Rebecca Wilcox and Esther Rantzen

Rebecca Wilcox and Esther Rantzen

Esther Rantzen is not often at a loss for words, but when the TV presenter’s daughter Rebecca Wilcox gave birth to her son Benjamin, it completely overwhelmed her.
“I walked out to tell Rebecca’s brother and sister, and I was literally grinning from ear to ear,” recalls Esther, who was in the delivery suite with Rebecca and Rebecca’s husband, Jim Moss. “They just looked at me, and I couldn’t speak. I was just smiling. It was a very, very nice moment. I will never forget that.”
No-nonsense Esther is known for her hands-on approach to life, and the birth of her first grandchild was no exception, with the proud new grandmother stepping in to cut the umbilical cord.
“She was supposed to stay at the head end,” laughs Rebecca. “I was like, ‘Nooo!’ But, you know, she’s never one to take orders. They asked Jim, but he was happy for Mum to do it.”
Rebecca had endured a 38-hour labour before giving birth to her 9lb 8oz boy at University College Hospital in London, whose staff, she says, were “wonderful”. The new mum was the first to hold her precious baby.
“There was this unbelievable sense of relief,” she recalls. “When I walked down the aisle it was a massive moment that I thought could never be topped. Then suddenly someone is handing you your baby. I was in floods of tears.
“I’d been really worried because the last few hours of labour had been really difficult. But he was just perfect – and huge.”
“When he was born, the doctor said, ‘My goodness, that’s a big baby,’” adds Esther. “She said, ‘Do you want to have a look?’ So I rushed round.”
Esther had been so keen to be at the birth that when it was thought that Rebecca was going into early labour – a false alarm as it turned out – she missed an important appointment in order to be with her daughter.
“I was being awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Middlesex,” she explains. “I was in my cap and gown when I rang Becca and couldn’t get through to her, so I rang Jim, and he said she was on her way to the hospital because they were concerned about the baby.
“I tore off my cap, tore off my gown, and didn’t get my doctorate.”
ANAMETOLIVEUPTO
The full name of her blue-eyed, brown- haired grandson is Benjamin Beowulf Desmond Moss. Rebecca and Jim took a couple of days to decide on their son’s first name, but there was “never any question” that he would have “When he was born, the doctor said, ‘My goodness, that’s a big baby,’” adds Esther. “She said, ‘Do you want to have a look?’ So I rushed round.”
Esther had been so keen to be at the birth that when it was thought that Rebecca was going into early labour – a false alarm as it turned out – she missed an important appointment in order to be with her daughter.
“I was being awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Middlesex,” she explains. “I was in my cap and gown when I rang Becca and couldn’t get through to her, so I rang Jim, and he said she was on her way to the hospital because they were concerned about the baby.
“I tore off my cap, tore off my gown, and didn’t get my doctorate.”
ANAMETOLIVEUPTO
The full name of her blue-eyed, brown- haired grandson is Benjamin Beowulf Desmond Moss. Rebecca and Jim took a couple of days to decide on their son’s first name, but there was “never any question” that he would have
Desmond as a middle name, a tribute to Rebecca’s late father, an award-winning producer and documentary-maker.
Benjamin’s other name, Beowulf, is in honour of the Anglo-Saxon poem that Rebecca studied at Oxford University, where she met Jim 12 years ago.
“Jim wanted it as a first name, but I thought it was a bit too out there,” says Rebecca, who has followed in her mother’s footsteps to become a TV presenter. “We thought Benjamin Beowulf sounded quite cool, and we can shorten it to Benji Bear, which is sweet.”
Her father, who died in 2000, when Rebecca was still at university, would have been smitten with his namesake.
“He would have been buying bottles of champagne, telling the world,” says Esther, smiling at the thought. “He would have been absolutely thrilled to bits by Benjamin. Dessie loved his children as babies and would have adored his grandson.”
“It’s our family tragedy that he’s not here, because he would just love this,” adds Rebecca.
The 31-year-old would like her son to have a childhood as idyllic as her own, which saw her, her sister Emily and her brother Josh dividing their time between their home in Hampstead and their cottage on Bloodoaks Farm in the New Forest, where Rebecca married in 2009 and where Desmond’s ashes are scattered.
“I had the most privileged childhood,” says Rebecca, adding jokingly: “My brother, sister and I say that one of the most difficult things we’ve ever had to get over is that our childhood was perfection and we will never have that amazingness again.”
Esther wants their beloved cottage in the New Forest to provide “as much of a paradise for the next generation as it was for my children”.
Says Rebecca: “When we found out we were having a boy, Mum rang up and said, ‘I’ve sorted it out. The little field is going to be mowed and turned into an adventure playground.’ I think I was only three months pregnant then.”
