Paloma Faith reveals she suffered painful sex after giving birth

Paloma Faith has revealed her most painful experience was having sex for the first time postpartum. 

The singer, 42, who split from her ex Leyman Lahcine, 36, in 2022 after nine years together, has opened up about the breakdown of her marriage in her upcoming memoir. 

In the new book Milf: Motherhood, Identity Love and F***ery, set for release this Thursday, Paloma detailed the painful sex she struggled with for up to two years post pregnancy. 

The hitmaker confessed she desperately wanted to reconnect with her husband and felt guilty the pair hadn’t had sex in seven months since she gave birth. 

Sharing an exclusive extract from the book with The Sun, Paloma wrote: ‘Nothing for me has been as painful as the first time I had sex postpartum.

‘I felt guilty because it was by now seven months since I had given birth so thought I should have an obligatory try.’

Admitting it was about two years before sex didn’t feel painful again she added: ‘In the end I decided to wince through it. I wanted to reconnect with my partner again. If I am honest I resigned myself to living a life of painful sex for the rest of my days.’ 

Paloma shares two daughter, seven and three, with her Leyman and said that after suffering after the birth of her first daughter in December 2016, the pain returned after the birth of her second in February 2021. 

The star said she was put off sex completely as she was no longer finding it enjoyable and instead decided to grin and bare it once a fortnight. 

Paloma previously revealed her heartbreak over her split from ex Leyman ‘will be forever’ because they have children together.  

Speaking to Jamie Laing on his podcast Great Company last month, Paloma opened up about navigating the split as co-parents and her new ‘heartbreak album’.

‘I think this is ongoing navigation because we have children together,’ she said. 

‘And that’s what makes this a different type of heartbreak album. The heartbreak will be forever and the navigation of our relationship changing shape will be forever, probably until we die.’

Paloma also admitted that the pain is ‘very raw’ when her and Leyman see each other ‘because of the kids’. 

Speaking about how heartbreak differs when you have children, Paloma said: ‘Some people sort of, you know, just because you don’t see them, some people never speak again. 

‘And they’re still very present because you look at your kids and you see that person in your kids or they come back from visiting your ex partner and they’re doing the mannerisms or they’ve got opinions that you don’t agree with it or their opinions or whatever.’

But Paloma said it is even harder for her and Leyman as they still love each, which can make things confusing. 

She said: ‘But in my case, it’s even harder, I think in a way because we really liked each other a lot. We’re really close and we still love each other and that makes it confusing. 

‘That’s really sad. So it’s sort of heartbreaking. Every time we see each other it’s just very raw because of the kids.’

In March, Paloma admitted that having children with Leyman was what led to the breakdown of their marriage. 

Addressing their separation, she confessed that becoming parents changed their relationship irreversibly, as she was unable to give Leyman the same level of attention as before.

Speaking to the Independent, she said: ‘You either grow together, adapting to one another like expandable foam and filling the gaps where it’s empty – or one person grows and the other stays the same.  

‘And I think for me, becoming a mother was such a massively life-changing experience that for the first time in my life, I needed more than nothing – and the expandable foam just wasn’t there.’

Being brutally honest, she added: ‘Our relationship ended because we have those children. And I think that was worth it.’

In February, Paloma got even more candid about the split from Leyman, explaining that ‘resentment built’ when she could no longer ‘put him first.’