Coronation Street actress announces birth of second child and reveals sweet baby name
The 36-year-old gave birth to a little boy and shared the news to her Instagram followers on Friday.
Sonia and her husband, Arron Machin, named their little bundle of joy Carter Benjamin Machin.
Sonia, known for her role as Mel Maguire in the beloved ITV soap, posted a snap of herself cradling the newborn in her hands whilst she posed nose to nose.
Alongside the photo, the mother-of-two penned a sweet caption.
Sonia, 36, and her husband, Arron Machin, named their little bundle of joy Carter Benjamin Machin
She said: 'Sunday 22nd June at 10.26pm my life became complete. My beautiful boy Carter Benjamin Machin arrived, 7lbs of pure perfection. You are loved more than you will ever know little man.'
Many fans and friends commented on the post to share their congratulations, including fellow Corrie star Lucy Fallon.
Lucy penned 'Gorgeous, congratulations' with an abundance of kisses.
Radio presenter Angela Griffin also commented saying 'What job!!!! Congratulations to you and your gorgeous family. Sending loads of love.'
Sonia and Arron welcomed their first born, Sienna, into the world three years ago.
Last month Sonia had her baby shower which featured decor with an elegant grey and blue colour scheme, which was a potential hint to the baby's gender.
Sonia stunned in a figure hugging cream dress and a pair of pointed gingham patterned shoes.
Despite being heavily pregnant, the actress showed off a couple of dance moves and posted to Instagram.
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Daily Mail
23 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Inside Queen Victoria's 'thirsty' diaries: The raunchy entries that reveal 'teenage girl' romance with Prince Albert
Podcast All episodes Play on Apple Spotify On a sepcial episode of the Mail's Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things podcast, Robert Hardman and Kate Williams are joined by History Hit's Dr Kate Lister to delve into Queen Victoria 's sex life. Dr Lister, hosts the chart-topping Betwixt The Sheets podcast, which specialises in the erotic lives of legendary figures from ancient times to today. Despite being Britain's most famous monarch and a woman of the prudish Victorian era, Queen Victoria was surprisingly open about her passion for her husband, Prince Albert. Victoria's personal diaries - a staggering 62 million words across her lifetime – reveal the Queen's candid desire for the German Prince, from their 1840 wedding until his death in 1861. Hardman, Williams and Dr Lister unpack the raciest revelations from the diaries and bust the biggest myths about Victoria and Albert's sex life. Queen Victoria's 'sexy' diaries When Queen Victoria assumed the throne at just 18 years old, her ministers and family presented her with an ultimatum: marry quickly or remain in Buckingham Palace under the watchful eye of her domineering mother, the Duchess of Kent. Throughout Victoria's childhood and into her late teens, the Duchess and her lover John Conroy had controlled the young princess through what they called the Kensington System. This regime monitored her every movement and regimented her daily life. Now, as monarch, Victoria desperately wanted distance from her mother's influence. Faced with this choice, she agreed to seek an eligible suitor. According to historian Kate Williams, the young Queen was genuinely delighted when Prince Albert was presented to her as a potential match. She said: 'In her diaries, Victoria wrote how she felt this immediate outpouring of love for Prince Albert. 'The Queen had a pretty miserable childhood, so when they get married at this very young age, all this devotion just comes streaming out of her. 'In 1839, when she first sees Albert climb the steps of Windsor Castle, she writes how he is the most handsome prince in Europe. 'Later that year, Victoria describes Albert coming in from a rainy day, saying: 'He looks so handsome in his white cashmere britches with nothing on underneath.' Victoria's excitement reaches fever pitch on their wedding night, which she labels the 'happiest day of her life' her diaries. 'She is totally thirsty for him', Williams joked. 'After her wedding night, Victoria says that she didn't think it was possible to be so happy. She talks about the bliss of watching him shave, and how wonderful it is when he helps her put on her stockings. 'She wrote: I never spent such an evening. My dearest Albert, sat on a footstool beside by my side - his excessive love and affection gave me feelings of heavenly love and happiness. 'He clasped me in his arms and we kissed each other again and again. Oh, this was the happiest day of my life!' Within three months of her marriage, Victoria had conceived her first child - a daughter she would name Victoria, continuing the family tradition. Albert and Victoria went on to have nine children in total, which Williams believes wasn't just because the Queen 'loved the joys of the marriage bed.' She explained: 'Everyone watches Victoria and Albert's marriage like hawks. They want Victoria to get pregnant; that's her big job. 'Victoria has to secure the throne. The family's prestige had been dented by her naughty uncle, King William IV, who managed 10 illegitimate children by 1800. 'She sees sex with Albert as her duty, that she must start producing heirs quickly – although she never expected to get pregnant within three months.' As Dr Lister observed, this passion for Albert continued right up until the prince's death in December 1861. Albert succumbed to typhoid fever at the age of 42, leading Victoria to withdraw from public life for several years. 'She is head over the heels for this guy', Dr Lister noted. 'Throughout her life, she writes obsessively about him. How beautiful his face is, how handsome he looks in a certain shirt and what it feels like lying next to him. 'It is real teenage girl crush stuff. They have arguments too because there's a real power struggle going on. 'You have a weird dynamic because she's Queen, but is still trying to adhere to this very Victorian morality of submitting to your husband. 'It get very tense at times but she definitely fancied him the whole way through. I have no doubt about that.' To hear Betwixt The Sheet's Kate Lister debunk some of the myths about Victoria and Albert's sex life, including an apparent fetish for bicycles, search for Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things now, wherever you get your podcasts.
