From selling millions of chart-topping albums to featuring as a long-standing judge on The Voice Kids UK, Pixie Lott has now added mother to her list of personal achievements. Welcoming her son, Bertie to the world in 2023 with husband, Oliver Cheshire, a model and creative director, the last year has been a whirlwind, both personally and professionally.
At the time of chatting to Pixie, she was also just days away from the release of her much-anticipated fourth album, Encino, and the first birthday of her son. Mother&Baby spoke to Pixie to find out how she’s finding life as a new mother and how she juggles parenthood alongside an international pop career.
New motherhood and pop stardom
Pixie had her first son Albert, known affectionately as Bertie, in September 2023 with her long-term partner Oliver. As she prepares to celebrate Bertie's first birthday, she's also preparing for the launch of her new album, Encino – a passion project she has been working on for the last five years. But, while this may seem like a lot of plates to juggle, Pixie says that she is loving the challenge.
“It’s amazing and it’s full-on as well. I absolutely love it. I’m obsessed with little Bertie,” she says with a beaming smile. “It’s a busy time at the moment because my album is out on Friday, which is the 27th of September, and Bertie’s first birthday is the 28th September. We’ve also just moved house, so there’s lots going on at the same time. I can’t believe he is turning one,” she continues. “I feel like it’s going to be an emotional weekend. I know I’ll cry on his birthday, I can feel it brewing”.
A balancing act: A new baby and new album
After a five-year process of writing and recording Encino, it was actually planned for the album to be released before Bertie was born. But, in signature Pixie style, she’s taken it on with gusto and embraced the challenge. “I didn’t realise the timing would work out this way. I thought the album would be out before Bertie was born,” she says. “It’s actually worked out perfectly because I’m loving bringing him along on the adventures and sharing this experience of putting an album out. Music is the best thing to me, apart from Bertie. To experience it all again but this time with Bertie has made this experience even more incredible. I bring him along to everything and anything that I can. He’s getting used to the ‘being on the road’ life”.
Is Bertie showing any signs of following in his mum’s musical footsteps, we ask? “He’s so used to hearing me sing. I’ve been singing to him every morning ever since he was born, so he doesn’t know any different,” Pixie says. “I think he likes music. He plays the shaker on my second single ‘Midnight Trash’. He’s credited in the album credits. It says ‘Albert Cheshire – Shaker’ so he’s a part of this album as well,” she laughs.
Family matters: Lessons from mum and dad
Pixie’s close relationship with her family is something she’s spoken about often, and a bond she says has helped shape her own parenting style. “I’m from a close family and I am a real family girl. I knew that it would be my everything and I’d have a lot of love, but this is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced,” she tells us.
“My mum is an amazing mum. She does everything for us kids. I’d love to be half the mum that my mum is to us. She is a role model in the mum world,” Pixie says. “My dad is also a hands-on, selfless dad, who does everything for us and helps us now we all have our little ones. Everything I learnt was from them”.
Pixie credits this amazing support network to her success and ability to juggle Bertie alongside her career. “I’m lucky that my mum and dad, my sister and my brother have just had small babies, so they all come to my shows,” Pixie continues. “We’ve had all the three bubbas together, like a little creche. We all help each other out. If they’ve forgotten their nappies or bottles we can all help each other”.
Marital harmony and sharing the load
So how do a pop star and fashion model share the parental load, and has it changed their relationship in any way? “We’re lucky because we both work for ourselves. Even though we’re both super busy we can juggle it and make it work,” Pixie explains. “He works as a model and has his own fashion label, which he works on every day. He went back to work two weeks after Bertie came. But if he needs to work from home he can make that work. My mum and dad help us out a lot and I bring Bertie along to as many things as I can”.
After many years together as a couple, Pixie says that Bertie has only enriched the couple’s relationship and brought a wealth of new experiences to their lives. “ He is an amazing dad and he absolutely loves it,” she beams. “We’re having these new experiences for the first time. We’ve been together for nearly 15 years, so having a baby and moving house is a whole new chapter for us. We’ve only lived in flats without gardens our whole relationship. To move to a house and have a baby is an exciting, new adventure for us,” Pixie continues. “We’ve had a lot of time just us two, so it’s added another amazing layer. There are challenges that come along with the lack of sleep and juggle, but it enriches everything”.
