I don't want Wayne to get snip – we might not end up together & he may want another baby, says TV star Frankie Bridge

The Sun

26-05-2025

THE thought of your husband moving on with another woman should be the stuff of nightmares, let alone him starting a new family.
But Frankie Bridge takes a pragmatic approach to the possibility of partner Wayne having children with someone else in the future.
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While 22,000 men have vasectomies each year in the UK, with many undoubtedly encouraged by their partners, the Loose Women panellist admits she would not want the former footie ace to have the procedure, in case they were to split.
Also known as 'the snip', it cuts or blocks the tubes that carry sperm, to stop a man from being able to have children.
'I'll be honest, I don't want him to have one,' Frankie, 36, said. 'You just never know what's going to happen.
'Having a vasectomy is a door shut for me, it's also a door shut for him.
'You know, we might not end up together and he might want another baby.
'Or something might happen to me, and he might still want another child, because men can do it for as long as they want.'
Her shock admission came after a recent rise in the amount of men opting to have the snip, with MSI Reproductive Choices UK reporting a 29.5 per cent increase between 2021 and 2023.
Experts believe this is due to financial pressures amid the cost-of-living crisis, limited access to alternative contraceptives for women, and environmental concerns.
While having the snip isn't on the cards for Wayne, 44, the pair are adamant their family is complete for now.
'Felt an awful parent'
The couple, who married in 2014, already have sons Parker, 11, and nine- year-old Carter. And Wayne shares 18-year-old son, Jaydon, with his ex Vanessa Perroncel.
Frankie had once envisaged having an even larger family, but says the difficulties she had during her pregnancies have put her off having more children.
'I always wanted more than two and then once I had one, I knew I wanted a second one. But I hated being pregnant,' she said.
'I was always sick and I put on loads of weight, it just wasn't for me. I just didn't feel like myself.
'For me, it was like a means to an end — I got a lovely baby at the end of it. So the thought of doing it a third time . . . '
Frankie suffered from Hyperemesis gravidarum, a debilitating complication that affects between one and three per cent of pregnancies.
The Princess of Wales also struggled with it through all three of her pregnancies.
'It's constant sickness,' Frankie recalled. 'You feel that you're supposed to be giving your baby all these nutrients but you literally can't eat.
'I already had a two-year-old at the time, so I felt like I was an awful parent. I couldn't bear the smell of another human — it would make me sick.'
After Carter came along in 2015, the couple decided to put the brakes on babymaking.
'I have a stepson, so Wayne's already got three,' Frankie continued.
'He said, 'If we're going to have another one, I would rather do it sooner rather than later'.
'But I was just ready to get my body back and get my life back.
'And I think then the gap just grew too big.'
But Frankie does not blame Wayne for his ultimatum.
'A lot of people say, 'Well, it's not really up to him, is it? You're the one that's going to be pregnant'. But I never saw it like that. I would hate to bring a child into the world — and obviously he would have loved it — but what if he resented it, or me, and then I've made him do it?
'It's a big thing to start all over again. It wasn't until I figured out the timing — I figured out that the child would be starting primary school the same year that Parker would be starting secondary school.
'I was just like, 'No'. Meanwhile, Wayne was just thinking about the nappies, the financial burden of another child.'
Their lives now are vastly different from when Frankie was in pop group The Saturdays.
The band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2014, a year after Parker was born, and while Frankie had assumed she would be a stay-at-home mum, she found herself taking on TV roles.
She appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, game shows and worked on documentaries before joining Loose Women as a panellist in 2020 — though it is thought she could be culled as a result of ITV's recent decision to axe up to 70 per cent of its daytime TV staff.
Former Chelsea player Wayne retired from football in 2014, after being plagued by injury.
He went on to have success as a TV personality with stints on I'm A Celeb and SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Frankie said their change in circumstance took some getting used to.
A lot of people say, 'Well, it's not really up to him, is it? You're the one that's going to be pregnant'. But I never saw it like that
Frankie Bridge
'I grew up with Wayne,' she explained. 'I met him when I was 21, and at that time, I was at the height of my career and he was still playing football.
'Our lives were so different to what they are now. It took me a really long time, when he retired, to accept that it was our new life.
'As well as the fact I wasn't a pop star any more — I was no longer in The Saturdays. I was now a mum of two.
'We still like each other'
'He was able to be at home with the boys more, and I thought I'd want to be a stay-at-home mum and then I didn't.
'I think I had all these ideas of what we thought it was going to be. And I would say my biggest learning over the years is that it changes.'
Frankie says there is one thing they would do differently if they had their time over — their wedding.
She and Wayne got hitched in a stunning ceremony at Woburn Abbey, in Bedfordshire, attended by stars including boyband JLS and Frankie's bandmates from The Saturdays, Una Healy, Rochelle Humes, Mollie King, and Vanessa White.
But she admits they succumbed to the pressure of pleasing other people.
'I think our wedding kind of ended up being what I thought a wedding should be,' she said.
'I was the first out of my friends to get married, I was 25, and I think if we got married now, our wedding would probably be very different.
'I think it would just be smaller, because originally, that's what we wanted. We wanted to get married abroad.
'And, this sounds awful, but it was so you could weed out the people that you're not really bothered about having there.
'The ones you have to invite. We all do it. You look back at pictures and you're like, 'I'm not even friends with them'.'
Frankie only stayed in the country because of her beloved grandad.
'My granddad didn't have a passport, so we got married in the UK. Then the wedding just grew and grew.
'It was amazing, but I just think it was a lot more for everyone else maybe than it was for us.'
Although Wayne had expressed interest in renewing their vows on their tenth anniversary last year, perhaps as a means of redoing the wedding, they instead opted for a private date night to celebrate.
'Now we're ten years in, it's like, 'Oh, what's the point?'' Frankie laughed. 'We just wanted some time on our own.
'So we went away for the night, just us two, and there was no big song and dance about it.
'But it is nice to reflect on how far we've come as a couple.
'We're still together and we still like each other.'
Now Frankie and Wayne are doing things on their terms — and even her beloved boys will have to tow the line if and when she becomes a granny.
While it is a long way off, Frankie is already panicking about the prospect of being a 'selfish' grandparent.
On the official Loose Women podcast with pal Nadia Sawalha, Frankie said: 'I'm worried I'll be a terrible grandmother. I think I'll be really selfish about (babysitting) and I'll be like, 'No, I had you young so that I could now go and do what I want to do'.
'You know, when people assume that their mum and dad are going to look after their kids? I hope that my kids don't.
'Although I'm a boy mum, so I might be raging that I don't even get a look in.'
What is a vasectomy and what is the success rate?
VASECTOMY is the name given to a minor operation that works to blocks sperm from being ejaculated during sex.
During the surgery, the tubes that carry the fluid from a man's testicles to the penis are cut, blocked or sealed.
The NHS explains: 'This prevents sperm from reaching the seminal fluid (semen), which is ejaculated from the penis during sex.
'There will be no sperm in the semen, so a woman's egg can't be fertilised.'
Surprisingly, the life-changing operation can be carried out in just 15 minutes.
The procedure is typically carried out under local anaesthetic, so is often relatively painless.
People that undertake a vasectomy are urged to keep using alternative forms of contraception to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases.
The NHS website reveals that the vasectomy is more than 99 per cent effective.
They estimate: 'Out of 2,000 men who are sterilised, one will get a woman pregnant during the rest of his lifetime.'
But just like all forms of contraception, there is still a small chance of fertility after the procedure.