The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The two Mr Ps on life in the classroom: ‘I've worked with teachers who have been hit or kicked'
You can learn a lot about British society from what children bring into classrooms. Take sex toys, Lee Parkinson says. He co-hosts the highly popular Two Mr Ps in a Pod(Cast) with his brother Adam – they both work in primary schools – and their inboxes are bursting with stories from teachers of X-rated show-and-tells. 'You would not believe,' Lee says. 'Inundated,' Adam nods. 'Honestly, a variety of objects.' There was the child who brought in the Harry Potter wand that wasn't. 'And the kid was like: 'I tried to get it working but it just kept buzzing.'' Then there was the child whose pretend hearing aid turned out to be a cock ring. And the second world war gas mask that was 'a full-on, PVC gimp mask', Lee adds. Adam, who works as a higher learning teaching assistant, recalls a time when one pupil proudly showed him his end-of-year gift for the class teacher: a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey. 'He'd taken it off his mum's nightstand.' The Parkinsons' latest book, How to Survive the School Year, is a portrait of the alarmingly high rates of embarrassing incidents in the classroom and beyond. Anecdotes sent in by their audience of teachers and parents shows that sports days are a hotspot for comical mishaps. Adam once split his trousers playing football with the kids, and had to deliver his big presentation on behaviour later that day in a pair of rugby shorts. The brothers – I want to call them boys, because all their riffs and ribbing seem to summon their childhood selves to the minature table we are sitting at in Adam's classroom in Walkden, Greater Manchester – happily bat stories to and fro. In publicity material, Adam is the one who pulls silly faces, while Lee does his best to look sensible but fun. In person, the dynamic is more nuanced. Lee, at 40, is the eldest of three (middle brother Ryan works in sales) and the original Mr P. He coined the name when he launched his ICT (information and communications technology) training business in 2013, which he combines with teaching a Year 4 class part-time at another nearby primary, and a platform to coach teachers in the use of AI to reduce their admin. Lee very much wears the long trousers, metaphorically and literally. Today he has helped himself to the only adult chair in Adam's classroom ('He took my teacher's chair!'). Adam, 36, is wearing shorts, having returned victorious from a tri-golf tournament with his Year 6s – he's still clutching the trophy – and fidgets in a tiny plastic seat. They're constantly in competition mode, and still vie for the position of 'number one son'. (Lee is now on top, having been awarded an MBE last month.) Adam is known as The Other Mr P, which you'd think might put him at a disadvantage. He blurted it out when he was introducing himself on the very first podcast, and the name stuck. So he othered himself? 'I don't mind, because Lee worked tirelessly for five, six years before we started,' he says. 'And this whole thing has led to a life that I never thought possible.' Back in 2018, the Mr Ps were on holiday in Florida, sipping beer in a hot tub after a day in one of the parks, sharing stories from their classrooms. 'We were just trying to outdo each other with the most ridiculous thing that's happened in our schools,' Lee says. 'I thought: 'We should sit down and record these. Do a podcast'.' Adam had never heard of a podcast but later he came up with the name over dinner in Buffalo Wild Wings in Kissimmee, Florida. Lee bought the microphones as soon as they got home, and the podcast took off. During lockdown, it became a sort of communal staffroom for teachers who were estranged from colleagues, working remotely, or supervising the children of key workers. Now Two Mr Ps in a Pod(Cast) has had 7.5m downloads, and in October the brothers take their Let That Be a Lesson … tour to venues from Edinburgh to Exeter. But while their three books (the previous two being Put a Wet Paper Towel On It and This Is Your Own Time You're Wasting) are full of things going comically wrong, increasingly the Parkinsons receive messages from teachers about things going seriously wrong. Burnout, workload and behaviour are the recurrent issues. 