Tana Ramsay has revealed the contentious reason for her husband Gordon’s absence at the births of their first four children.

When you give birth, you’d expect your spouse to be by your side, but the Ramsays disagree.

They had initially planned that Chef Gordon, 57, would not attend any of their children’s births.

Tana, 50, explained that it wasn’t because he was appearing in one of his many TV series, or because he was abroad and couldn’t fly back in time.

Speaking on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, the author said that his absence was deliberate as she honestly discussed her IVF process, delivery experiences, and their family dynamic.

Tana also discussed having polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), admitting that it’s difficult to call herself a mother-of-six following the terrible death of her son Rocky shortly after delivery in 2016.

Gordon and Tana are also the parents of Megan, 26, twins Jack and Holly, 24, Tilly, 22, Oscar, 5, and nine-month-old Jesse, with the father attending the latter two deliveries owing to Tana’s previous problems.

Tana and Giovanna discussed the ‘controversial’ cause for his absence, with Tana stating, “It is very controversial, but it just felt right.”

The 50-year-old also quipped that her husband may have been a distraction, but not because of his celebrity status, saying: “He probably would have gone all squeamish and fainted, and I would’ve been like, ‘Sorry, this is my moment.’”

Years after the couple’s first four deliveries, Tana stated that the choice ‘never really affected’ her, explaining: “I felt quite happy when we talked about it; I said, ‘Listen, if you don’t want to be in there, don’t.’”

So, who was with her in the delivery room?

It turns out that her mother was her birthing partner for the first four deliveries, but this changed when the couple decided to have a second set of children after Tilly entered sixth form, and Gordon took a more active role.

She commented on Gordon’s attendance at the births, saying, “I think he wanted to be there, and I thought it was nice.”

“I think it was after what we went through with losing Rocky, our little boy,” Tana told me.

The ‘traumatic’ early birth occurred while she was 19 weeks pregnant, despite bleeding beginning nine weeks earlier.
“Gordon looked at me and said, ‘I’m not going anywhere; I’m staying in for this,’” she went on.

Tana had multiple miscarriages before giving birth to boys Oscar and Jesse, who, like the late Rocky, were born through IVF.

Gordon and Tana had no more children, with Gordon calling their family “complete.”