Reality TV star Leanne Quigley has shared a harrowing account of the night her newborn baby son stopped breathing and nearly died, detailing a traumatic neonatal battle that continues to haunt her. The winner of BBC's The Traitors, who welcomed twin boys with her partner Sophie, has opened up about the life-threatening complications following their extremely premature birth.
A Terrifying Start for Twin Boys
Leanne Quigley, 30, and her partner Sophie became parents to twin boys, Hudson and Harley, who arrived dangerously early at just 26 weeks' gestation. The former armed forces member, who won the popular reality show alongside Jake Brown, described her sons as being born with their eyelids still fused shut and with skin so underdeveloped it was "bright red and really sore".
She recalled on Giovanna Fletcher's Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast that the babies were so tiny and fragile they "looked like they had not formed properly yet." The twins were immediately transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where they faced a daunting list of medical challenges.
The Night Harley's Life Hung in the Balance
The situation became even more desperate when Sophie developed a chest infection and was unable to visit the hospital for seven days, leaving Leanne to cope alone. The boys were critically ill, suffering from bleeds on the brain, holes in the heart, and chronic lung disease.
The crisis peaked one evening when Leanne had briefly left the hospital to get food. She received an urgent call to return because Harley's oxygen levels had plummeted. "He was near death, it was horrendous," Leanne remembered. Medical staff attached a monitor that sounded an alarm each time the infant stopped breathing. "It was going off every minute," she said.
Doctors made the decision to re-intubate Harley, but the procedure was fraught with difficulty. "I stood and watched them trying to intubate him. They couldn't get it down... I still see it now, them trying to force it into this tiny little body," Leanne confessed, her panic intensifying when staff suggested calling Sophie to the hospital, fearing it meant her son would not survive.
Survival, Strength, and Lasting Trauma
Miraculously, both Hudson and Harley pulled through and are now thriving young boys. However, the emotional scars from their early days remain deeply etched for Leanne. During Prematurity Awareness Month last November, she shared a candid post on Instagram, acknowledging the ongoing impact.
"I still always think about the fear, the NICU lights, the constant beeping, sleepless nights... but also the strength I never expected to find," she wrote. She expressed a complex mix of gratitude and grief, stating, "I feel selfish for still even getting upset about it because I think I should be grateful that they made it, but trauma is one of the most powerful things in the world!"
Leanne ended her message with a tribute to her "tiny warriors" and a note of solidarity for other families on the same difficult journey, proving that even for a reality show champion, the most real and challenging battles often happen far from the cameras.
