ONE of Loose Women’s favourite panellists has sparked rumours that she is set to leave the show for good so she can be a full-time mum.
Stacey Solomon, 34, made the confession during a heartfelt chat about how she manages to juggle her hectic workload with her five children.
The busy mum, who also presents two primetime home renovation programmes, admitted that she wants to quit TV forever.
Stacey has decided she would rather be a stay-at-home parent so she can be on-hand for her youngest children; Rex, five, Rose, two, and 15-month-old Belle.
Stacey told beauty entrepreneur Caroline Hirons in her Glad We Had This Chat podcast: “Every year I have a team meeting with my agent and everyone on the team to say, ‘What’s your plan? What’s your goal?’
“And this year when they asked me my five-year goal, I was like, I want to be a stay-at-home mum. That is my dream, it’s my ultimate dream.
“I just want to be with my kids.”
Stacey said she has made the decision to step back from work following the realisation that her eldest son Zachary, 16, is poised to become a grown-up.
Her second eldest, Leighton, is already 12 and in senior school.
Stacey admitted to Caroline that she feels she’s ‘missed out’ on her eldest sons’ childhoods.
“I definitely feel like I’m at a pivotal moment in my life where Zachary is about to leave school and become an adult,” Stacey said.
“I think I’m at a point in my life where I recognise that I’ve been really busy for his life. And his life is at a really important point.
“My second son will get to that point before I know it. And then I’ve got these three babies.
“I don’t want to feel like I missed what I potentially missed with my older children and I want to be there for my older children, who I think need me now more than ever. I’ve been battling that in my head.”
Stacey first joined the Loose Women panel in 2016 and she became a firm favourite among viewers.
But since then, she has welcomed her youngest three children with husband Joe Swash and her workload has increased tenfold.
Among her ventures, Stacey has clothing line with high street giant Primark and she hosts Sort Your Life Out on the BBC, and Renovation Rescue on Channel 4.
As a result, she has not appeared on Loose Women as a regular panelist for 18 months, aside from several guest slots.
Only this month, Stacey’s co-star Linda Robson said Stacey was “too busy” to return to the show full-time.
“I would love her to come back, she’s a really good Loose Woman – she’s really honest. But I think she’s got too much on,” Linda told The Sun.
Stacey admitted to Caroline that she may one day regret stepping back from work, as she also believes it is important for her kids to see her achieving her own dreams.
She said: “It’s conflicting because I want to fulfil my dreams and my goals and the things I’m passionate about. If I don’t have that, will I feel unfulfilled?
“What I’m trying to do at this point, is make sure everything I work on I can work on 90 per cent of the time at home. And then just do passion projects outside of the house and try and be around for them more.”
Stacey added: “I just love it. I love being a mum.”
