Stacey Solomon worries she and Joe Swash couldn't give foster child 'what they need'

Joe Swash is keen to help foster children with wife Stacey Solomon, but she expressed concerns in new documentary Joe Swash: Teens in Care that they might not being able to give a foster child "what they need" if they took one in while their own children are still young.

The couple spoke candidly about the prospect of fostering in Swash's new BBC documentary, which premieres on Tuesday, 11 July, and sees the I'm A Celebrity winner examine the British foster care system and those living in it.

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Swash has spoken publicly on multiple occasions about following in his mother Kiffy's footsteps by fostering, and while Solomon is keen to support him she shared her fears that they wouldn't do right by a child they fostered if they did it too early.

Swash and Solomon are parents to six children altogether, Rex, three, Rose, one, and four-month-old Belle from their relationship, while Swash also has son Harry, 16, from a previous relationship, and Solomon has two sons: Zachary, 15, and Leighton, 11, with another father.

On the programme, Solomon told Swash that she felt "deep down you're doing it because you eventually would like to foster" which Swash said was "something we could look into."

He adds, "I look at my mum as well and you can see how much joy, and passion, and pleasure she gets from Daniel. She's got so much from having Daniel, so it goes both ways."

It was then that Solomon shared her worry that they wouldn't be able to do enough for a foster child if they took them too early, as she said: "Yea, but she waited until you were all adults at the same time, i think it will be difficult trying to do it with the kids so young now.

"The only thing I'd ever worry about is the child, and I wouldn't want to bring them into an environment where we couldn't give them 100% of our attention or what they need, because they're going to need as much as any other child and more."

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Swash understood Solomon's concern but still felt it was something they "should think about" and he grew tearful as he spoke about the children in foster care that he met on the show.

"I find it really difficult," he said. "They were showing me pictures of when they were kids and Aidan [a foster child] had a couple of toys from when he was a kid.

"The toy got to me, it was only a little toy solider but he kept that, that was his one little thing and I found that really quite emotional to see. I just attach it to our kids and think it's so sad."

As he grew more tearful he added that the children he met on the show reminded him of their daughter Rose, and Solomon said: "Yeah, you put your kids in that situation and think 'oh God, how do they even cope with it?'"

Since making the programme, Swash and Solomon have vowed to become foster parents once their children are old enough.

Reflecting on parenting, Swash also said in the documentary: "My kids are my passion, I'm always in a house full of love... I don't know what life would be like if I had kids but I couldn't see them.

"I don't know who I was before I had kids, it's really weird it feels like someone else's life, especially because I lost my dad when i was 11 I know how important it is to have a family, to have a dad."

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Solomon concurred, saying that because of her husband's experience of growing up without a father meant he felt particularly passionate about fostering: "He knows how it feels to not have a parent around and to want a real father figure, a parent figure.

"It's one of the things we spoke about when we spoke about having our own children, was how much he'd love to eventually one day foster or do something to give back to kids that don't have what you want them to have growing up."

Joe Swash: Teens in Care premieres on BBC Two at 9pm on Tuesday, 11 July.

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