Hello I’m Sophie Ellis-Bextor and this is my podcast: Spinning Plates where I speak to busy working women, who also happen to be mothers, about how they make it work. I am a singer and have released 8 albums in-between having my 5 sons who are aged between 7 and 22 so I spin a few plates myself. Being a mother can be the most amazing thing.. but it can also be hard to find time for yourself and your own ambitions. I want to be a little bit nosy and see how other people balance everything. Join me while I speak to a host of interesting and inspirational women who’ve really made me think - and laugh, and sometimes cry. Welcome to Spinning Plates.
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Helen Dukes is an entrepreneur and DJ, and mum to 2 daughters, 11 year old Anya and 19 year old Lottie . She is the founder of Disko Kids, a clothes and accessories brand that I love for its roots in music, festivals, sparkles and fun. It also has at its heart a deep connection with charities such as Winston’s Wish. This child bereavement charity helped Helen navigate the death of her partner Ade when their daughter Lottie was just 3. Helen told me how she strove to create video memories of Ade ...
Anna Lunoe is an Australian DJ, singer, songwriter and producer. She lived and worked in LA for 8 years, performing at festivals such as Coachella. She’s now back in her hometown of Sydney, and has an 8 year old daughter and a 6 year old son and I caught up with her after she’d spent the night in Sydney Zoo for her son’s birthday. I loved her idea of 2 night reset away, alone, every few months, which she and her husband take turns in doing. Last year Anna released the song ‘Girl’, a collab with ...
Fran Cutler is famous for organising wild parties attended by A-listers. Things really took off in the 90s when she started organising parties for Oasis albums with Meg Matthews. She’s a self-confessed technophobe and she’s using this fallow Glastonbury year, to write a memoir which she promises will be both salacious and funny. She brought up her daughter Mercy on her own, after the father left 3 months into her pregnancy. She resolved at that moment to work twice as hard as anyone else to supp...
Jamie Genevieve is a Scottish make up artist and entrepreneur. I follow her on Instagram and am so impressed by the brand she’s launched. Some of her products have now become my make up staples. We talked last month about how she started out as a makeup counter girl, loving demonstrating makeup and selling it, moving onto YouTube herself and then launching her own brand Vieve. Jamie has a little girl called Romy who will be 3 in May, and she revealed to me mid podcast that she has a second baby ...
Nicole Appleton is a singer and a mum to Gene aged 24, and Skipper who is nearly 6. She first came into our lives in the 90s when she and her elder sister Natalie were members of the hugely successful band All Saints. Together, the Appleton sisters have just brought out a new single ‘Falling Into You’ and it’s gorgeous. Very much their classic, warm and optimistic selves. She and I talked about the joy of having children so far apart in age. Nicole said she feels she and her eldest, Gene, grew u...
Dawn Williams is a mum of three and an Olympic weightlifter. She is also a campaigner for exercising throughout cancer treatment to get the best possible chance of recovery. And this is all before we even touch on her full-time job in life sciences. Dawn and I met by chance on a train when I was travelling to a gig. We got talking and I knew I wanted to share her amazing story with you. In the podcast we talk about the way Dawn faced her breast cancer diagnosis, not long after becoming a single ...
Kelly Rutherford is an American actress probably best known for her starring role in 7 series of Gossip Girl (2007-2012). Kelly's instagram is the most intentional and curated grid I have ever seen, with beautiful quotes interspersed with stylish selfies, many of which are taken in an elevator. It’s very beautiful and peaceful. Kelly has a son Hermes aged 19 and a daughter Helena aged 16, who were subject to a custody battle which their father won. This meant that they have grown up mostly in Mo...
Dr Eliza Filby is a writer, a generational historian and mum to two children aged 8 and 5. I loved her book ‘Inheritocracy. It’s time to Talk about the Bank of Mum and Dad’ which came out in paperback last year which contains some fascinating stuff about money and the generations of today. We talked about how children often rely on a financial springboard from their parents these days, and how that dependency can make the relationship rarther complicated going forward. We acknowledged that the l...
Monisha Rajesh is a travel writer who focuses on train travel adventures. She wrote her first book ‘Around India in 80 Trains’ after being made redundant, and she wrote ‘Around the World in 80 Trains’ just after her first daughter was born. My favourite of all though is Moonlight Express, her most recent book which is all about her experiences on night trains. Monisha is a lovely writer, and I love so many of the pictures she paints of her journeys. One particular favourite is when she is travel...
