Viscountess Emma Weymouth Opens Up About Traumatic Childbirth And The ‘Strictly Curse’

Behind an unassuming door, on an insalubrious stretch of East London, Emma Weymouth is delighted with Grazia’s pared-back photo shoot. Her face breaks into the mile-wide grin with which we are becoming familiar on Strictly, as she breathlessly oohs and aahs over the chic Sara Battaglia shirt. It makes a change from the shoots she is usually asked to do, generally involving a sweeping ballgown in front of Longleat, the Wiltshire stately home where she lives with her husband, Ceawlin, Viscount Weymouth, and their sons, John, four and Henry, two.

‘We live in an apartment in the house,’ she protests. ‘Our little section is littered with diggers and footballs. It’s like a reverse Tardis, because you come into our bit and it’s as you’d expect with two kids under five – normal.’ Some might be surprised to learn that she’s always been a Strictly fan.

Don’t people who live in stately homes spend their evenings... I don’t know, playing parlour games? ‘Ha!’ she snorts. ‘The TV is always on, usually with some Disney movie blaring out.’ She pauses before adding, ‘We do play Uno. Despite downplaying the family pile, the fact Emma is a viscountess could count against her on a show in which relatability is key, it being voted for by the public. It’s hard to relate to a woman who, when her husband succeeds his father as the 8th Marquess of Bath, will become a marchioness (that’s above a countess, just below a duchess).

Indeed, The Guardian recently described her as ‘alienatingly posh’. But she may win viewers over with the disarming honesty that has already won her 47k followers on Instagram. ‘People are nervous about being open,’ she says, tucking into a fruit salad after the shoot, now back in her own clothes: an unaristocratic ensemble of H&M pyjamas and M&S camisole top.

‘But it helps others feel brave enough to share their own stories and, the more people open up, the more people will feel comfortable doing so.’ She’s certainly been honest about struggles in pregnancy. It was while expecting John that Emma was diagnosed with hypophysitis, causing swelling in the pituitary gland.

After an emergency C-section, she was told she couldn’t have more children. ‘It was extraordinarily traumatic,’ she says. ‘I can’t talk about it without crying.’ The couple decided to use a surrogate to have a second child. ‘We were lucky to be able to do that. There are so many different ways to make your family. I’m just super-grateful to have my children.

Earlier this month, in the midst of Strictly mayhem, she had the milestone of her first school run. ‘When I dropped John off for his first day, I went straight from there to Elstree (where it’s filmed), which is bonkers. One minute I’m inside this magical glitter bubble, then it’s straight back to mum-life.’

Balancing Strictly and the school run? ‘Literally. That is my life,’ she laughs. Will the kids be staying up to watch her? ‘Definitely! They’re so excited. When we were practising the group dance, I was doing it with them, twirling them around.’ Can Ceawlin dance? ‘I’ve got to say yes,’ she guffaws. ‘We actually had a dance lesson together to learn a routine for the first dance at our wedding – Love On Top by Beyoncé. It was very simple, but romantic.

The couple married in the grounds of Longleat, and Emma talks with enthusiasm about events held at the house, everything from hot air ballooning to a food and drink festival. ‘It’s very inclusive,’ she nods. ‘We host, like, a million people a year.’ You must have to be very sociable to enjoy living in that environment. ‘Yeah, and I am. When people stop me, I’m always happy to chat.’ How often is she actually in the safari park? ‘All the time,’ she insists, before adding, ‘I literally gave a rhino a mud bath yesterday.’

When she’s not slathering rhinos in mud, Emma’s passions are food (she runs Emma’s Kitchen at Longleat) and fashion (she has modelled for Dolce & Gabbana). Those two worlds collided recently in a video forVogue, in which Kate Moss cooks a roast for friends{ =nofollow}including Emma, who makes rose meringues for dessert. How was Kate’s cooking? ‘It was good. That was a lovely lunch, we laughed our heads off. Kate was a great hostess.’ Has Kate ever cooked for her in real life? ‘She has. We made roast beef together, with mac ’n’ cheese, for a cosy Sunday night in the country.

Before Emma married Ceawlin, she wasn’t exactly salt of the earth (the daughter of an English socialite and Nigerian oil magnate, she attended Queen’s Gate school for girls, whose alumni include Nigella Lawson and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall). But being thrust into the aristocracy has exposed her to a certain amount of prejudice as the UK’s first black viscountess. ‘Look,’ she begins, ‘you meet someone, fall in love, get married, have babies... The difficulties and struggles along the way help you grow. I had no expectations, because I always try and stay present in life, which sounds silly, but it’s a case of knowing there are certain things you can control, and things you can’t.** It’s important not to take anything for granted.’

So is doing Strictly another step toward modernising the aristocracy? ‘I don’t know if I would have said it like that... but yes,’ she nods. She seems genuinely delighted to be there, chatting giddily about the dancers, the costumes and hanging out with Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman. ‘They’re so lovely,’ she gushes. ‘Claudia and I took a selfie. I know her sister Sophie.’ (Lady Sophie Windsor to you and me, wife of Lord Freddie Windsor, so there’s a few points deducted from Emma’s ‘normal person’ rating.

The process of getting a role on Strictly is as cloak and dagger as you might expect. ‘I had a dance trial, which was so top-secret I couldn’t even tell my mum. Even after I got the job, I had a code name for my first costume fitting – Catwoman – and I wasn’t allowed to refer to the show by its name, or tell anyone what I was doing or where I was going. It was so exciting!

I have to ask, is her husband concerned about the curse of Strictly (which has seen several contestants’ long-term relationships break down)? ‘Haha! No,’ she says. ‘Definitely not.’ But, I persevere, Strictly is a seething hotbed of unbridled lust, right? ‘I’m there to learn to dance,’ she says, patiently. ‘My partner Aljaž’s wife, Janette, is a dancer on the show and she’s incredible. We are going to get them both up to the house. And Ceawlin has been in the live audience, so he met everyone. It is like a family.’

I can’t help wondering if the family vibes will start to fray once the public voting starts, and everyone remembers it’s a competition. ‘Of course, the adrenaline is super-high,’ she says. ‘And I’m my own toughest critic. I don’t want to let my partner down, or my family, but I’m determined to enjoy it, because you can only do it once.’ She hits me with that grin again. ‘It’s like a surreal dream but, honestly, Strictly is the happiest place on Earth.’

‘Strictly Come Dancing’, Saturday, 7pm, BBC One.

READ MORE: Emma Weymouth Is Joining The Strictly Line Up This Year And We're Already Obsessed

Take a look back at some of the most memorable moments of Strictly Come Dancing: