Former Love Island star Shaughna Phillips has spoken for the first time about her ex-boyfriend Billy Webb getting sentenced to nine years in jail after he was arrested when she was 30 weeks pregnant.
Confiding in co-host Holly Connolly on their weekly Oh Baby podcast, Shaughna revealed today, 'I've been living in this... Listen, I don't want to say nightmare, but I've been living in this weird life that I never, ever anticipated I would be living. It's not ideal this is not how I thought my life was going to be.'
Billy and Shaughna, 29, are thought to have struck up a romance in 2020, with the reality star keeping him predominantly out of the limelight.
But in January, when Shaughna was pregnant with their daughter Lucia, Billy made headlines after he was arrested and charged with drug offences.
Now that he's been sentenced to a nine-year jail term after admitting conspiracy to supply 4.5kg of cocaine worth at least £360,000, Shaughna explained to Oh Baby listeners that she is no longer legally restricted from speaking out.
The TV personality, a self-confessed chronic oversharer, recalled where she was when she discovered news of Billy's arrest, saying, 'Okay, so I was 30 weeks pregnant and just come back off of holiday. I was actually doing a Love Island podcast, believe it or not. Ironic. I got a call to say that Billy had been arrested and that, kind of weirdly, my life kind of changed then.'
The single mum, who won a legion of fans on winter Love Island in 2020, revealed that she received the phone call prior to her podcast appearance, but opted to continue.
She remembered, 'I couldn't do anything, so I had to carry on doing it. I've never listened back. I just had to carry on doing it. At first, I was like, "Was he speeding?" I had absolutely no idea what it could even have been about. I had no idea. I had absolutely no idea. And I didn't know whether he was going to be coming home that night. I just had no idea.'
She continued, 'When this all happened, I was very heavily pregnant. I couldn't not be okay. I had to be okay. There was a little person that was dependent on me for life. I had to be okay. It was terrifying. I didn't have any idea what was going on. I didn't know for like, two days what was going on.
'I wasn't thinking of, "He's my partner." I was thinking, "This is my child's father. My child's father has to be okay."'
Southwark Crown Court heard in early December that Billy ran a 'relatively successful' drug operation called Barry's Party Supplies, which offered cocaine, MDMA and ketamine.
Lucia is actually my absolute saving grace, and she doesn't even know it.
shaughna phillips
With Lucia - Shaughna's unbeknownst 'saving grace' - being eight months, and her father just starting his prison sentence, the podcast host has been forced to make a gut-wrenching decision about whether she takes her daughter to visit him. A decision which, she explained, losing her father aged 22 played a part in.
On Oh Baby, Shaughna urged people to hold back on their opinions. 'I want to just put it out there that you can judge me all you want, but please don't let me know,' she pleaded.
'Before I was in this position, before I had a baby, if you had asked me would I ever, ever take my child into a prison, the answer would be absolutely not. Anyone that does that is crazy. And then, lo and behold, I'm now in this position. And I think the thing is, we're always going to be co-parents. And I know that me and my dad had the best relationship ever, and to me, my dad is the best person in the world. And I don't want Lucia to think differently of her father. I would never, ever stop him from seeing her, ever.'
The Mirror reported that following Billy's sentencing, Shaughna had made a leniency plea for her former partner.
'There was absolutely no discussion of leniency,' she insisted during her Oh Baby tell all. 'Billy pled guilty to something that he'd done, and there was no denying that fact that's done. So I literally just wrote a letter on behalf of Lucia. I would walk on hot coals for Lucia. I would do anything for her.
'So, by writing a letter to say, this is my dad, and I can't wait to have my life with him when he's home.'
After admitting that she had been 'dreading' the podcast episode, Shaughna had one final message for the Oh Baby listeners.
'May I add that I am also a woman on edge, and I really can't take any criticism right now. So please, please bear in mind my mental health, okay? Because we're suffering.'