'I'm on my own a lot': Roxy Horner on raising daughter as fiancé Jack Whitehall works abroad

Roxy Horner says she feels “happy” and “blessed” since becoming a mum, but finds it hard being apart from fiancé Jack Whitehall as his career continues to go from strength-to-strength.

The couple, who have been together since 2020, welcomed daughter Elsie in September 2023 and for model Horner, 32, it was like a dream come true.

“I love being a mum, I’ve always wanted to be a mum so I’m very happy and she’s happy,” she told the Standard.

“She’s great, she’s absolutely wonderful. You feel like you get into a little routine and you’ve nailed it then all of a sudden they change their routine and it’s difficult again, but it’s amazing.”

Horner is equally full of praise for her comedian and actor other half, who she says “took to fatherhood like a duck to water”.

“When we were in the hospital and I had to have a C Section he was changing nappies, he did all of that before I could do anything because I couldn’t even walk for the first few days!” she explained.

“So he was great but he has been away for work quite a bit since then which is definitely a struggle for me.

“It feels like I’m on my own quite a lot, but when he’s around he’s fabulous. We call him every day, we Facetime him every day. Thank god for technology, hey!”

While they don’t have a nanny like some celebrity couples, Horner is grateful to be able to get a helping hand from both hers and Jack’s mums.

“We don’t have a daytime nanny or anything so she just comes to work with me and I just bring my mum. It’s quite a juggle, but I’m loving it; loving the new life,” she said.

Jack’s mum comes over every week when she’s around, it’s lovely. So I’ve got the support of both of Elsie’s grandparents which is super important. I know a lot of people don’t have that help and it must be such a struggle so I feel very blessed.”

While her upcoming birthday on June 20 is going to have to be worked around Whitehall’s hectic schedule, there are worse places she could spend it.

“I’m going to Mykonos for my birthday, Elsie’s coming as well,” she says excitedly. “We’ll go and meet Jack over there as he’s currently working in Greece so it felt a good point to meet him.

“[Elsie’s] a very well travelled baby! She has been to quite a few places because her dad has to work abroad quite a bit and I can’t go too long without seeing him and I want him to be around Elsie, of course. She has been to LA, Amsterdam, Paros in Greece which is where Jack’s filming at the moment. It’s not easy, I will say that!”

Another thing Horner has to factor in to her daily life is she has type 1 diabetes, a condition that causes a person's blood sugar level to become too high.

She was diagnosed just before her 30th birthday and although it can be managed, there is currently no cure and requires huge lifestyle changes.

“I went from only thinking of myself and managing my diabetes to all of a sudden I’ve got a whole other human,” she said of the challenges of juggling the two.

“I have to just look after her so she always comes first which has taken a toll on my diabetes lately, I have been struggling a lot. It’s tough, it’s definitely tough.”

She uses a Dexcom glucose monitoring (CGM) device which she says “definitely helps me manage my day-to-day life with being a mum because it is a struggle.”

This week is diabetes awareness week and she has teamed with the manufacturer for their I Wish You Knew campaign, which looks to shine a light on peoples misconceptions around diabetes.

More than five million people in the UK are now living with diabetes and according to research by Dexcom, 76 per cent of people with diabetes feel misunderstood.

Discussing the impact getting her diagnosis has had, Horner said: “I didn’t know any of the symptoms of diabetes when I got diagnosed - I had no idea that that’s what I had. I had the typical symptoms of being really thirsty all of the time, absolute exhaustion, I just wasn’t myself and couldn’t do the normal things I could do.

“Some days I couldn’t get out of bed, it was affecting my mental health definitely. I was just really upset, thinking ‘why can’t I just get up like I normally can?’ As soon as I got my diagnosis that eased off a bit because I knew what it was, I could start to manage it better and just knowing that I could have that control back helped so much.

“I wish other people would know that diabetes is serious, but liveable.”