Made in Chelsea stars Sam Vanderpump and wife Alice have become parents after welcoming their first child together.
The couple welcomed their baby boy on Monday, 9 February and have revealed the very unique name they have given to him: Marmaduke, with them planing to nickname him Duke for short. The unique moniker has a touching family connection as it was a favourite name of Sam’s late dad, Mark, who died in 2018 aged 59.
It comes after Sam, 28 who wed Alice, 24 in a small, intimate ceremony last year, was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease at the age of just 28. His life expectancy has tragically been limited to four years without a transplant. He is currently on the waiting list.
Speaking of their decision to marry before the arrival of their first child, Sam revealed to Hello! magazine: “We all want to have the same last name before Duke comes.
“Fingers crossed I get a liver transplant quickly but we don’t know when that’s going be and we didn’t want to wait to get married.”
Sam and Alice began dating in July 2024 and got engaged eight months later. The pair married in December last year. Shortly before their wedding, Sam was diagnosed with an irreversible end-stage liver disease after a battle with sepsis in Christmas 2024.
Opening up on his health ordeal on an episode of Made in Chelsea, Sam told Ollie Locke and Tabitha Willett: “There is no hope of my liver getting better and he said I wouldn’t be having this call with you if I thought you could make it through the next four or five years. They’re sending me for liver transplant assessment, so yeah.”
As Tabitha and Ollie got emotional, Sam replied: “The way I look at it is, I’m healthy now, hopefully I will remain healthy all the way up until I’ll get a call and go in for surgery and then I wake up and I’ll be healthier”.
Sam was born with liver and kidney disease, which lay dormant in his body until he got sick with the flu. He also has asthma, which caused his organs to struggle with the illness. He was rushed to Westminster Hospital after Alice called an ambulance and, according to doctors, this quick thinking saved Sam’s life.
Sam told MailOnline: “You never think the flu will lead to you being in a hospital bed and nearly dying. They told my mum that if I had got to hospital 24-48 hours later, I wouldn’t have made it. By calling the ambulance, my girlfriend literally saved my life.”
Now waiting for a transplant, Sam recently told Hello! that he hopes the surgery will be a success. He said: “In all truth, a liver transplant is extremely successful. So I’m going to be here for my son. I know that. And there are those fears. But you know, the context is I’m healthy now. My liver might not be good for four or five years. But I’m going to have this liver transplant and everything’s going to be fine. I will live a long, happy life.”