Esther admits that while she was “absolutely thrilled” when Rebecca phoned to share her pregnancy news, she was “anxious” too.
“Having worked on programmes which have involved all sorts of tragedies, I know what can happen,” she explains. “So I’ve found it exhilarating and thrilling, while also being very, very worried about the kids and Benjamin.”
Esther was so superstitious that she didn’t buy too many presents before the birth, although she has made up for it since by buying a set of books – including her own childhood favourite, Biggles – as well as a T-shirt that says “Mummy won’t, Daddy might, Grandma will.”
TRICKY TIMING
She’s also been bringing food round to Rebecca and Jim, phoning them every day and trying to support them as much as she can, alongside Benji’s other two grandparents, who’ve been wonderful at helping them settle into the new house they moved into just the day after he was born.
The couple had exchanged on the house in May, but it needed several weeks of building work and so wasn’t ready to be moved into until the last minute. “We made things quite difficult for ourselves by moving when we did,” says Jim, with a smile.
The day of the move, he and his parents were in charge of unpacking boxes – there were 27 for their kitchen alone – while Rebecca went to stay with Esther for a couple of nights.
“Mum and I had a lovely two days,” recalls Rebecca. “Obviously it was horrible not being with Jim, but it was great talking to Mum about everything that I was worried about.” “I see myself as a safety net,” says Esther. “At the moment, Becca and Jim are on the trapeze of parenthood, showing great skill and agility, but I’m there just in case.”
But Rebecca has adapted to first-time motherhood with aplomb.
“There was never any doubt in my mind that Becca would be a wonderful mum,” says Jim, an auditor. “She is such a natural. Everyone who sees her says she was born to do this.”
The 32-year-old says he felt helpless when Rebecca was in labour.
“It was really awful, but she was faultless throughout,” he says. “She was incredibly resilient and calm.”
“What I’ve learnt is how much your love for your child will get you through anything,” says Rebecca, who admits that she wanted to start a family before Jim did.
“It wasn’t something that he didn’t want, but I pushed him towards it,” she confesses. “I knew he had it in him, but he is just brilliant with Benjamin.
The two of them together are just gorgeous, and Benjamin sleeps on his chest better than he sleeps anywhere. I call him ‘the baby whisperer’ because he is the only person who can really calm him.
“The first time I saw Jim holding Benjamin I cried. Then when he came over to Mum’s after having moved everything into the house, he sat down with Benjamin on him, and you could see his total relief that he had his son with him, and I cried.”
Naturally, Esther is also head-over-heels in love with the new addition to the family.
“And seeing him in Jim and Becca’s arms is absolutely lovely,” she says. “I have to be very careful that I don’t come here and take up residence. Benjamin is so utterly, fabulously gorgeous.”
Rebecca, who has presented programmes including Watchdog and How to Look Good Naked, plans to be a working mum. She will start work on an undisclosed TV project in January and has several others lined up too.
“I want to go back, but Benjamin is my focus and I’m not going to be naïve about how difficult it will be to leave him,” she says.
When she became a mother, Esther returned to work just as quickly and was back in a TV studio only six weeks after giving birth to one of her children.
“She’s been an excellent role model in terms of being a mother and being successful at work,” says Rebecca, turning to look at her mum, who is cooing and making funny faces at Benjamin. “Even though she’s behaving strangelynow…”
Rebecca and her siblings often went with their mother to the TV studio in the days when she worked on That’s Life!.
“It was different for her because she was ruler of all she saw,” says Rebecca. “She could bring us in and we’d sit in the office while she wrote scripts.”
Now in her seventies, Esther remains as busy as ever. Among her current projects is the launch of a new charity, the Silver Line, a telephone helpline for lonely members of the older generation which will run on the same principles as her pioneering children’s charity, ChildLine. She is also involved with five other charities and is writing another book.
“Mum is busier now at 72 than I will ever be,” says Rebecca, looking at her mum fondly. Work, however, has taken on less importance for Esther now that she has this new little man in her life. What are her hopes
for his future?
“I’d love him to be able to enjoy life, which
is a great talent,” she says. “You can’t always control what comes your way, so the important thing is to get the best out of it, like when your grandmother is peering at you with love and affection!”

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Date

November 15, 2015

Category

Babies

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