Welcome to a new series of Spinning Plates! My podcast where I speak to working women who happen to be mothers. We are up to episode 171 now, and fast approaching 6 years since I started the podcast with Fearne Cotton in 2020. My first guest of the new series is Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer. She has made history as the first woman in 800 years to hold that title. I spoke to her in December, just after the budget, and she explained the long process that leads up to a budget, and the...
Amanda Ross is a highly influential TV producer who has brought us the likes of Saturday Kitchen which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year, the Richard and Judy show which ran for 9 years, and the book show, Between the Covers , which she is now touring live and presenting herself. Amanda and her husband and business partner Simon Ross, own and run Cactus TV. Amanda told me that running their own TV company means that they can organise their lives around bringing up their two adopted sons,...
Dame Jacinda Ardern is the former prime minister of New Zealand, who was elected in 2017 and in post for 6 years. In 2018 she became the second elected World leader to ever give birth. Her partner Clarke (often referred to as 'first bloke'!) frequently took on the role of stay-at-home dad. Together they took baby Neve with them to many important meetings, including the UN summit in New York in 2018, while she was still breastfeeding. Jacinda told me she felt she needed to prove she could lead th...
Fiona Bell is the founder of Their Nibs clothing brand which specialises in night wear. I first came across Fiona’s shop when pushing my eldest son around Ladbroke Grove in his buggy in the mid naughties. And I still think she makes the loveliest pyjamas in the land! Fiona has a 25 year old son Finn and an adoptive daughter Maggie who is 11. We talked about the close link Fiona still keeps with the adoption agency Coram, which made her and her husband Charlie’s adoption of Maggie possible. It ha...
Lavina Mehta MBE is a health campaigner, a personal trainer, and an author. She came to my notice during Covid when she started doing weekly exercises on YouTube with her mother-in-law. She’s just published her book The Feel Good Fix which is designed to improve your health during menopause, and presents her idea of exercise snacking - incorporating short bursts of activity into your normal day rather than maybe going to the gym for an hour. We talked about her religion of Jainism which is about...
Lara Maiklem is an author and a mudlark. She told me there’s nothing she likes more than kneeling on the banks of the River Thames for 5-6 hours at a time, scanning the mud for tiny treasures which are twice daily being given up by the tide! Lara shares her fascinating finds on Instagram, where I've been following her for a while. Her favourite finds include a Tudor shoe, part of a Roman sword and some tiny gold beads from a necklace which she thinks must have broken as someone was boarding a bo...
Julia Samuel is a psychotherapist and an author, who is best known as a grief counsellor. She was one of the founders of Child Bereavement UK which has just had its 30th anniversary. She has an agony aunt column for Times Luxury, she has a podcast, and she sees about 15 clients a week, describing that as ‘the heart of me’. She has 4 grown up children and 10 grandchildren aged 18 months to 18 years. When I met with Julia, we talked about the guilt she felt as a mum to young children, when she fel...
Janette Manrara is a dancer and choreographer who we first got to know as one of the professional dancers in the UK on Strictly Come Dancing, and who now presents its sister show ‘It Takes Two’. Janette is married to fellow dancer Aljaz Skorjanec and together they have a 2 year old Lyra. Janette and I talked about her start in life as daughter of a young Cuban immigrant couple in Miami, and about her first job in a bank before she took a risk to pursue her dreams as a dancer. Janette told me tha...
Anya Lautenbach is a gardener who I discovered on Instagram as anya_thegarden_fairy. From Poland originally, Anya moved to to the UK 17 years ago and has two boys aged 12 and 14. We talked about the grief which Anya has experienced because of her sister having two sons with a rare genetic condition which turned out to be terminal. Anya explained how every time she had bad news from home, she turned that into another garden border and has ended up creating a beautiful garden out of her ocean of g...
Jo-Ann D’Costa-Manuel is a charity pioneer. She received an OBE for her years of voluntary work raising the profile of hidden disabilities. She persuaded airlines to recognise green lanyards with sunflowers, as a symbol of a family member flying with a hidden disability. She was also behind the ‘quiet hour’ in supermarkets to help children like her own son, who is autistic, and needs a quiet environment to be able to do a food shop. Jo-Ann now works for philanthropist John Caudwell to help raise...
Francesca Amber is a successful entrepreneur, podcaster and author who turned her life around using manifesting after everything went wrong for her in 2020. She has 3 daughters. Her eldest is 8 years old, and she has 4 year old twins who are starting school this September. In lockdown she lost her beauty business and her income and then had her twins as a single mother. She says she had a savage 5 years. But now her new book 'Manifesting Like a Mother' is published the day her twins start school...
