Alison Hammond is notoriously funny. From the moment she nearly fell in the Thames live on This Morning and pushed an unsuspecting extra dressed as a sailor in with her, to the time she cracked up Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford mid-interview with her chaotic and chatty style - she is just infectiously hilarious.
Which is why it’s left us scratching our heads slightly that every tabloid in the country has published articles claiming Alison is having another baby when she was clearly joking about having a second child at 47-years-old on This Morning earlier this week.
Her age, obviously, isn’t the funny part. Older mothers have been a hot topic of conversation after Naomi Campbell spoke for the first time about becoming a mother to a baby girl at 50 yesterday. But Alison evidently wasn’t being sincere when she proclaimed, ‘I’m having a baby’ spontaneously in the middle of her morning chat show.
The scene played out like this: sat behind the This Morning table with Dermot O’Leary, Alison hosted a segment about women achieving things later in life. One caller told her: ‘I thought I was going through menopause and I found out I was pregnant. I already had a 20-year-old and it changed my life so much.’
Alison replied: ‘That’s amazing. Imagine going to the doctors going through the menopause and find out you’ve had a baby. I’m 47 and I thought it was the end of my time. I could have another baby.’
‘That could be me,’ Alison added excitedly in her typically enthusiastic tone. ‘I’m having a baby!’ she then proclaimed with a big grin on her face. ‘Congratulations Alison, such good news and announcing it here – what a scoop,’ Dermot joked back.
Later in the show when TV soap expert Sharon Marshall announced Neighbours would no longer be aired on Channel 5, the pair continued the joke as Dermot suggested Alison should name her baby Scott or Charlene in tribute: ‘That’s such a good idea,’ Alison said.
Within minutes, the internet was set alight. Tabloids rushed to publish articles with frantic headlines reading: ‘This Morning’s Alison Hammond Declares “I’m Having A Baby!”’. Meanwhile, Twitter was awash with confusion after fans got lost in the humour.
‘Alison Hammond is pregnant, is she sure about that?’ one troll needlessly questioned. ‘I just turned on and heard Dermot saying she should call her child Scott or Charlene . Is she actually pregnant?’ added another lost viewer.
This whole scenario does beg the question, are we all really so invested in a potential pregnancy announcement that we’re willing to ignore a joke for what it is for the sake of a clickable headline? Surely, we should be able to enjoy Alison Hammond’s humour without worrying it’ll be turned into actual fake news.
Last year, after the Downing Street Christmas party scandal, Alison tweeted: So I’ve thought long and hard about this , I’ve decided to apply for Prime Minister ! I feel I would do a grand Job . Thoughts ???’ Again, newspapers proclaimed that Alison had seriously launched a campaign to become the next Prime Minister.
Whether it's motherhood or taking on the most powerful job in UK politics, it seems all Alison need do is speak things into existence. From landing on the moon to becoming the next James Bond, who knows what unexpected task she might take on next?
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