What were you doing when you went into labour? Odds are, you hadn’t just finished reading the business news on live TV.
But that was exactly what BBC Breakfast presenter Victoria Fritz was doing on Tuesday this week when her baby hurriedly decided it was time to come out.
Fritz was presenting the day’s business news, about subjects as ordinary as the financial results for low-cost airline easyJet. She was standing up, and her presentation was completely professional. But just after she went off air, her waters broke.
Her due date wasn’t until early December, BBC reports.
Fritz’s co-presenter, Sally Nugent, offered to stay with her at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester till her husband Dan arrived. But Dan got stuck in traffic on the motorway. Nugent became Fritz’s birthing partner, and was there when her baby boy arrived.
“My heartfelt thanks to @sallynugent & St Mary’s drs & midwives who helped me deliver my little boy yesterday,” Fritz later tweeted. “A @BBCBreakfast team effort!”
Nugent had something to say as well: “You won’t believe what happened after work yesterday. Huge congrats to our very clever @VFritzNews.”
Nugent added that Fritz was a “total legend” and the baby is “gorgeous”.
“It’s going to be a brilliant story for his 21st birthday! What an incredible day.”
Victoria Fritz and her baby. Photo courtesy BBC Breakfast/Facebook.
BBC Breakfast posted a photo of Fritz and her baby on their Facebook page.
"Breaking Breakfast Baby News!" the caption read. "Twenty-four hours ago Victoria was presenting our business news - today she has some rather more important news to deliver! He was in a bit of a rush to greet the world and arrived a few weeks early so he doesn't have a name yet but both mother and baby are doing well."
Many viewers were stunned.
"Didn't even realise she was pregnant," posted Julie Preston. "But that's what you call good news."
Victoria Fritz moments before going into labour. Source: BBC
"Can I ask, was she aware that she was pregnant?" added Joan Bridgwood. "She looked very trim yesterday when she was presenting with no evidence of a baby bump. Anyway, lovely news."
Meanwhile, David McConnell had a wildly different question.
"Are the viewers being asked to name him? How about Baby McBabe face?"