Proudly displaying her bump for the first time, pregnant Peaches Geldof beams as she announces she is expecting a baby boy on her late mother’s birthday.
And as she cradled her stomach, the 22-year-old daughter of Sir Bob Geldof and Paula Yates said she felt it was her mother’s way of watching over her.
The model and sometime TV presenter admitted she kept her pregnancy a secret for nearly five months before breaking the news to her father on Boxing Day.
Miss Geldof revealed that her son would share her mother’s birthday, on April 24, adding: ‘It was amazing for me when they told me that, very emotional and touching and just really beautiful. I was so happy.
‘She’s watching over me and my baby’: Six-months-pregnant Peaches Geldof shows off her baby bump for the first time as she reveals she is having a baby boy, due on mother Paula Yates’ birthday
She was just 11 years old when writer and broadcaster Miss Yates died of a heroin overdose in September 2000, and said: ‘I feel like it’s a little wink from my mum; her way of sending a message to let me know that she’s watching over me and my baby.’
The blonde added that her father was ‘overwhelmed and emotional’ when she told him that she was pregnant with her musician fiance Thomas Cohen, who is just 20.
The pair, who became engaged last month after a year of dating, said they kept the pregnancy a secret as they had wanted time to ‘enjoy this sacred time as a couple’ before sharing the news with their families.
Overjoyed: Peaches and fiancé Tom reveal that they kept the pregnancy secret for five months
They had also wanted to be able to tell their families the sex of the baby, which coincided with Christmas – and will now bring their wedding forward.
Speaking about the Boomtown Rats star’s reaction, Miss Geldof said: ‘Oh my God, he was so happy, especially as I’m having a boy. The poor man’s been surrounded by women up till now.’
‘I knew he would be happy but I didn’t realise how over the moon he would be. He’s always been very supportive of me but he was really overwhelmed and emotional.’
She also told how the proud grandfather-to-be gave his future son-in-law the seal of approval, saying: ‘He offered Tom a glass of champagne and told me he was glad it was Tom because, of all the boyfriends I’ve had, he’s the favourite.
‘He told us we must never break up; that we must make our child happy, get married and be together forever.’
Miss Geldof is no stranger to controversy and has, in the past few years, been caught up in allegations of drug taking, shoplifting and extreme dieting.
However, now, she claimed, her evenings are devoted to pouring over websites for babywear companies like Mamas and Papas and Mothercare.
She started dating Mr Cohen, the frontman for band S.C.U.M. in December 2010, but the couple had been friends for five years prior to that.
Miss Geldof divorced rock musician Max Drummey in 2009 after a six-month marriage. The pair had married in secret in a drive-in ceremony in Las Vegas after a 10-day romance.
But last year, she told how her relationship with Mr Cohen had calmed her down – and that she was keen to become a mother.
Speaking in July, Miss Geldof said: ‘Tom is so good for me. I’m so loved up. We’ll make beautiful babies – I’m so broody!
‘I’ve decided I want one by 25 but I would like to be married first, and Tom would make the perfect husband.
‘The poor man’s been surrounded by women up till now’: The couple say that her father Sir Bob was ‘over the moon’ when they told him their news on Boxing Day, especially when he heard they are expecting a boy
‘We’ve been together nine months and since I’ve moved back to London, life is like something out of a Richard Curtis film. He’s such a calming influence on me.’
The pair recently bought a house in Whitechapel, East London, and Miss Geldof said she had become obsessed with furniture.
She said: ‘I guess, when you get a mortgage, somehow you become obsessed with things like oven mitts and garden furniture and couches,” she says. “I never thought it would happen to me, but it’s like the high point of my life now, buying vintage sofas. I’ve been going insane on eBay.
‘I’ve bought, like, a million vintage
sofas, I’m obsessed. I keep getting men from the West Country calling me
up to deliver sofas, which are all piling up in our tiny one-bedroom
rented flat in Stamford Hill.
‘A wink from mum’: Peaches says it is ‘very touching and emotional’ that her son could share a birthday with her late mother (pictured in 1992)
‘I’ve become very much domesticated. I’m a fan of doilies: I’ve been collecting them, different ones, embroidered doilies, much to the chagrin of my long suffering fiancé.’
She added: ‘One thing I don’t like about Whitechapel is all the graffiti. I’d much rather have a Turner than a Banksy. I can’t stand all that hipster stuff, sadly. You’d think I was the epitome of it, but I’m, actually, really boring. Recently, I’ve been staying in with my fiancé every night of the week, watching films like Babe. The most exciting it got recently was a night out to see Arthur Christmas.’
Although they had planned to wait a couple of years before marrying, they have now decided to bring the wedding forward to ‘probably to late this year or early next’ because of the baby.
She said: ‘It will be quite a traditional wedding. We want our son to know that he has a mummy and daddy who will be together forever.’
Sir Bob made his pronouncement to his
young daughter that she must stay married to Mr Cohen forever – even
though his marriage to Paula Yates ended after 20 years together.
The couple wed after 10 years together in June 1986 in Las Vegas and the marriage ended when Miss Yates left the Live Aid activist for INXS heartthrob Michael Hutchence in 1995. Their divorce was made final in May 1996.
The couple had three daughters, Fifi, now 28, Peaches and Pixi, now 21.
Last year, the 60-year-old campaigner told how he almost killed himself over the breakdown of his marriage, admitting he battled ‘universes of grief’.
He said the pain was so intense that he
considered suicide — and that he only decided against it for the sake of
their daughters.
Sir Bob said: ‘I made a list of reasons to live. There was only one item on it: the children.’
The rocker later found some solace in music, he said, and went on to meet current partner, French actress Jeanne Marine, in Paris.
Meanwhile, tragic Miss Yates died in 2000 from an accidental heroin overdose aged 41 — three years after Hutchence hanged himself aged 37.
Following her death, Sir Bob won custody of Tiger Lily, the daughter of Miss Yates and Hutchence, who is now 16 and goes by the name Tiger Hutchence-Geldof.
For the full interview, see this week’s issue of Hello! magazine.
