The Big Questions: Myleene Klass on I’m A Celebrity, new music, and whether she’d let her daughters go on reality TV-Louise Griffin-Entertainment – Metro

Welcome to Metro.co.uk‘s The Big Questions, where we ask, well, the big questions (and the smaller ones too) and this week, we’re diving deep with Myleene Klass.

Popstar, musician, presenter, model, and mum Myleene has just about done it all, rocketing into our lives with Hear’Say, and becoming one of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here’s most iconic stars.

Of course, she’s also an incredible solo musician and has now gone back to her classical roots with her new album, My Lullabies: Motown.

It’s a particularly special release for her, as it sees her recording with her children, Ava, 14, and Hero, 11, who are both talented musicians in their own right, for the very first time.

Myleene, who also has son Apollo, chatted to Metro.co.uk about everything from being a bit of a supermum and whether she’d ever return to I’m A Celebrity to what music has meant to her all these years.

How did the My Lullabies: Motown album come about?

Already the girls and I were doing Mylene’s Music Klass, which were online lessons that were just being fed into schools. We just did it because online [learning] was full-on and we just thought we could do our bit, and then we turned out being added to the curriculum and I remember that going viral!

I just thought, well because mum and baby groups are no longer here [during lockdown], I’ll do lullaby sessions. And the idea was my girls would hold the iPad and go through requests from people who were watching on the live, and I would just sit at the piano and play pieces in a lullaby style.

The one that absolutely just caught on was motown lullabies. As we came out of lockdown, it was just a really nice idea, everyone loved it so much, I thought why don’t we officialise it and put it together as an album? So we went into the studio, recorded the piano, did the arrangement, and I thought, actually, my girls have been such a huge part of this, it would be really nice to have them record as well.

Ava brought her cello and she was on keys as well, and Hero brought her cornet and she was also on keys…they’re such incredible musicians, I loved every single second.

Myleene’s released her new album My Lullabies: Motown (Picture: Stanley Park Music)

Your track What Becomes of the Broken Hearted is dedicated to the ‘angel baby mummies’. Why was that important?

Over the past four years before I had my son, I kept losing babies. It was a hugely traumatic time in my life but at the same time, you don’t want them to be forgotten.

I suppose you don’t want them to be forgotten because [talking about them] is your only connection to them. You don’t have anything tangible, you can’t actually see that.

You can still remember them and I think to dedicate a song to everyone who has their babies in their hearts and not in their arms, I think it’s a lovely sentiment to have, so you can listen to it and remember.

I did cry when I was recording it because it meant so much but at the same time I think it is just a lovely message to the mums that I see you and the brothers and sisters that were expecting as well, the families, and for the babies that didn’t make it.

Do you have any worries about your daughters following in your footsteps?

I think anybody who is in the public eye is going to have natural concerns because they know how salacious it can be and at the same time, you know how high the highs can be. If you’re not balanced, if you don’t have a hold on it, it can be a lot to deal with for anybody.

But they’ve got me, I’m a huge support system to them. I’m also very, very careful of what we put across in our everyday lives. And I think the fact that you know so much about their talent but not so much about them on the whole yet, they’re still growing as people and figuring out who they want to be. I want to give them the space to do that.

I just think let their talent do the talking. And I think that’s the safest and most powerful message anyway, I think it’s hugely inspiring. If people wish to judge, the girls have a huge sense of humour around it. I’ve taught them how to just look at things and just laugh at them – because I laugh at them!

Myleene has recorded with her kids for the first time (Picture: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock)

As well as being an incredible musician, you’re known for your iconic appearance on I’m A Celebrity! How do you look back on that time in your life?

I think it was one of the best times of my life. It was definitely a different time in my life, I didn’t have my children then, and I didn’t have anything that I have now! There was no business empire, there were no books, there was no TV, there was just me. Me in the jungle with a white bikini! It was a very liberating feeling.

My god, what was it? 16 years ago! It was just a really fun time in my life. I was definitely a different person back then but at the same time, what a wonderful thing to experience.

If the rumours about an all-star series are true, would you go back?

Put it this way, I haven’t packed away my white bikini quite yet. It hasn’t gone up into the loft yet!

I think the show itself is just incredible. I know people think of it in different ways but for me, I think it’s in the face of adversity, it’s the way people get to know what they’re made of, test their mettle, and just face their fear.

She says now! I’ve totally blanked out everything that was horrific. I forget that they locked me in a coffin!

Myleene said she hasn’t packed away her bikini just yet (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Amanda Holden recently said she’s banning her daughter from ever going on Love Island. How would you feel about your kids being on reality TV in the future?

I’m not banning my children from anything because I want my children to make their own minds up. I’ve done my life, I’ve lived my life, and I just have to hope that I’ve given them enough of a skillset and decision-making process to be able to figure out who they want to be, what kind of people they want to be, and where they want to go.

I just let them make their own decisions and hopefully they’ll make the ones that are right for them. When I went into the jungle, everyone told me I shouldn’t do it and I did it anyway because I thought it was right for me. I like to think my children know the type of people they want to be and how they want to portray themselves, and what their boundaries are. You’ve got to set your own boundaries.

You have some amazing parenting methods, including asking for invoices from your daughters for their pocket money. Why’s that?

What some people think is quirky is actually real life. It’s not real life to go up to somebody and say, ‘Can I have some money for doing the hoovering?’ But doing a job and saying, ‘I’ll invoice you for it,’ that’s real life.

But the fact that it crosses over into what people think is the adult world, people think, ‘That’s unusual.’ People don’t bat an eyelid when you do a fire drill at school or in the workplace, but as soon as I say, let’s do fire drills in the house, everyone’s like, ‘That’s weird.’

‘It just makes me think, it’s a bit Dead Poet’s Society, standing on the tables, ‘O Captain, my Captain!’ Why don’t we stand and look at life from a different perspective? Why are we following blindly? Why aren’t we teaching things our children actually need? I wrote a whole book on it and it became a Sunday Times bestseller, it’s called They Don’t Teach This At School – and I’m like, there’s a reason people are buying this, it’s because they don’t teach this at school.

‘Nobody taught us CPR or how to deal with basic finance. And I’m questioning that. Why aren’t we teaching this?’

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