TOWIE’S Lauren Goodger found the perfect antidote to the country being paralysed by Covid — sex with her new boyfriend.
And now she and builder Charles Drury are delighted she is expecting her first baby.
The reality TV favourite said: “We were having quite a lot of sex — what else is there to do right now?
“We didn’t plan it but it feels as if it was just meant to happen. We had spoken about kids and family and getting married and we were on the same page, even though it was a surprise.”
Though Lauren was also left terrified she could lose her baby after discovering she was pregnant while suffering from coronavirus.
The 34-year-old, who has had miscarriages in the past, only realised she had the killer disease when she had a McDonald’s and “couldn’t taste a thing”.
She told The Sun: “I thought, ‘Oh no, I’ve got Covid, what if I lose the baby?’ It was terrifying.
“I was worried about my baby, I was worried I was going to get worse again and die.”
Lauren had been confined to bed with flu-like symptoms for two weeks in October when she first learned of her pregnancy.
Speaking from her Essex apartment, she said: “I spent a lot of time at home in bed recovering and eventually started to get better.
“Me and Charlie went food shopping on my first outing and we were hungry so we stopped at a drive-through McDonald’s.
“When the order arrived I couldn’t taste a thing, not an inkling — and I know what McDonald’s tastes like, please believe me.
“When we arrived home I said to Charlie, ‘I need to know’. I bit into a lemon and couldn’t even taste that.
“It was the same when I gargled with Listerine. If I’d been on I’m A Celeb I’d have won all the challenges.
I was worried about my baby, I was worried I was going to get worse again and die.
“It wasn’t until then that I realised it was coronavirus. It was the weirdest experience — and what a waste of calories. I was fuming!”
For Lauren, who is due to give birth in July, the next few days were spent fretting about her unborn baby.
In an emotionally charged, hour-long interview she said: “It was such a worry. Even though I’d recovered from the worst of it, when my sense of smell went. You see all this terrifying coverage of Covid in the news and I was panicking.”
Doctors reassured Lauren that she would most likely recover from her tsymptoms and in November, after a couple of weeks, she regained her sense of smell.
Lauren applied to be tested for coronavirus online but wasn’t offered one because she didn’t have a temperature.
And while she was never tested for Covid-19, many of those closest to her tested positive and she had seen them before Essex was placed into Tier 2.
She added: “I’ll likely never be 100 per cent sure if it was coronavirus but it would be strange if it turned out to be something else.”
It was a scary blip in what has been a “beautiful” time for three-months-pregnant Lauren, who met her baby’s father Charles, 23, through Instagram.
They started talking in March, during the first nationwide lockdown.
She said: “We obviously couldn’t meet up back then. But we were speaking on the phone and FaceTiming quite a bit. It was a friendly, flirty thing. We were friends before anything happened between us.”
Lauren was initially concerned about taking the relationship further, spooked by their ten and a half year age gap.
She said: “I always thought he was lovely but he is a little bit younger than me. But he is very mature and my friends urged me to give it a chance.”
Once the first lockdown lifted the pair began seeing each other. They decided to make things official in October.
Lauren said: “It was totally old-school. We’d been out for dinner and we got back to mine and were lying in bed. He looked at me and said, ‘I’ve been thinking about this the whole way home. I don’t know how to but I have to ask you — will you be my girlfriend?’
“The first thing he did was video-call his nan to tell her the news!” As the romance heated up Lauren quickly became pregnant.
She said: “We hadn’t been using protection so we’re not silly, we know what happens. But we bought a test and it came back negative.”
A few weeks later she bought another pregnancy test the result came back positive. The happy news came when she was still ill in bed and with flu-like symptoms.
Some days it’s like having a hangover. Even though I’m pregnant and I don’t go out, I don’t drink, I still get that feeling.
She said: “Charlie just looked at it and he was smiling. Neither of us could believe it was happening. It’s all happened very quickly. People might say it’s too soon, but it is the right time for us.”
Used to baring her soul to millions on reality TV, Lauren is a sassy, fun and deliciously candid interviewee. As we speak, she is struggling from a nasty bout of morning sickness.
She said: “Some days it’s like having a hangover. Even though I’m pregnant and I don’t go out, I don’t drink, I still get that feeling. I thought when I got pregnant that would all be over. It’s not fair.
“But obviously it’s such a beautiful thing and I have this lovely buzz at the same time.”
Lauren added that the response to the couple’s baby news has been “overwhelming”, and said she has been flooded with messages from well-wishers.
She continued: “I still haven’t managed to get back to everyone who has sent messages of love and support but it’s been so lovely.”
Even so, sick social media trolls were quick to leap on her happy news and accuse her of faking her pregnancy.
She said: “People have even accused me of having a fake bump. It’s totally crazy.
“It can be frustrating and annoying. But at the end of the day we are happy, we are having a baby, keep your opinions to yourselves and f*** off. But we are talking about a minority. I’ve probably had a handful of bad messages out of thousands of lovely ones.
“I’m constantly explaining myself when I shouldn’t have to. I’ve never been horrible to anyone, I’ve never hurt anyone. I’m not a bad person. I’m only human and I do have a lot coming at me.
"Eventually that stuff will break you down. That’s why I suffer from anxiety — I can’t take it from every angle.”
Lauren was even branded a “half-wit” by Good Morning Britain’s Piers Morgan this month after a news story claimed she would refuse the coronavirus vaccine.
Lauren claims the report was “inaccurate” and said: “There’s one big reason I won’t be having the vaccine for a while. I’m pregnant, I’m not allowed to.
“People are so quick to judge me without knowing what is going on in my life. It can hurt but the way I try to think about it is, ‘Well, at least they’re still talking about me’.
“Why are they commenting on my Instagram? Why on earth is Piers Morgan talking about me on the news? We’re in this massive pandemic — aren’t there more important things to be focusing on?”
Lauren was even reported to the police over a recent photoshoot in terms of Covid restrictions.
She said: “Someone filed a report to the Metropolitan Police to say I was breaking Covid rules. When my manager became aware of it he called them and they just laughed. But it’s a lot to deal with, this stuff.”
Why are they commenting on my Instagram? Why on earth is Piers Morgan talking about me on the news?
The Sun photographed Lauren for today’s interview but strict social distancing was observed and those present were tested for coronavirus in advance.
She said: “My manager takes good care of me and goes to shoots early to test everyone before I arrive.”
Lauren added that she is being “extra cautious” now she is pregnant and rarely leaves her apartment.
She says for the next six months she will be “taking it easy”, adding: “Miscarriage can happen for so many reasons. What I would say to other women that have been through it is it’s not your fault.
“I was young and fit and healthy when I lost my babies. It’s happened to me more than once and it’s horrible. When I was younger it didn’t bother me so much, but as I got older, that’s when I started to think, ‘This is never going to happen for me’.
“I’ve never felt like this in any of my pregnancies before and I feel like it’s a good sign.”
And Lauren’s “lioness” instinct is already kicking in. Patting her growing bump, she said: “I’m going to be over-protective — I can feel it already. I want the best for my baby. I want to breast-feed, I want everything to be organic. I will be there for this baby as much as it needs.”
And once the little bundle arrives, Lauren and Charles plan on trying for baby number two.
She said: “Charlie did say to me the other week it would be nice to have another baby straight away. He wants a boy as well. So if it is a girl, as I think it will be, then we’ll have one of each. But I’ll have as many as I can.”
Legend Mick so funny and nice
LAUREN has paid tribute to her Towie colleague, “Essex legend” Mick Norcross, who died last week aged 57.
She said she “can’t stop thinking about” the businessman and father of fellow Towie cast member Kirk Norcross.
She added: “It’s awful. Mick was generous, funny and smart. He was such a good guy to be around.
“There was a lot of down time between filming and we got to really know each other.
“My main memory of him will be as a really hilarious and kind guy.”
Lauren added that despite being one of the older Towie regulars,
Sugar Hut club owner Mick “used to party as hard as the rest of us”.
She said: “There were lots of parties at his house. I remember once walking into the bathroom – only it wasn’t the bathroom. I fell into this huge hole. It was a cellar with a set of wooden ladders.
“It was lucky I’d had a few drinks because I fell like jelly. Everyone was laughing their heads off. He was such an Essex fixture, everyone knew Mick. He’ll be missed by a lot of people.”
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