Apprentice’s Jess Cunningham gives birth to fifth child and reveals his old-fashion name

Jess Cunningham has shared her newborn son’s existence – and his adorable name – for the first time.

The Apprentice star now has five children after secretly giving birth two weeks ago, and says she’s struggling with the mum-guilt of not being able to give all her kids equal quality time with her.

Speaking for the first time about her baby son – who she’s named Dudley – the businesswoman shared how her older children are obsessed with him.

“The kids love Dudley and every five minutes I have one of them asking me if they can hold him,” she told the Hot Mess Mums Club podcast this week.

“It’s brilliant but it drives me absolutely insane, I just have to beg them to let him sleep. Because we are so used to sharing each others time, I haven’t really noticed a massive difference, they just love having a new baby.”

Jessica started dating Alex Daw four years ago and the pair had their first child, Digby, together in 2018.

Before that, Jess was with her ex Alistair Eccles – the father of her three eldest daughters Poppy, Hattie and Olive – who sadly took his own life in 2017 after their split in 2014.

An inquest found he had a history of anxiety and depression but had given no indication he was planning his suicide.

Jess and Alex found love together and went on to have son Digby.

Speaking of what it’s like wrangling five kids, Jessica went on: “The age transitions haven’t been too bad, three to four I found really difficult, and around that time I wanted to have another baby, then I started thinking ‘I don’t know if I can do this!’

“Yeah, around those ages really got me, and then Alex really wanted to have another baby and I just didn’t think I had it in me – and then literally within the first or second ‘shot’ I was pregnant.”

The reality star chose a homebirth for little Dudley and even managed to “dance him out” using a visualisation technique.

“With my first birth, with Poppy, it was absolutely horrific, I was screaming, but with Olive and Hattie, my sister was my birthing partner and my sister is really fun, so she made sure I was laughing, gave me a little massage, and with every birth you kind of tweak it and make it better,” she explained.

“Then with Digby I had started stepping into spirituality, learning more about energy, how our bodies work, and then something intuitively made me want to dance like a tribal woman, so I started dancing round and welcoming the pain, and then I visualised this wave pushing him out. So I remembered that and then with this one I danced the baby out and welcomed the pain and the contractions.”

Congratulations to Jessica and Alex!