's definitely on her mind, but she's not hankering after a girl.

She'd be overjoyed with a hat trick of little lads, it seems - though she does share (unprompted) that she'd be curious to meet a daughter.

“I see my sister with her 3 boys and see how different they all are, they’re like a proper crew…" she shares. "But obviously I’d love to see what a girl would be like.

“Because I sort of think, ‘Oh, I’ve made these 2 boys, what would a girl be like?’

“I don’t have that precious side to it, though. I’m not gonna have a baby because I’m trying for a girl, if that makes sense.

“I would want another baby regardless of the sex, I really would.”

As our chat comes to an end, Kimberley’s attention turns from the 'what ifs' to a newly-sent video from husband Justin.

It's of Bobby and Cole playing happily (and a little noisily) together at home, creating mayhem.

“It’s pure chaos,” she laughs, showing MFM the (seriously cute) vid. “So what I’m gonna go home to, I don’t know…

"I do miss them..." she adds, smiling. "Even when I’m only away for a day."

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Kimberley Walsh's kids range Kimba Kids is available now from Next Online

Images: Instagram/Kimberley Walsh

Read more:

• Why Kimberley and best pal Cheryl mirror parenting styles
• Kimberley opens up about her struggle to breastfeed
• How Kimberley knew she was pregnant - WITHOUT a test