Former Love Island star Shaughna Phillips has opened up about taking her daughter Lucia to see her father, ex-boyfriend Billy Webb, in prison.
Speaking on her podcast with friend Holly Connolly, Oh Baby!, Shaughna opened up about their visits so far. Her ex-boyfriend was sentenced to nine years in jail for drug offences after he was arrested when she was 30 weeks pregnant. Webb admitted conspiracy to supply 4.5kg of cocaine worth at least £360,000.
On the Oh Baby! podcast (out today) Shaughna said she doesn't even tend to use the word prison.
‘I don't tend to say prison,' she said. 'I think that's such a dirty word. It's not the p word I say, like, he's away and I think people think he's in the army. Lucia is not going to know any of this, but had she have known, yeah, he probably would have been working at Disneyland. Because he sure as hell ain't going to be able to go America!’
Continuing to discuss their recent visits, she said: ‘We had quite a few visits leading up to Christmas - and had one visit that was six hours. It's a family day and it's so much nicer than a normal visit. On normal visits, which are an hour, you can only sit opposite each other. He can hold the baby and all of that, but you can't really get up with her or anything.
'So, the six hour one was intense, but it was really nice to see him with her and it actually gives me a break. I walk in, I'm like, "Here's your kid, no one talk to me". But it was a Christmas one, so there was Christmas music playing, Christmas decorations, all of the kids. Billy made Lucia a card, a coloured-in card. She's going to think her dad's proper tight when she's older.'
However, she added: 'But he's moved now, he moved after Christmas so we haven't seen him for about two weeks and I'm not quite sure when we're going to see him. I kind of want it to be sooner rather than later, because I notice if Lucia sees him, like, two times a week, she really, on the second time she sees him, she knows who he is. Obviously, she hears his voice every day but the longer it goes, I'm aware that he'll have to get to know her again.'
Shockingly though, Shaughna revealed another strange aspect to their visits, saying she gets asked for selfies during them.
'What's weird, though, is when I've gone on to visits and I'm with Lucia, and some of the prison guards are like, "Oh, my God, you're from Love Island", or, "Oh, my God, I follow you on Instagram", and I'm just like, "Someone help me". I've been stopped for selfies in there - it's really mad. No matter about the selfies and all of that, it's really cringey, and I really don't enjoy it. However, I'll always do what's best for my baby. My baby deserves to see her dad, so I would always put myself in uncomfortable positions for the sake of that.’
Shaughna also said a big source of support for her has been Billy's family.
She added: ‘His family are my family. It's always going to be that way, but I am just lucky that we get along. His sister is one of my best friends, we spent Christmas with them, it's all good. They're a support system for me as well - Billy's mum was at my birth, so it was my mum and his mum and I remember after that, people were saying to me, how on earth did you have your mother-in-law there? I couldn't think of anything worse, but I think that's more of a you problem.’