Me Life Story

was born, I was an only child. If you’ve been an only child and the centre of attention of your family for fifteen years, it’s hard when all of a sudden you’re told, ‘There’s going to be a new little Moffatt.’ If I am going to be totally honest, although I had always wanted a little sister I never imagined it would be happening at an age where I was almost old enough to have children myself. It was mixed feelings: part of me was very excited but the other part was apprehensive about sharing my parents with somebody else.

I actually found out my mam was pregnant by accident. I heard my mam chatting away to my nanny on the phone and saying, ‘Well, how do I tell her?’

So as a joke, I came waltzing into the living room: ‘Oh, come on then, are you going to tell me about this new baby?’ My mam, now thirty-six and still this sarcastic amazing woman, looked at me with a face I’ve never seen her make. She hung up on Nanny and burst into a fit of tears. ‘What’s the matter?’ I said. And then I thought, ‘Oh God, what is the matter?’

‘I didn’t want you to find out this way!’ she wailed.

‘Find out what? What are you on about?’

‘I’m pregnant!’

‘Are you really? I don’t understand. How? Oh my God, I hope I wasn’t in the house when it … happened.’

‘When what happened?’

‘The baby-making, Mam! Oh, I don’t know whether to be happy or throw up.’

‘Oh Scarlett, don’t, I really didn’t know how to tell you. Well, you know a couple of weeks ago when we were at the Blackpool dance competition and I kept being sick?’

‘And we just thought it was nerves?’

‘And then your dance shoes absolutely stank of sweat after the comp and I got them out of the box, and I immediately ran to the toilet and was sick? Well, that wasn’t dancing sweat that made me ill, that was your little brother or sister.’

I had to keep it a secret for a month (which felt like a bloody lifetime). The rest of the family found out because my Uncle Daniel started singing ‘Daddy, daddy cool’ to my dad at a family tea party. It didn’t take people long to put my mam’s weight gain and that song together before they guessed it.

My mam’s pregnancy was so lovely because my auntie Kirsty also fell pregnant just two months after my mam so they got to experience it together. I went shopping with them both and as the months went on and we got baby clothes and pushchairs and cots I was so excited. When we found out my auntie Kirsty was having a little boy (my cousin Joshua) and my mam was having a little girl I cried and cried. I couldn’t believe there was going to be a mini-me running around.

The day came, 23 June 2006. My sister was born. She is as cute as a button, is covered in little freckles, has that hair colour that isn’t quite brown or blonde (mousey colour we call it) and has beautiful blue eyes. Ava Elisabeth Grace Moffatt. She was named after the beautiful actress Ava Gardner, my mam (of course) and Grace Kelly. She actually wants to do West End shows when she’s older so I am hoping she takes after her namesakes.

Because I was moving to university by the time Ava was her own little character, I did make a huge effort to come home every weekend. I didn’t want to miss out on her growing up.

I remember I came home one weekend when Ava had just turned five and went to go and put my stuff in my room and it was now baby blue with dinosaur and fossil prints all over the walls and about ten Build-a-Bears piled up on the bed.

‘Where’s all my stuff?’

‘Ava needed a bigger bedroom.’

‘Hey!’

‘Well, yes, but all your stuff’s at uni now.’

‘I’ve still got to come back eventually, and then I’ll be bringing my stuff back.’

I couldn’t believe I had been downgraded. She got the biggest bedroom in the house, and I got the littlest room: the Harry Potter room. In fact it was worse than sleeping under the stairs. I was like Alice in Wonderland. You know the scene where she grows and her arms are out the windows and her legs are out the doors after she’s downed the bottled labelled ‘Drink Me’? That’s what that room’s like. You can’t even open the door fully. You’ve just got to half-open the door and then jump on the bed. When I go back now, I’m still in the closet room. That room used to be my chill room with a little couch in the bay. Now I’ve got to fit all my stuff in there.

Everything did all change quickly, and it was hard at first because my family life was completely different. It was really bizarre, but I would not change it for the world. It really altered the dynamic of our family when Ava arrived, but in a good way. I can’t even remember now what life was like without her.

What’s funny is that me and Ava still argue! Despite there being fifteen years between us, we still wind each other up. So if there were only a couple of years between us, it would not be good news because we’re both so sarcastic and we’re both really stubborn.

I’m going to sound evil here, but she winds me up all the time. She’ll say things like, ‘Oh, you always get your own way because you’re on the telly.’

So my parents would ask, ‘Do you want a cup of tea?’ And Ava will say, ‘Why? Because she’s on the telly?’

‘No, because me dad’s asking if I want a cup of tea.’

Or she’ll go, ‘Someone was talking about you at school today.’

‘What were they saying?’

‘Oh, you don’t want to know.’

‘Well, what are you mentioning it for?’

‘You really don’t want to know.’

So