Jesy Nelson has opened up about the heart-stopping moment her mother realised something was seriously wrong with her twin daughters — a moment that would change their lives forever.
The former Little Mix star revealed how her mum Janice White raised the alarm after noticing that babies Ocean and Story weren’t moving their legs properly, shortly after Jesy secretly relocated to Cornwall following a traumatic, high-risk pregnancy.
Speaking on Great Company, Jesy explained that she and then-partner Zion Foster chose to move six hours away from family to give their babies a peaceful start in life by the sea.
“Me and Zion decided we wanted to move to Cornwall because our babies had been through all this trauma, and we just wanted them to grow up in a peaceful setting and just be around the sea and live like a kid,” she said.
As a first-time mum, Jesy admitted she didn’t initially recognise the warning signs.
“I honestly was not even taking notice of their legs because they’re my first set of children. I didn’t know how they should be moving their legs, or what they should and shouldn’t be doing anyway.”
Because of the distance, her mum wasn’t around daily — but when Janice visited, she immediately sensed something was off.
“She noticed how much it had deteriorated and said, ‘Jesy, they don’t move their legs very much. Have you noticed that?’”
Jesy initially brushed it off, explaining that the twins were premature and couldn’t be compared to her nephew. But her mum persisted.
“She said, ‘I know Jesy, but something’s not right.’ My mum is such a worrier — she worries about everything — so I just thought she was over-worrying.”
A week later, reality hit.
“I remember changing their nappy and thinking, ‘Oh God, they actually don’t move their legs at all.’ For some reason, they just stopped.”
Terrified that her mum had been right all along, Jesy rushed to see a paediatrician. After blood tests and a brain scan, she left the hospital in tears — later learning that her identical twins had been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1, the most severe form of the rare condition affecting muscle strength and movement.
Since the diagnosis, Jesy has been campaigning to have SMA added to the NHS newborn heel-prick test and is using her platform to raise awareness.
She is also sharing her journey in a new six-part Prime Video docuseries, which follows her transition into motherhood and reflects on the emotional decision to quit Little Mix in 2020 — something she’s now spoken about publicly for the first time.