Sophie Ellis-Bextor hosts Genevieve Turley, a makeup artist and former RAF nurse, who openly discusses the highs and lows of her career pivots, including a difficult military experience and a challenging but ultimately successful IVF journey. She shares insights into balancing new motherhood with entrepreneurship, the emotional impact of a long-term home renovation, and how her empathetic approach to makeup artistry helps women embrace their unique beauty with confidence and a sense of playfulness. Genevieve emphasizes that makeup should be a source of joy, not strict rules, and reflects on the strength gained from overcoming adversity.
Ro Fielden-Cook discusses her journey of profound resilience, starting with the loss of her father and her experience as a young single mother to twins, one of whom was diagnosed with a life-limiting condition. She describes the emotional and physical battles she faced, including fighting for her son's health and overcoming personal shame. Ro also shares how these challenges inspired her to create The She Collective, a supportive wellbeing community that empowers women to prioritize themselves and find joy through movement and connection, embodying her father's motto, "Onwards and upwards."
Ranvir Singh is a TV news presenter on Good Morning Britain, who I met on the set of ‘Lorraine’ about a year ago - and I’ve been wanting to talk to her in more depth ever since. Ranvir is a single parent to her 13 year old son Tushaan. She grew up in a very religious Sikh household, having lost her Dad when she was only 9. She was the first girl in her family to go to University, and despite pressure to get married as soon as she left Uni, her laser beam focus on her career path remained. Ranvir...
Laura Hamilton is a TV presenter best known for presenting A Place in the Sun. She’s been renovating properties since the age of 19 and has just taken on her first overseas project in Majorca, which she’s filming, to create a guide to buying and renovating abroad. Laura has two children, 11 year old Rocco and 10 year old Tahlia, who she co parents 50/50 with her ex. Laura went back to work 3 weeks after having each of her children. She explained that was because she was scared someone else would...
Cathy Dennis is a singer and a songwriter. I have been a huge fan of hers for years both through her solo music career and I’ve been lucky enough to write with her and get to know over the years. She is a true talent and a champion for music and creativity. She had a successful solo career in the early 90s, and then changed to songwriting in the 2000s, including writing Kylie’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’, Britney’s ‘Toxic’ and Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed a Girl’. Cathy told me how she was bullied...
Jill Halfpenny has been an actor since the age of 10, first coming to our screens in Byker Grove in 1989, and most recently appearing in the Channel 5 drama The Feud. She has also appeared in Coronation Street, Eastenders, numerous TV dramas, on the West End stage and in Strictly Come Dancing. We shared our thoughts on dealing with downtime as performers, which has its challenges even in a busy career. Jill has a son Harvey who is nearly 17, and they clearly have a close relationship, based on h...
Rachel Kelly is a writer of many books about mental health and wellbeing and has recently published ‘The Gift of Teenagers: Connect More, Worry Less’. She is a mum of five grown up children. Rachel and I talked about the teenage brain and how it’s wired for novelty, connection with peers, and altruism. We discussed how we could be more sympathetic to what teenagers are going through. She also had some timely tips on exam stress, which we could definitely do with in our house at the moment. Rache...
Salima Saxton is a writer, an actor and a coach, and she co-presents the podcast ‘Women are Mad’. She has 3 children aged 9, 12 and 15 and she recently caught my attention with her amazing Moth story about a Valentine’s Day announcement by her husband which changed her life. It’s 5 minutes of supreme story telling; you must listen! Salima and I talked about how she grew up with an alcoholic Dad and was always trying to be a ‘good girl’. Now she embraces a messy, crazy family life and says it’s v...
Karni Arieli is a photographer. Her lockdown project Eye Mama @eyemamaproject asked photographer mums all over the world to share honest pictures of their own experiences of motherhood. She has just had it published as a book. She also makes short films, commercials and music videos and has recently had a BAFTA nomination for a film about the life of a salmon, played by a woman and narrated by Marianne Faithfull. Karni and I talked about how showing our children our weakensses is important and s...
Olympic athlete and TV commentator Paula Radcliffe lives in Monaco with her husband Gary, and her two children Isla and Raphael. Paula is a 3 time winner of the London Marathon and held the Women's World Marathon Record for 16 years (2003-2019). I spoke to her just after she competed in the Tokyo Marathon aged 51, her first marathon since retiring aged 40. Paula recently co-hosted a lighthearted training podcast Paula's Marathon Run Club for the 16 weeks leading up to the London Marathon. She ha...
