Helen Flanagan opened up about her co-parenting struggle and ‘mum guilt’ over her different bonds with her three children in a candid update on Monday.
The actress, 34, who shares Matilda, nine, Delilah, six, and Charlie, three, with her ex-fiancé Scott Sinclair, admitted to ‘finding motherhood hard recently.’
Helen split from the professional footballer in 2022 after 13 years together. She moved on with construction worker Robbie Talbot, 45, but they split in May.
Sharing a series of photos with her children, she captioned the Instagram update: ‘Looked back at some of my favourite times with the kids this year x
‘Found motherhood hard recently, I’ve felt overwhelmed and stressed the majority of the time and I want to get back to when I’m present and I’m really in it and I’m really enjoying it x I always wanted to be a mum x.
‘I get mum guilt with Matilda as I feel like I’m always pre occupied with her brother, I can’t give her the energy that I want to give her and I feel like she always sees me at my worst.’
Helen Flanagan opened up about her co-parenting struggle and ‘mum guilt’ over her different bonds with her three children in a candid update on Monday
The actress, 34, who shares Matilda, nine, Delilah, six, and Charlie, three, with her ex-fiancé Scott Sinclair, admitted to ‘finding motherhood hard recently’
The actress continued: ‘I also feel like she needs calm which I can never be. Delilah, I feel like I’m getting it right with her and I feel like our bond is tight, so that’s something not to beat myself up about.
‘Charlie I could pull my hair out sometimes, I feel like I’ve got the male version of me x.
‘Co parenting is hard and not being a team together and not being able to talk about your anxieties and worries for the kids.
‘I suppose you can only do your best and be kind to yourself but I wanted these on my grid for me as they make my soul happy.’
The update comes after Helen declared that she’s ‘back to normal herself’ and ‘living in the Starbucks drive-thru’ after the return of her driving licence following a six month ban.
Back in January, the ex Corrie actress told the court her ex boyfriend Robbie Talbot was driving her £66,000 Audi Q7 when it was caught speeding twice.
She was subsequently barred from the roads for six months, despite claiming she was struggling financially and would not be able to afford taxis to get her children to school.
After being snapped back behind the wheel of her pricey motor last week, a delighted Helen took to her Instagram Stories to update her followers.
Helen split from the professional footballer in 2022 after 13 years together. She moved on with construction worker Robbie Talbot, 45, but they split in May
Sharing a series of photos with her children, she captioned the Instagram update: ‘Looked back at some of my favourite times with the kids this year x’
Helen added: ‘Found motherhood hard recently, I’ve felt overwhelmed and stressed the majority of the time and I want to get back to when I’m present and I’m really in it’
Of co-parenting, she said: ‘Co parenting is hard and not being a team together and not being able to talk about your anxieties and worries for the kids’
She concluded: ‘I suppose you can only do your best and be kind to yourself but I wanted these on my grid for me as they make my soul happy’
She gushed: ‘I am so happy that I have got my driving licence back, I was nervous at first for like the first ten minutes I was like ‘It’s so weird to be driving again’ but now I just absolutely love it’.
‘Back to my normal. I feel like I am back to myself now i’m back to the Trafford Centre and back living at the Starbucks drive-thru and I just feel like myself’.
In a chaotic social media post last month, Helen complained what a ‘pain in the a***’ it had been without a car and had been unable to run errands or go shopping for essentials due to living so remotely.
Taking to her Instagram Stories she explained her ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) had caused her to mix up paperwork to reapply for her licence, meaning the process would now be delayed further.
‘I literally can’t tell you what a pain in the a*** not having [my driving licence] because I live in the middle of nowhere, and of course I haven’t been driving’.
‘It’s just been so b****y annoying, for example we are out of loo roll now and I can’t pop out to the shops to get loo roll so my friend has to bring me loo roll’.
In court Helen said her isolated moorland home meant it was a 10-minute drive even to go to the shops to buy bread and milk, and that she would ‘really struggle without a car’ in the remote location.
The actress, who lives near Bolton, Greater Manchester, said she earned £70,000 last year – but said her income varies and that she could not afford a £10 taxi to take her son to nursery.
Prosecutor Stephen Kirk told how Helen, who already had six penalty points for speeding, failed to declare who had been driving the car when it was caught speeding at locations on Merseyside in June last year, doing 42mph in a 30mph limit and 51mph in a 40mph limit.
Magistrates gave her six more points for each offence – taking her total to 18 points, well above the 12-point threshold when magistrates normally impose a ban unless there is ‘exceptional hardship’.
Making her doomed plea to keep her licence, Helen said at the time: ‘I am so sorry. I stupidly thought it was acceptable for my boyfriend to explain he was the one driving and it wasn’t me.’
The update comes after Helen declared that she’s ‘back to normal herself’ and ‘living in the Starbucks drive-thru’ after the return of her driving licence following a six month ban
Helen told the court how she is a ‘full-time’ mother to children Matilda, nine, Delilah, six, and Charlie, three, using the car to take them to nursery, school and activities.
She said: ‘My job really is being a mum at home. Their dad works away. It’s really difficult at the moment now for me to be earning money. I earn money on social media but it kind of varies what I earn.’
She added: ‘I think there might be a perception maybe that I would easily be able to afford a driver but that’s quite far from the case.
‘I’ve got enough money in my account to pay off my tax and my VAT and basically that’s about it.’
Asked by solicitor, Patrick Boyers, how she takes her son Charlie to his nursery without a car, she said: ‘The other way to get Charlie to nursery is by Uber (taxi). That would be really expensive. I’m really struggling at the moment, financially.’
Asked by the clerk how much it cost, she said: ‘I did get an Uber from my house to the nursery this morning. It cost £10 that time.’
She also claimed her son ‘doesn’t do so well in a taxi’ and that he’s ‘much better strapped into a car where he’s safe’.
