Violinist and influencer Izzy Judd on parenting solo while Harry was filming and how she prepared for the challenge
RHONA MERCER
EXCLUSIVE
Izzy Judd is hiding from her builders in the bedroom of her and husband Harry’s new home. The couple have been renovating their London pad for months and Izzy tells
new, until it’s finished, she’s “camping out” upstairs.
Living on a building site would be enough to send anyone over the edge but, on the contrary, Izzy, 39, who is mum to Lola, eight, Kit, six, and two-year-old Lockie, is a vision of serenity.
The violinist, who is married to McFly drummer Harry Judd and has an EP, Moments, coming out on 16 February, is here to chat about Little Moments Together, a campaign about the importance of the early years of a child’s life in terms of their brain development and the crucial role parents and caregivers play in this. But also on the agenda is Izzy’s ongoing anxiety battle and how she coped when Harry, 38, was away filming the competition show Celebrity Race Across The World.
Here, Izzy, who is also working on the third series of The Music And Meditation Podcast for the BBC, talks about the two different sides to Harry, hanging out with the other McFly stars and why she’s such a big fan of therapy.
Hi, Izzy! How did you cope looking after your three kids as a solo parent while Harry filmed Celebrity Race Across The World ?
It was really interesting because I couldn’t speak to Harry so we had Zoom calls every five or six days when he got to a checkpoint. You realise how much you depend on your partner’s opinion. I was having to have more confidence in my own choices and decisions. I’d have this list of things that I needed to ask Harry about and when he came on the Zoom it was very clear that he was not in that headspace at all and was really missing home. He was not going to be able to talk about Kit’s drumming lessons!
It must have been hard…
For both of us, it was a very challenging time. I’ve spoken very openly about my anxiety and it was the greatest test for me because I didn’t know where Harry was. I couldn’t contact him and he wasn’t in the country.
If somebody could have said, “What’s the biggest challenge we could throw at Izzy?” – that was it. In a way, it was a real achievement for both of us.
How did you prepare for it?
I had a lot of therapy beforehand. I was very, very frightened about Harry going and the responsibility of three
