SINGER AND LEADING LADY ALEXANDRA BURKE ON BALANCING LIFE AND WORK NOW SHE AND FOOTBALLER DARREN ARE PROUD PARENTS OF TWO

Alexandra Burke is on top of the world. The Bad Boy singer and West End actress, 35, recently welcomed her second child with her footballer boyfriend Darren Randolph and is very much in a love bubble.

- KATIE DALY

“I’ve always wanted to be a mum so I’m still pinching myself every day,” the singer tells HELLO! of the euphoric feeling.

After winning The X Factor in 2008, Alexandra topped the charts with her first single – a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. From there, not only has she had her moment in the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom – she reached the final in 2017 with dance partner Gorka Márquez – but she has become an accomplished West End leading lady, making her debut in 2014 as Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard. She also topped the bill as Deloris Van Cartier in the stage musical Sister Act, a role she looks forward to reprising next year.

All that, plus the lead role in highly regarded British film Pretty Red Dress and a Buckingham Palace reception last year for the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition, in her role as a Royal Commonwealth Society ambassador.