Jesy Nelson has said she doesn’t really matter anymore now she’s a mother to her daughters Ocean Jade and Story Monroe, who she has with her ex-partner Zion Foster
07:43, 04 Feb 2026Updated 09:32, 04 Feb 2026
Jesy made the heartbreaking admission(Image: ITV)
Jesy Nelson has heartbreakingly admitted she doesn’t really matter anymore now she’s a mother. The Little Mix star welcomed twins Ocean Jade and Story Monroe nine months ago.
It was a tough pregnancy and birth for Jesy and her now ex-partner Zion Foster. Jesy and Zion’s twins were diagnosed with TTTS (twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome) whilst in the womb and were born prematurely at just 31 weeks.
Jesy spent three months in hospital before the babies were even born due to their condition and then when the babies arrived, they were looked after in a special neonatal care unit and Jesy had to be at a separate hospital from them.
Heartbreakingly, Jesy’s twins were later diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy type one and were diagnosed late. The Mirror have joined Jesy in calling for all UK babies to be checked for SMA at birth.
Jesy Nelson said she and Zion Foster are focused on co-parenting their daughters as friends(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
In an emotional episode of Jamie Laing’s podcast Great Company, Jesy heartbreakingly said: “I feel like I don’t really matter anymore, like they are, like my whole heart and soul, and like I have to just get on with it.
“Before, things that seem now seem so just ridiculous to me that I used to worry about I’d sit in bed and I’d cry and I’d feel sorry for myself, and I’d have days where I just wouldn’t even get out of bed.”
She added: “And now, I don’t have a choice to do that, because I have to just get on with it. It’s s**t. It’s really f***ing s**t. But at the same time, I’m just still so blessed because my girls are, they are literally superhuman, honestly, like I look at them and every day they are happy, and I’m like, What have I created? The s**t that they’ve had to go through, and they’re still happy and smiling, and I’m like, that almost thing gives me even more like strength to be like, Well, what gives me the reason to be sad?”
Jesy and Zion with their baby daughters(Image: Jesy Nelson Instagram)
Jesy explained that spinal muscular atrophy can cause issues with muscles in the body, which can affect the breathing, the swallowing and everything as she tragically admitted without any treatment, children with that diagnosis could die before the age of two.
“It’s not okay, but it is what it is, and I just have to accept it, and now just try and make the best out of this situation… And my girls are the strongest, most resilient babies and I really believe that they are going to defy all the odds,” she said.
Jesy feels like she’s been dealt a cruel blow but she heaped praise on her wonderful children and said she continued to be so grateful they were fighting every single day.
She recalled the devastating moment her twins were diagnosed. She had been to a doctor who said her twins were showing signs of hypertonia. Jesy explained: “I Googled, and the first thing that comes up when you Google hypertonia is SMA type one, and it says, If you do not get treatment, your baby will not make it past the age of two.
Jesy admits things have been tough but she is using her platform to campaign for more testing(Image: Prime Video)
“And I just remember feeling like, you know, like in a movie, when have you seen it? When like the person is standing and the whole world is spinning around them, and they’re like, that’s that what that moment felt like. And before I even read what the symptoms were, I just knew that’s what they had.”
She added: “The doctor did a zoom with us, and he said, I am, and from the test results, 95% sure that they’ve got SMA type one. And I said, Okay, so, so now what at that point I was in, I feel like I’d kind of already got to that point that they had it, and at this point, my brain was like, well now we need to just get them the treatment. So I wasn’t really processing the diagnosis.”
Jesy explained she felt helpless and had previously admitted she was “grieving a life I thought I was going to have with my children”. SMA causes floppiness in the limbs, difficulty breathing and swallowing as well as delayed motor skills. Jesy previously said her life has been turned upside down and she is now acting as a nurse to her girls by “putting them on breathing machines and doing stuff that no mother should have to do with their child”.
Heartbreakingly, Jesy admitted of their diagnosis: “I know I have to be grateful. At the end of the day they are still here and that’s the main thing. They’ve had their treatment. I truly believe that my girls will defy the odds and with the right help they will fight this.”
Prior to 2019, babies with SMA type 1 often wouldn’t make it to their second birthday, and infants with the milder type 2 would never walk, facing life in a wheelchair as well as multiple surgeries and respiratory infections. In the past five years treatments have been approved for use to stop the disease in its tracks.
However, the tests need to be started within the first weeks, or even days, of life. Babies in the UK aren’t tested for SMA, for many the diagnosis comes too late for this. Campaigners and senior experts are pushing for that to change.
The Mirror is campaigning for a simple £5 check for SMA to be added to the NHS newborn heel prick test – so babies can be treated and effectively cured before irreversible nerve damage is done in the first weeks of life. Most developed nations already test for SMA at birth.
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.