Lord Mountbatten’s great-granddaughter has spoken openly about her dramatic home birth, which saw her rushed to hospital after a 40-hour labour.
Maddison May Brudenell, 30, welcomed her first child with her Canadian fiancé Bret Kapetanov on August 6.
The former Ralph Lauren model shares three children with DJ Olaoluwa Modupe-Ojo and was in the middle of her divorce when she met welder Bret during a trip to Ontario.
Within months of that first meeting, Bret moved to the United Kingdom and proposed to Maddison in June 2023.
In an interview with Hello!Maddison explained how she went into labor for 40 hours with her son Michael Adam at the family home.
In the photo: Maddison May Brudenell with her Canadian fiancé Bret Kapetanov. The couple welcomed their son Michael in August.
She explained: “I took it out of the water and held it to my chest, and then I heard a snap, it was very alarming.”
‘Michael turned white and then the midwives took over; Then the ambulances and paramedics arrived.’
Umbilical cord rupture is a serious complication of childbirth and is usually the result of compression caused by vasa previa, where blood vessels block the birth canal.
Alternatively, it can also be caused by an umbilical cord prolapse, where the cord falls down the birth canal before the baby.
Although the mother did not explain why the umbilical cord broke, Maddison and Michael were subsequently hospitalized, but both mother and son appear to have made a full recovery.
Posting on her Instagram Stories today, Maddison said: “I thought my fourth baby would be the easiest.” This job really surprised me.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Maddison, who is the granddaughter of Lady Pamela Hicks, revealed that she had named her youngest son after her grandfather Michael Brudenell, who was a royal obstetrician.
Maddison’s grandfather gave birth to all of the late Queen’s children and died in March 2015, just two weeks before his 90th birthday.
Within months of their first meeting in Ontario, Bret moved to the United Kingdom and proposed to Maddison in June 2023.
Maddison has revealed she was in labor for 40 hours with her son Michael Adam (pictured) at the family home.
The late Queen pictured speaking to Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, in March 1958.
Despite their wildly different backgrounds, Maddison revealed that her family has been very welcoming to her future husband and says Lady Pamela is “very proud to call Bret her new grandson-in-law.”
She added: ‘He had a very different upbringing to me, he worked on the farm and went to work before and after school. In that sense, he is a gentleman, he knows how to treat a woman and he knows how to respect his elders. He has shown Grandma nothing but respect, and she thinks highly of him for that.
Maddison, daughter of actor Jeremy Brudenell and Edwina Hicks, married Modupe-Ojo, whose stage name is Jazz Purple, in 2015.
Maddison’s great-grandfather was the beloved great-uncle of King Charles, the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.
He explained that he bonded with Modupe-Ojo, who grew up in Manchester, through music and that their marriage came as a surprise to Maddison’s peers.
“I fell in love with his work and started going to concerts, but it wasn’t until a year later that we got together,” he said.
‘We ran away and eloped at a small family wedding. “Our children are blessed to have the most wonderful dual heritage.”
She had followed in her mother’s footsteps into the fashion business when the Storm agency signed her as a model at the age of 16. He has worked for companies such as Ralph Lauren and Belstaff.
Now a “wellness” advocate, she says entering the business so young took a toll on her mental health.
The partnership came to a standstill when Maddison secretly ran away to marry DJ Olaoluwa Modupe-Ojo in 2015 (pictured together). However, the couple has since separated.
“I was depressed, anxious, feeling pressure from the industry to keep my weight down and party,” she said. “He was addicted to drugs and struggled with an eating disorder.”
Maddison attended Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in September 2022. Her grandmother, Lord Mountbatten’s daughter Lady Pamela, is one of the Queen’s two surviving ladies-in-waiting and a former lady-in-waiting.
Maddison has fond memories of the Queen Mother, whom she stood next to on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after watching Trooping the Colour.
“I’ve never had such a wonderful experience before,” he recalled. ‘I remember he turned to me and said, “There are a lot of horses, aren’t there? How many do you think?” I was a little stunned, I guess, and simply responded, “I don’t know.”
Maddison added: “I was always told to hold our family in high regard.”
Maddison’s great-grandfather, Lord Mountbatten, was killed in August 1979 when an IRA bomb exploded shortly after he left the fishing village of Mullaghmore on his boat.