The Apprentice’s Tom Skinner welcomes twin girls four weeks early after emergency C-section and says wife ‘nearly died’
TOM SKINNER has welcomed twin daughters – but missed their birth after they were born four weeks premature.
The former Apprentice star-turned-social media favourite was managing a West Ham Legends team in a tournament in North Carolina earlier this month when his wife Sinead called him saying she needed an emergency C-section within the next 24 hours.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Tom, 32, reveals doctors warned the couple if surgery didn’t take place, both Sinead and the twins’ lives were in serious danger – which sparked his desperate 5,000 mile journey back to the UK to be with them.
Thankfully, the twins – named Roma and Darla – are due home this weekend after spending the last few weeks in hospital.
He says: “The doctor said to me they noticed in a routine scan that Twin B had not gained any weight and hasn’t grown at all, and her heartbeat is really slow.
“He told me ‘there’s a significant risk to your wife’s life and twins’ life if we don’t get them out immediately.
“‘We need to get these babies out within the next 24 hours – latest – but I want to do it now.’”
Tom, famous for his “Bosh” catchphrase and viral breakfasts at Dino’s Cafe in Spitalfields, East London, was told the news about Sinead just before the West Ham Legends team’s first match in the inaugural TCT Tournament – and he got the team’s bus driver to take him to the nearest airport to book the first flight home.
The earliest departure he could get was in five hours, a connecting flight via Philadelphia, so he headed back to the match to oversee his side – featuring Hammers legends including Carlton Cole and Marlon Harewood – play their first game before heading back to the airport to begin his journey home.
Tom explains: “I thought we’ve got five hours to kill, I might as well go and manage West Ham in their first game – it is my dream after all!
“I had nothing else to do and Sinead was waiting for the op.
“I got there just in time for kick-off and gave a motivational speech – but we lost 4-2!”
Upon his return to the airport, Sinead’s sister Siobhan contacted him saying both the twins’ heart rates had dropped and they and his wife were now in “real danger”, so the operation had to be brought forward meaning Tom would definitely miss their birth.
Tom says: “Now I’m panicking and walking trough airport security thinking I might lose my wife and twins and I’m going to have to come back and explain to my little boy Henry that it’s just me and him now.
“I’ve broken down at the airport again.”
He continues: “As I boarded the plane I’ve got a text from Siobhan saying ‘Tom, you are a dad to two beautiful girls’.
“I’ve texted back saying ‘fantastic’ but there was no update on Sinead and as the plane took off I lost signal so I was flying to Philadelphia and I didn’t know if my wife was alive.”
Thankfully, when his plane touched down in Philadelphia, he received a text confirming Sinead was OK, but the twins were in incubators on oxygen “with loads of wires hanging out of them.”
After waiting an hour for his flight to Heathrow, he finally made it to Chelmsford Hospital to see his wife and new babies.
He added: “My pal, who’s a cabbie, took me to hospital from Heathrow and by this point I haven’t slept for two days.
“I sat there and looked at them and talked to them, telling them they’re ‘little legends – and daddy is going to look after you’. Two more West Ham fans are born.
“They had all these wires hanging out of them, all these tubes.
“I thought ‘bless your little cotton socks, I’m never not going to be there for you ever again – and I will never let you down.’”