Gemma Atkinson has voiced her frustration after she was criticised for allegedly pinching her young son “to teach him a lesson”.
The former Emmerdale and Hollyoaks actress, 39, took to social media earlier this week discussing the differences between her daughter Mia, four, and son Thiago, one.
In a post shared on Instagram Stories, she told how her youngest child had hurt his sister during one of his tantrums.
“Really noticing the differences in how Mia was to Thiago. It's fun to watch,” she began.
“Toys are just banged or slid across the floor and the tantrums are new as Mia didn't have them. He pretend cries and throws himself on the floor.
“I stand and watch until he realises it's getting him nowhere and they are slowly getting shorter. He pinches when he gets frustrated. I did it back to him on Wednesday as he did it hard to Mia. He's not done it since,” she concluded.
After posting it, the Manchester-born personality thought nothing more of it until she was then forced to defend herself after self-styled parenting experts weighed-in to berate her.
Returning to Instagram Stories, on Tuesday night, she explained how she was interrupted while hosting her drivetime show on Hits Radio by an email from her agent. “I was on the radio tonight, and my agent emailed me. Well, she sent me an email from a journalist.”
Recalling the contents of the email, she continued: “I’m writing a story on Gemma Atkinson, saying she’s done an Instagram post about pinching her son, but she’s removed the post because she’s been slammed. She hosts a podcast called Mum’s The Word and hosts a show on CBeebies.”
Atkinson - who is engaged to Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Gorka Márquez - then hit back at the reporter’s claims as she explained to her followers that she wasn’t the host of Mum’s The Word, and hadn’t worked on CBeebies for years as The Toddler Club wasn’t renewed.
She then clarified that the post about her pinching her son hadn’t been deleted, but was on her Instagram Story, so “deletes itself after 24 hours”.
Atkinson then denied she had pinched her son, and said she had simply mimicked the action while she was telling him off for hurting his sister. “As if I would,” she fumed.
Her frustration continued as despite setting the journalist straight, they still went ahead with publishing their intended story.
“Everything’s wrong and they’ve still written it! Oh, come on,” she sighed.
Deciding to laugh the matter off, she followed up with another post, joking: “I better go get Thiago out of the car, he’s been in there for about three hours. Window’s down though, so he’ll be alright won’t he? He’s fine on the drive, I’m sure… good night,” she giggled.