'The number one reason for teachers leaving the profession is workload,' Lee says. Although he believes 'that's going to get overtaken by behaviour … There is a growing number of cases where teachers and senior leaders are being verbally, or in some cases physically, assaulted by parents. And there's the online trolling – parents openly being negative about teachers online.' Lee is hyper-alert to attacks on teachers. We meet in the midst of a heatwave and the fan is going full pelt. Lee enters into a tirade against 'the person who designed primary schools and decided to make it too cold in winter and the surface of the sun when we get a bit of nice weather. What was the mindset? Why do you want to stitch us up as teachers?' Even summer term, with its fetes and sports days, dupes staff with 'a false sense of security'. Truth is, they're behind on the curriculum having crammed for SATs, an exam which Lee thinks has 'no bearing on children's academic development other than an understanding that life's not fair and most of the important things in your existence will be decided by idiots like Michael Gove'. He is especially exercised about Ofsted. 'It is, in my opinion, one of the main reasons we've got 40,000 teachers leaving the profession a year ... Ofsted say they raise standards and improve lives. Well, they were found to be contributing to the death of a teacher,' Lee says, referring to Ruth Perry, the head whose death by suicide was linked by the coroner to her school's Ofsted inspection. 'So you can't say they improved lives. She wasn't the first and she won't be the last unless things drastically change.' He has had teachers contact him with similar stories. 'Why create a framework that makes teachers' workflow go through the roof exponentially, plunging them into this boiling pot of stress and worry?' Changes to Ofsted inspections are due to be published in September, but the proposals have already been met with opposition. 'I think they're not capable of reforming themselves. What we need is a working party of people outside Ofsted, working with Ofsted to make necessary changes.' This sounds like a job he might enjoy. 'I'd have a discussion,' he says. 'But I don't think they'd want to hear from me.' Lee didn't always feel like this. He started teaching in 2007, 'straight from uni'. He'd just turned 22. Labour's Sure Start programme was in full swing. 'He loved it,' Adam says. 'And I loved the thought of doing what he was doing.' At the time, Adam had been going 'from job to job': Next, Co-op, Iceland, Odeon cinema, six months of data handling at Ofsted ('I didn't know what Ofsted was when I worked there. If I had, I would have messed up all the things!') and volunteering as a rugby coach in a primary school. One day, his aunt, a children and families officer, asked him to volunteer one-to-one with a child who was struggling with his behaviour, and in isolation out of class. 'I struck up a real bond with him. I absolutely fell in love with working in a school.' It's fair to say that Adam was able to relate. Of the three brothers, he was the one who their parents were always being called in to school to discuss. Mostly for wrestling with other children and making rude gestures. He was diagnosed with ADHD at the end of primary school. 'I was medicated through secondary school,' he says. 'It helped me massively.' He would take his meds each morning, then button his blazer. 'And I'd look in the mirror, because I knew the saying, Looking smart's halfway to being smart, and I swear I was a different child.' Adam points to Lee, and the empty space between them, which has acquired the identity of their middle brother. 'They were a lot more able in terms of the work than I was. And I don't mind admitting that. I've done well, I think, with what I've got – to get to where I am.' 'My mum and dad always say, if he'd been the first, they'd never have had another kid,' Lee offers. 'Oh, he loves this!' Adam says, feigning indignation – or perhaps not feigning. His legs are bouncing wildly in that tiny chair. In the way of the best family joshing, it's both good-natured and close to the bone. You get the feeling they can – and often do – go on for hours. 'Are they not Mum and Dad's words?' Lee asks. 'MBE! This guy!' Adam shrieks. 'I'm just relaying information,' Lee says, leaning back in his teacher chair with a wink. 'What was the card you got on Father's Day for Dad?' Adam says. 'From your number one son?' 'No! It wasn't!' Adam's voice rises in triumph. 'It was, 'Sometimes you just get it right first time.'' For a moment, it seems as if they never left home. They've always been close and more alike than Ryan. 'We like spicy food. He hates spicy food. We were always drinking blackcurrant squash, but he'd have orange,' Adam says. Both Mr Ps are parents themselves. Lee has 14-year-old triplets and a 21-year-old stepson. Adam has a daughter, nine, and a six-year-old son. Increasingly, he has posted about his experience as what he calls 'a Send dad [special educational needs and disabilities] … Because it took me a long time to accept what the situation was, and learn,' he says. After his son was diagnosed with autism, 'I would say I grieved for the life I expected. I worried if he would ever make friends, be invited to parties, or join a sports team.' Adam's son's diagnosis has led him to reflect on his own. 