Gemma Atkinson hits back as she's slammed for ‘pinching’ son to teach him a lesson

Gemma Atkinson began dating Strictly Come Dancing’s Gorka Marquez after she appeared on the show in 2017, and they now share two children - son Thiago, one, and daughter Mia, four

Gemma Atkinson hilariously hit back after she was slammed for allegedly pinching her young son “to teach him a lesson”.

The 39-year-old, who is engaged to Strictly Come Dancing professional Gorka Marquez, took to social media earlier this week to talk about the differences between the couple’s two children - son Thiago, one, and daughter Mia, four. In a post on her Instagram Story, she explained that her youngest child had even hurt his sister during one of his tantrums. “Really noticing the differences in how Mia was to Thiago. It's fun to watch,” she began.

“Toys are just banged or slid across the floor and the tantrums are new as Mia didn't have them. He pretend cries and throws himself on the floor. I stand and watch until he realises it's getting him nowhere and they are slowly getting shorter. He pinches when he gets frustrated. I did it back to him on Wednesday as he did it hard to Mia. He's not done it since,” Gemma shared.

However, she was forced to defend herself from the allegations after parenting experts slammed Gemma for allegedly pinching her son. Taking to her Instagram Story on Tuesday night, she said she was interrupted while hosting her drivetime show on Hits Radio by an email from her agent. “I was on the radio tonight, and my agent emailed me. Well, she sent me an email from a journalist from the Daily Fail. Says it all,” she shrugged, as she explained that her agent had been contacted about her Instagram post.

Gemma frowned as she recited the email, which read: “‘I’m writing a story on Gemma Atkinson, saying she’s done an Instagram post about pinching her son, but she’s removed the post because she’s been slammed. She hosts a podcast called Mum’s The Word and hosts a show on CBeebies.’”

The mum-of-two hit back at the reporter’s claims as she explained to her followers that she wasn’t the host of Mum’s The Word, and hadn’t worked on CBeebies for a while as The Toddler Club wasn’t renewed. Gemma then added that the post about her pinching her son hadn’t been deleted, but was on her Instagram Story, so “deletes itself after 24 hours”.

She recalled what her post on her Story had said, as Gemma highlighted the differences between boys and girls, and had compared her son Thiago’s behaviour with her daughter Mia. She denied she’d pinched her son, and said she had simply mimicked it while she was telling him off for hurting his sister. “As if I would,” she scoffed, as she vented her frustration over having to “let some journalist know I don’t nip my kid” while she was at work.

“Everything’s wrong and they’ve still written it! Oh, come on,” Gemma sighed. She later uploaded another video to her Instagram Story, as she mimicked how Gorka would react when he found out. “For f**k sake Gemma, what you do now?” she laughed, as she captioned the clip: “Gorka’s in Glasgow somewhere prob fuming.”

The former Hollyoaks star had the last laugh, as she poked fun at the criticism of her parenting as she signed off social media for the night. “I better go get Thiago out of the car, he’s been in there for about three hours. Window’s down though, so he’ll be alright won’t he? He’s fine on the drive, I’m sure… good night,” Gemma giggled.

Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .