Jesy Nelson has spoken about the profound guilt she carries over her twin daughters’ spinal muscular atrophy diagnosis, revealing she struggles to understand how she missed the warning signs.
The former Little Mix singer, whose 14-month-old twins Ocean and Story were diagnosed with SMA Type 1, explained that she was so preoccupied monitoring other health concerns that their leg movement went unnoticed.
“I know it’s not my fault, but when I watch back videos of when I brought them home and they were kicking their legs, I realise now that over the course of a month, they just stopped,” she said.
“That’s the part where the guilt kicks in because I don’t understand how I didn’t see that. Why didn’t I spot that?”
The 35-year-old credited her mother with identifying the symptoms, acknowledging she dreads to think what might have happened otherwise.
“I just honestly didn’t focus on the movement of their legs. Thank God for my mum, because God knows what position I would have been in if she hadn’t spotted it,” Ms Nelson told The Sun.
Having left the neonatal ward with her premature babies, she had been instructed to monitor their temperature and breathing constantly, leaving little attention for other concerns.
The twins were diagnosed too late, after irreversible nerve damage had already occurred, and Nelson has been told they will likely never walk.
Jesy Nelson gave birth to Ocean Jade and Story Monroe Nelson-Foster in May 2025 | INSTAGRAM“That will probably never leave me. I’ll be honest, I don’t think it ever will,” she admitted, adding that she hopes her daughters will eventually understand “how flipping amazing they are” and recognise themselves as “the most resilient little girls I’ve ever known.”
Nelson recently secured a significant victory when the government agreed to introduce SMA screening for all newborns in England, a campaign she pursued alongside The Mirror.
However, the singer described the achievement as “bittersweet” during an appearance on This Morning on Friday.
“It should have never taken for me to come along to be taken seriously, this has been going on for years. People have being trying to take this to Parliament,” she said.
Jesy Nelson has continued to update fans on her babies’ diagnosis | INSTAGRAM
Nelson expressed frustration that the decision came too late for her own children, suggesting that had action been taken sooner, her daughters might not face their current situation.
The screening programme will begin in October, though Wales and Northern Ireland remain without equivalent testing.
“Why would I stop here? It would feel wrong to just stop at England now,” Nelson declared, vowing to continue her campaign.
Nelson’s new documentary, Jesy Nelson: Life Changing, premiered on Prime Video on Friday, chronicling her experience adapting to single parenthood while caring for children with complex medical needs.
The singer revealed on This Morning that watching the programme back proved emotionally devastating
The singer revealed on This Morning that watching the programme back proved emotionally devastating.
“Me and my mum watched it for the first time, and after we watched it, we couldn’t stop crying,” she said.
