The 'very strong' conversation that changed everything for Benji and Zoe Marshall.

Life could have turned out quite differently for Zoe Marshall, co-host of Mamamia‘s parenting podcast, The Baby Bubble.

Zoe, 32, who co-hosts the podcast with Sean Szeps, shares 10-month-old Fox with NRL player husband Benji Marshall. On the podcast she discussed some of her journey to becoming a mum.

“I am an only child,” she began explaining to Sean, who has 16-month-old twins Stella and Cooper with husband, Josh.

“And [was] incredibly enmeshed with my mother, [who] was like my best friend. And she died when I was 22.

“I was very alone in the world. And I was very scared that could happen to my child.”

LISTEN: Zoe Marshall talks about her family planning on Mamamia’s latest podcast for new parents, The Baby Bubble.

When Zoe met her husband Benji, she knew he wanted children – in fact six children.

“I pushed off having kids for such a long time, that actually, we did have a very strong conversation where he was like, ‘If you don’t want this, I don’t know that we can be together’.”

Zoe explained she was surprised by Benji’s attitude at first, telling her co-host, “That’s really challenging for a woman to go, ‘Am I not enough to not have a baby with?'”

Seam observed it was a brave thing for Benji to admit in a relationship, and Zoe agreed that she was “proud” of him for doing so.

“He said that I tricked him because he said at the beginning I did want [kids], but then I was really scared to have a kid.”

 

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Anniversary morning is a little sweeter with Mr Fox

A post shared by Zoe Marshall (@zoebmarshall) on Jan 4, 2019 at 1:45pm PST

The situation is now very different for the mum-of-one.

“I love my life. I love my lifestyle, and I loved the old lifestyle,” she said.

“I knew the sacrifices, I’d been a nanny, I’d seen it all. I was like, ‘I love kids’ but, could I be connected like I was with my mother? And then I fell pregnant, and I’m obsessively in love with this child.”

She added, “Who would I have been if I didn’t do this? I cannot imagine my life without him.”

This week, Marshall wrote a piece for Mamamia explaining how she decided on her baby boy’s name.

“I was watching our wedding video a couple months before the baby was due…At 11:35 in the video, I found the baby name. Benji and I had always referred to each other as each other’s Arctic Fox. They are one of the few animals that mate for life.

“I thought Fox. That is perfect. I didn’t know any baby Foxs. No friends were named Fox, no weird exes or people we didn’t like from work. It was clean. A rarity in the name game.”

You can hear the full discussion on Mamamia’s new parenting podcast, The Baby Bubble:

How have your family plans changed since becoming a parent? Tell us in the comments below.

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