'Sometimes autism and ADHD really clash.' While his son enjoys being read the same story repeatedly, Adam finds the repetition challenging. 'The last thing I ever want to do is not be there for my son and not give him what he needs,' he says. He has started to wonder whether taking 'tablets again would help me … relax a bit more. I'm a bit of an overthinker. I do struggle with that.' His son has an education, health and care plan (EHCP) and attends special school, having left mainstream education when the one-to-one care his EHCP legally entitled him to had to be shared with other children who needed support but didn't have EHCPs. The schools minister has recently refused to rule out replacing EHCPs, which have become fraught with problems, since the number has risen by 140% in the past 10 years while councils run deficits. Should they be scrapped? 'There's got to be a legally binding document to ensure children get the education they deserve,' Lee says. 'But is the current system working? No. Do education, care and health have to be rolled up or can there be a separate education plan? Are we able to create something that can make mainstream a lot more inclusive?' The Parkinsons speak every day. Do they ever get sick of each other? 'He's like my fifth child,' Lee says. 'Adam can be one of the funniest people on the planet. There's times I think: how do you function as an adult?' 'I feel I bring his silly side out,' Adam says. 'And at times he brings my serious side out, and we complement each other. But you couldn't have two me's because … Well, I wouldn't know how to plug a mic in.' For all the jokes, they have had days where they've gone home and cried. Adam has worked in a number of schools, including in Manchester. 'There are days when you're driving home, thinking, wow, that was a really hard, sad day. I've worked with teachers who have been hit or kicked … I've had all the children crying. And that's the saddest thing for me. Because for a lot of children, if they have a tough home life, this is their escape, their solitude.' 'We're faced with the biggest retention crisis we've ever seen for what should be the best job in the world,' Lee says. But he wouldn't recommend teaching to his children. 'Your job as a parent is to protect your kids. I feel like the current education system can break people – the expectations put on teachers, where you're expected to do more with less, and you're constantly made to feel like a failure, and you're under this incredible pressure and the sort of compassion fatigue teachers feel, working in a system that no matter what you do, no matter how many hours you dedicate – you are still seeing the system fail some children.' But sometimes a teacher will message them or come up to them – this happened to Adam at the tri-golf tournament earlier – and tell them that the podcast has kept them going, or brought them back to teaching, because, Adam says, 'we shine a light on the amazing things and the hilarious things'. 'It's a real privilege to have quite a big impact on a profession that is so special,' Lee says. What they really want is for teaching to be 'respected and valued by everyone'. How to Survive the School Year: An Essential Guide for Stressed-Out Grownups is published by HarperCollins (£16.99). To support the Guardian order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Oasis tour: What you need to know - and why Cardiff is the first stop
Oasis are set to kick off their reunion tour in Cardiff this weekend, with thousands expected to descend on the Welsh capital. The 41-date Oasis Live 25 tour begins in the city on Friday and Saturday, amid warnings for people to plan ahead before they travel. The Gallagher brothers' last performance together was in 2009, and the tour sold out within hours of its announcement last August, with fans eager to catch a glimpse of the reunion. But where is the tour heading - and why was Cardiff chosen as the city where the brothers will perform for the first time together in almost 16 years? When does the tour start and where is it heading? After Cardiff, Oasis will go on to perform at Manchester, London Edinburgh and Dublin on their UK and Ireland leg of the tour. See below for a full list of tour dates: Oasis tour dates Principality Stadium, Cardiff, Wales - Friday 4 July Principality Stadium, Cardiff, Wales - Saturday 5 July Heaton Park, Manchester, England - Friday 11 July Heaton Park, Manchester, England - Saturday 12 July Heaton Park, Manchester, England - Wednesday 16 July Heaton Park, Manchester, England - Saturday 19 July Heaton Park, Manchester, England - Sunday 20 July Wembley Stadium, London, England - Friday 25 July Wembley Stadium, London, England - Saturday 26 July Wembley Stadium, London, England - Wednesday 30 July Wembley Stadium, London, England - Saturday 2 August Wembley Stadium, London, England - Sunday 3 August Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland - Friday 8 August Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland - Saturday 9 August Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland - Tuesday 12 August Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland - Saturday 16 August Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland - Sunday 17 August Toronto, Canada - Sunday 24 August Toronto, Canada - Monday 25 August Chicago, USA - Thursday 28 August East Rutherford, USA - Sunday 31 August East Rutherford, USA - Monday 1 September Los Angeles, USA - Saturday 6 September Los Angeles, USA - Sunday 7 September Mexico City, Mexico - Friday 12 September Mexico City, Mexico - Saturday 13 September Wembley Stadium, London, England - Saturday 27 September Wembley Stadium, London, England - Sunday 28 September Seoul, South Korea - Tuesday 21 October Tokyo, Japan - Saturday 25 October Tokyo, Japan - Sunday 26 October Melbourne, Australia - Friday 31 October Melbourne, Australia - Saturday 1 November Melbourne, Australia - Tuesday 4 November Sydney, Australia - Friday 7 November Sydney, Australia - Saturday 8 November Buenos Aires, Argentina - Saturday 15 November Buenos Aires, Argentina - Sunday 16 November Santiago, Chile - Wednesday 19 November São Paulo, Brazil - Saturday 22 November São Paulo, Brazil - Sunday 23 November Why was Cardiff picked as the first stop? Asked on X in May why Cardiff was chosen as the location for the opening leg, Liam Gallagher said "because Cardiff is the bollox". Principality Stadium is a 74,500-seat venue, known as the home of Welsh rugby, which played host to Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift concerts last year. Businesses in the area are hoping the arrival of Oasis will bring an influx of trade to the city. Gary Corp, manager of the City Arms, told Sky News that he was expecting the concert would "treble if not quadruple the footfall on the street". Meanwhile, Ethan John, events manager at Tiny Rebel, said Oasis choosing Cardiff to kick off their tour was "surreal" and that previous events such as Taylor Swift's Eras Tour had a "massive impact" on footfall. What travel advice is there in Cardiff? Train operators say trains will be busy and people should allow plenty of time for their journey home. Georgie Wills, from Transport for Wales, said the company was "thrilled to welcome thousands to Cardiff this summer". "Look out for our queuing systems and travel tips - and let's make it a safe and smooth experience for everyone," she added. Cardiff Council has confirmed that roads around the stadium will close from 12pm until 12am on both Friday and Saturday. The road closures come into force three hours earlier than is planned for upcoming Stereophonics, Kendrick Lamar and Catfish and the Bottlemen concerts later this summer. The Cardiff Bus Interchange will close at 3pm and Cardiff Queen Street railway station will close at 10pm (apart from accessible travel or journeys to Cardiff Bay). What time does the show start and who are the support acts? Principality Stadium's doors open at 5pm on both Friday and Saturday. The band will be supported by indie rock band Cast and Richard Ashcroft (who formed alternative rock band the Verve) in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin. Cast start their Cardiff set at 6pm, followed by Richard Ashcroft at 7pm. Oasis will take to the stage at 8.15pm, and should finish by 10.30pm. American rock band Cage the Elephant will support Oasis in Canada, Mexico and at the Chicago gig. They will be joined again by Cast for the East Rutherford and Pasadena dates. Australian indie rock band Ball Park Music will support in Australia. Are tickets still available for the shows? The tour is sold out, but the band has said it is possible some additional tickets may be released. In an Instagram post on 25 June, the band advised members of Oasismynet to "keep an eye" on their inbox. The final releases would come "over the coming days" once production was "fine tuned", the band said. Cardiff is set to be cloudy with sunny intervals on Friday afternoon, with highs of 21C and lows of 15C.
