CHILD'S PLAY

Comedienne Katherine Ryan, pregnant with her fourth child, invites us into her London home and explains why she hopes this baby is her last

- LAURA BENJAMIN

Inside the comedienne Katherine Ryan’s house, all is calm.

The spacious north London home is warm and welcoming, its modern open-plan living space dotted with the belongings of her three children.

While Katherine’s husband, Bobby Kootstra, 42, welcomes the HELLO! team with coffee and bagels and her eldest daughter, Violet, 16, chats to a friend, the woman herself is an island of calm amid a sea of activity.

“I’m always sane,” the TV star tells us during this exclusive photoshoot and interview. “I know that ‘nothing matters very much, and very little matters at all’.”

That calm demeanour will come in handy when this family of five expands to six. Katherine, 42, is pregnant with her fourth child and cannot wait to welcome another baby to her brood, despite having to cope with this summer's heatwaves.

“I am well into my second trimester now, so it will be a fat girl summer for me. The entire hot summer, I will be large and in charge,” she quips. “It’s going to get ugly, but that’s fine.”

The new baby will join siblings Fenna, two, Fred, three, and Violet, meaning the star will have three children under four, with a large age gap between them and her eldest.

Even that thought doesn’t phase her. “The babies understand that Violet is their sister and they love her. They wrestle and fight like siblings do, and they wind each other up, so I haven't noticed the age gap being a problem,” she says.

“One thing that’s good about being elderly is that I don’t care as much - I don’t take it personally. I'm quite calm when they're kicking off.

“Bobby’s mother had four children by the time she was 21 and she told me: ‘You prioritise, and that’s it. Whoever needs you the most based on their needs at that time you deal with, and you let the other ones learn patience.’ ”