Sinitta has opened up about her experience of adoption and the cruel “kick to the stomach” she received from one reality TV star.
Speaking exclusively to Entertainment Daily, Sinitta said she was berated for having to end a lunch meeting early to get home for the kids.
She adopted children Zac and Magdalena 12 years ago when they were 20 months old.
The “lovely” twins are now 14 and taller than their petite mum.
What did the reality star say to Sinitta?
Recalling the horrific encounter, Sinitta told us the comment was “uncalled for”.
Sinitta said: “It was so weird and uncalled for. She’d never even met the children.
“It was just a low cruel blow out of nowhere. But it just shows me how some people can hold strange prejudices about you that you’re not even aware of.”
Read more: Sheridan Smith posts cute snaps of ‘Sunday lunch with my boys’
Sinitta said she was at a lunch meeting and was made to feel as if she was using the children as an “excuse” to leave early.
‘Oh okay, use the excuse. Rush back to your two kids that aren’t even yours.’
“I did have one reality TV show actress tell me, when I was having to end a lunch meeting early to get home for the children: ‘Oh yes okay,’ like I was using it as an excuse.
But the insult that she didn’t believe Sinitta really needed to get away was just the tip of the iceberg.
Sinitta continued: “It was the fact that she said: ‘Oh okay, use the excuse. Rush back to your two kids that aren’t even yours.'”
The star – who once dated Simon Cowell – said: “And it was like a kick to the stomach at the time.”
‘Unpleasant experience’
She added: “It’s probably best not to say who it was, but it blew up into quite an unpleasant incident at the time.”
Sinitta is otherwise full of praise for adoption.
Read more: Fern Britton posts another cryptic tweet just eight months after Phil Vickery split
She told us: “I’ve had incredibly now 12 years of being a mother thanks to me being able to adopt Magdalena and Zac. It’s completely changed my life for the better.
“I desperately wanted a child and ended up being blessed with two.”
She added: “I remember the heartbreak and the stress and the worry that maybe I wasn’t going to be able to have children after having so much difficulty.
“It’s a horrible place to be in as a woman. You’re married, you’re happy and you have everything but the one thing you desperately want is a child and you can’t do anything to make that happen.
‘Finally fulfilled’
“I had so much else to be happy about but it was kind of leaching my happiness away because it was all I could think about, how much I wanted a child.
“And being able to adopt Zac and Magdalena kind of just answered a prayer really because I just felt so fulfilled as a woman, as a person and finally as a mother.”
Sinitta is supporting #YouCanAdopt, a national campaign to raise awareness of adoption and dispel some of the myths around who is eligible to adopt. To start your adoption journey and find out more, visit the website here.
Head to our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and tell us what you think of our story.