A mini fashion icon in the making
Pixie was spotted at London Fashion Week this autumn wearing a chic black shirt and short suit worn beneath a full-length trench coat. Baby Bertie was also in attendance following in the fashionable footsteps of his mum and dad.
**“**I love bringing Bertie along. I love fashion, his dad loves fashion, so I think Bert loves fashion as well,” Pixie laughs. “It became apparent at London Fashion Week that he loves the camera. I love dressing him in his little outfits: the cute rompers, long stocks and little bloomers. He’s got a lot of sailor-inspired looks. I love bringing Bertie along and he had a great time”.
Juggling the feeding schedule as a working mum
Taking baby Bertie along to glamorous events and music performances has also been made easier with Pixie’s trusted baby essentials, and Tommee Tippee is one brand she’s often spotted carrying. “The Tommee Tippee bottles are mine and Bertie’s favourite,” she says. “Especially because I’ve been breastfeeding and bottle feeding. We’ve had no issues with the switch, and it has been completely seamless. The self-sterilising makes it so easy for on-the-go and Bertie loved them the most. I’ve always got them in my nappy bag. We also love the Tommee Tippee bottle warmer. We used them from the beginning. Getting the right temperature makes Bertie love the milk, so it’s become an essential”.
A fresh new album: Encino
For fans of Pixie’s music, the new album Encino promises a fresh new sound that she says is her departure from her earlier work. It came at a time in her life when she felt brave enough to take a bigger risk and put everything into it.
“The album started as a passion project. I was still doing features and dropping demos but not a full body of work. I started it on the side,” she explains. “I loved it so much I thought ‘why don’t I just put everything into this?’ I’m going to have to leave everything I’m doing now and take a bit of a risk”.
Pixie wrote the entire album in Encino, California, where she could really focus on the process. Her aim? An album made with live musicians. “I wanted an organic, authentic, real and raw sound”. The location meant so much to Pixie that it became the album’s title: Encino.
“I knew I really wanted to take my time with it, live with it and focus on every word and every sound,” she continues. “I wrote it with a small team of people so I could write about things that I’d never written about before”. This, she says, allowed her to go to real, deeper subject matters and write a true depiction of the last five years.
“Everything I’ve learnt, the hard times, the good times, everything in this record. I started out so young and I was writing with new people every single day that I could never get beyond that surface level. It was always writing trend-led stuff and fitting in to sounds that were of the time. This was a very opposite album process for me, which I loved. It was so liberating. I don’t want to make an album any other way, it feels so real. I’m so excited for it to be out”.
Has motherhood changed the creative process?
While the bright lights of pop stardom can change many, it’s clear that Pixie has her feet firmly rooted on the ground. Having a baby has simply shifted her perspective on what’s most important in life.
“My perspectives have changed massively. It makes you realise what are the most important things in life,” she says. “Life is so short, and our family, friends and relationships are the most important thing. I want to cherish every single second. One moment I'm thinking about crazy stuff at work, like the album launch party and signing. Then, I feed Bertie, and it brings it all back to earth and reminds me of what’s important. There’s a song on the album called ‘Happy’ and I sing it from that perspective. When I hear Bertie laughing or if we’re playing together on those slow mornings, it reminds me of what really is the most important”.
Pixie’s advice for new mums
Pixie is the kind of warm-hearted, compassionate mum we all would like in our friendship circle - always ready with a smile and a kind word. So, we ask, what would be Pixie’s advice for new mums in the thick of it who are wondering how they'll ever make the balance work?
**“**First of all, you’re amazing,” Pixie says. “Take it all little by little so it doesn’t become overwhelming thinking of everything at the same time. No day is ever the same,” she says reassuringly. “Even if you’ve had a tough day and a tough night, the next day will be easier. If it’s not, then the next day will be. Pixie adds, “Even if you’ve had a really tough day, you’ll always get through it and it will all be worth it when you see them laughing and smiling. We’re all in it together and you’ve got this”.
Cat Hufton is a freelance lifestyle journalist based in London. She has two sons aged five and two and during this time has tested hundreds of products designed to make parents' lives easier. She has also written about parenting in a number of national publications covering topics such as overcoming postnatal anxiety, intrusive thoughts, pregnancy during the pandemic, and the childcare crisis. She also writes a regular newsletter called The Freelance Parent which is designed to offer support to parents that work for themselves.