Thrust into the spotlight in her 20s via the chaotic world of early reality TV, Megan McKenna has eased into a less frenetic phase of life in her 30s – as a wife and doting mum. Once a wild party animal and drama-magnet on shows like Ex on the Beach and TOWIE, she’s embracing a whole new chapter.
Here, the chatty 33-year-old opens up about the pros and cons of splitting her time between the UK and Germany, where her husband, Scottish pro footballer Oliver Burke is based – and spills some exciting news on the music front…
“My life’s changed so much!”, beams Megan, asked how it’s going with little Landan, her first child with Oliver, 29, who plays for German Bundesliga club 1. FC Union Berlin. “I can’t remember life without him, isn’t that crazy?
Now an ‘extremely lively’ 18-month-old who we get adorable glimpses of on social media, Meghan admits, “He’s the friendliest baby – is this good or worrying, because he just talks to everyone?!”
Since welcoming Landan in 2024 following an emotional IVF journey due to Meghan’s thin womb lining and a diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome, she’s become quite the mum-fluencer to her 1million followers.
“It happened naturally”, she explains. “When I was pregnant, people started following the weird stuff I was eating [one craving was for anything orange-flavored including Fanta, Capri-Sun and Orange Twirls].
“It’s funny, a lot of it is what I eat anyway! “It’s grown from there. It’s a real community now – we share advice, support…It’s lovely.”
Of course, the keyboard warriors have come out occasionally, such as the backlash she received after sharing a video, feeding her little one steak and mash.
Megan shrugs. “My following is 90% positive. But the negative people sometimes forget you’re a real mum. It’s like, let’s step back and realise we’re all just here trying our best. We’re not always perfect.
As well as embracing motherhood (and realising she’s no longer ‘number one’), Meghan has also married the love of her life.
She and Ollie tied the knot in a lavish ceremony at Grantley Hall in North Yorkshire last June.
“It was unreal”, she smiles. “Sometimes I stop and go, that’s my husband! I feel more grown up, but it hasn’t changed a thing.”
She does admit, their set-up is anything but conventional. Though she moved out to Germany while pregnant, Meghan now splits her time between there and the UK, where the couple now also have a home.
“We don’t have a normal relationship. Me and Ollie live crazy lives! But I don’t think I want ‘normal’. And time apart keeps our relationship fresh.”
As for Berlin life, Megan has settled into a routine of trips to the park, coffee shops and exploring – though, giggling, she admits her German is still very basic.
“I like Berlin. It’s cool. And I love watching Ollie thrive in the Bundesliga. He plays brilliantly; against some insane players. I’m a massive supporter of Ollie’s, and Ollie is a massive supporter of me, that’s why we work.”
Megan, who has also become a culinary star, with her own cookbooks, was heavily pregnant when she moved out there, with none of the usual support network for a new mum.
And still today there are moments when being in a foreign country with a small child can get overwhelming. “I get times when I’d love someone to hand over to someone else for a bit. But I’m a very hands-on mum. And football is Ollie’s job. I knew what I was signing up for!”
“When I first moved to Germany, I don’t think I realised how much you need your family network. I wish that my family were there through that, because as amazing as Ollie is, he had to train the day after I gave birth, so it was a lot for me.
“Of course, mum was by my side for the first few days, then Ollie’s mum came out, then my sister. But there are times they can’t be there. They’ve got their own lives,”
One tough moment early on was when Ollie was away, Landon was three weeks old and had a bad case of acid reflux, she recalls with a grimace.
“It would get to 5pm and I’d get that awful feeling – like you can’t cope with the load of everything, you know? But you’d wake up the next morning and feel fine again, and you keep going.”
“Saying all this, when I have my second baby, it sounds crazy, but I’d happily have it in Germany because the healthcare’s incredible. It felt like I was giving birth in The Portland!”
So, they’re hoping to add to their brood? “Oh, 100%”, she laughs. “But right now I’ve got music to make, so not yet…”
Megan, who confesses that from her first reality show, her aim was only ever to use it as a platform to launch a singing career ( “I just got sidelined a bit, while I did every reality show going!”), pivoted to music with her album, 2018’s Story of Me, the following year winning The X Factor : Celebrity.
But her music hasn’t made the impact she hoped it would yet – and she thinks she knows why. “There’s been this massive public perception of me for being a bit… crazy. And I’ve always shied away from touching on that through my music before”, she says.
“I felt like I shouldn’t talk about it because I want to be taken seriously in the music industry. That’s not worked, clearly – so now, I’m going to talk about it.”
“I went through an awful lot in my twenties. From TV to relationships gone wrong, being called nasty names in the street because of shows I’ve done, then meeting Ollie.
“People forget that a lot of what they see is TV, it’s entertainment.. It’s all about shifting that perception. You need to listen to my lyrics to really feel how I felt through it, and it’s been tough.”
Laughing, the star – who previously dated Pete Wicks, adds, “A lot of the chaos I got into was… down to men. End of story. And alcohol – way too much alcohol!”
Megan has been hard at work in the studio for several months with acclaimed songwriter Jin Jin, who’s worked with the likes of Raye, Jess Glynne and J-Lo, to refine not only her gorgeous country-pop sound, but the lyrics that tell her story more candidly than ever.
“I’ve always written from the heart, but I skimmed around things, worried about what people think of me. But since having Landon, I look at life so differently. Whatever’s thrown at me, I can give it a go.”
With a new single on the horizon and a new album mooted for next year, Meghan is excited about the future.
Sticking firmly to her country roots with the new tracks, she admits her big icons are Kacey Musgraves and Ella Langley. whose Choosin’ Texas has been riding high on the Billboard charts.
But she’s seen a potential gap in the market. “America has these great female country singers. We don’t have that in Britain”, she says. “And I think I could be that person, I really do. Watch this space…!”
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