Emma and Roy Hann
Dundee Couple with 12 children, Over 22 Years of Marriage
I spoke Exclusively to Emma Hann before their upcoming media appearances.
The Hanns (Emma and Roy, both aged 43), from Dundee, have been married for 22 years. They have 12 children: Rachel (21), Sophia (20), Polly (18), Charlotte (17), Alice (14), Annabelle (12), Jennifer (10), Isabella (9), Jonas (7), Enos (5), Eva (3) and baby Posy (22 months).
They are not on benefits; Roy works full time (37.5 hours) as a nurse, doing 12 hour shifts. He works out-of-hours and gets extra pay; working night-shifts and weekends, days or nights. They moved to America in order to try and better their prospects with Roy’s employment. Whilst supporting the family, Roy has almost finished his Masters degree in Advanced Clinical Skills in Nursing.
You will be able to see them on My Life My Big Family Wedding on CBBC on Tuesday 26th February 5:45-6:15pm – which is a view of a large family life through the child’s eyes. Narrated by their 12 year old daughter, Annabelle, about their eldest daughter Rachel’s wedding (who has also nearly finished her BSC (hons) in Behavioural Science).
Emma says, “We were contacted by Blakeway North who were making a my life program for CBBC and I guess had seen us on 15 kids and counting. They asked if they could make a taster clip with our family to sell to CBBC. We agreed and they figured Annabelle was the age best suited to their viewers. Alice felt for sure she was the perfect star, but they chose to use Annabelle, who is a lot less confident. It was stressful and we had some diva like behaviour from some of our other children whilst filming. We found ourselves bribing more than we normally would have ever. But all in all it’s been an amazing experience!”
Emma and Annabelle will also be on BBC Breakfast the morning (Tuesday 26th February) before the programme goes live on air.
The family are also appearing in the series 16kidsandCounting which begins on March 5th Channel 4.
The family love singing, dancing, playing and having fun. They wouldn’t be without their piano, trampoline and car. Emma started piano lessons when she was 6, “I loved playing and it kept me sane as a teenager.”
And if you were wondering if boys and girls really that different?
Emma told me, “After having our 8 girls, I really thought boys would be just very similar to our little girls and that parenting would be just a similar style… I had thought by not giving them the violent boy type toys and keeping them with the constructive learning playthings that I would have little boys that just sat happily building: Oh how I was wrong!! My boys have totally shocked us at their energy levels, their ability to make a weapon out of Lego, a sweeping brush, any kind of pole like objects are too much fun to them to become some type of sword/gun!! It’s been a big learning curve for Roy and I!”
