THE SECOND THEY SHOWED HER TO ME WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE'

CHLOE MADELEY AND JAMES HASKELL INTRODUCE THEIR NEW DAUGHTER BODHI AND DESCRIBE THE PERKS OF LIVING WITH RICHARD AND JUDY

- NICOLA FAHEY

We are welcomed to the Madeley family home on London’s Hampstead Heath by the cry of a hungry newborn. Fitness buff Chloe is fresh out of the shower as we arrive and, apart from the remnants of a small baby bump, you wouldn’t guess she had given birth to Bodhi Rae Georgia Haskell by emergency C-section only six days ago.

Her shirtless husband, rugby star-turned-DJ James Haskell, is holding their daughter in his burly arms and feeding her expressed milk from a tiny bottle.

If the couple are exhausted, it doesn’t show. And perhaps that’s because their baby joy has not come easy, with fears this moment would never happen after two years of trying to conceive.

“I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my whole life,” says 35-year-old Chloe, looking into Bodhi’s blue eyes. “I don’t feel like I’m swimming through a sea of exhaustion yet, although I hear that hits in week two. I just feel like we’ve hit the jackpot. As soon as I saw her, she just looked like this beautiful, healthy baby girl and that’s all I cared about. I get a bit emotional.”

“I’m besotted,” says James, 37. “I cried like a baby when she came out. Obviously, I love my wife very much but I didn’t know love like this. I want to protect her at all costs and make sure she’s OK, and make sure Chloe’s OK too. Chloe’s been through a pretty traumatic thing – you know, getting her body cut open – but she’s taken to it like an absolute pro.”