Strictly stars Gemma Atkinson and Gorka Marquez named their baby daughter Mia to reflect her parents’ Anglo-Spanish heritage, the mum has revealed.
The radio presenter and Hollyoaks alumna phoned into Manchester’s Hits Radio – from where she is currently on maternity leave – to update her colleagues on how the new family of three are faring.
Mia was born on 4 July following a traumatic labour that led to an emergency C-section during which Atkinson suffered a haemorrhage and lost a huge amount of blood – a story she shared with her Instagram followers over the weekend.
Speaking to Fleur East, Greg and James on Hits Radio’s breakfast show on Tuesday, Atkinson said she was “sad” not to share a surname with her daughter and partner – and was being wound up by who baby Mia looks most like.
Until being registered, babies are given their mother’s surname, but when registered, Mia took Gorka’s surname, becoming Mia Louise Marquez.
“I’m the only one now who’s not a Marquez in the family,” said Atkinson. “I said to [Gorka]: ‘You do know now we need to get married otherwise I’m not part of the family’. He’s like: ‘Yeah we have time, it’s OK.’”
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Mia – whose name is Spanish for ‘mine’ but is also popular in the UK, giving them “the best of both worlds” – supposedly resembles dad more than mum.
Atkinson, while besotted, feels a little ripped off by some of the compliments people have paid her. “It’s crazy,” she said. “Everyone said to me, ‘You’ll not love anything more than this child,’ and I kept saying all along, if she’s allergic to dogs she’ll have to live with my mum. As soon as I saw her it just changed.”
Except for “one little niggle”, she added. “Everyone who comes to see us says ‘Oh my God, she’s beautiful, isn’t she like her dad?’ ... And I look at them and go ‘Yeah, even though I carried her for nine months! All this and she looks like him!’”
The couple, who met on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, have already had to shut down fake Instagram accounts set up in their daughter’s name.
Atkinson has spoken of how helpful she found it sharing the story of Mia’s traumatic birth – saying that hearing from women with similar stories underlines how these things aren’t anyone’s fault, and sometimes just happen.
“I’ve had loads of messages from women who’ve had similar things and you think: ‘Oh gosh I’m glad it’s not just me’,” she said.