Few figures in British culture, be they politician, TV personality or sports star, will spark as strong a reaction just from mentioning their name as Katie Price.

Throughout her time in the spotlight, she’s been scrutinised over her career choices, her appearance, her relationships, her parenting and her personal struggles, and been branded a shameless opportunist, a fame-hungry wannabe, a shrewd businesswoman, a good-time girl, an iconic hun, a doting mum, a bad influence and, indeed, a survivor, depending on who you ask.

Her latest venture has seen her following in the footsteps of A-listers like Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue and both Sir David and Victoria Beckham by bringing us right back to where it all started in the retrospective documentary Katie Price: Nowhere To Hide, a four-part series that takes us through her “rollercoaster” time in the spotlight, offering her side of the headlines that have dominated her life and career.

Early on in the doc, which is a collaboration with Louis Theroux’s production company Mindhouse, Katie explains that she was motivated to offer up her version of events as she feels she’s “always been misunderstood”.

“You all think you know about me,” she tells HuffPost UK weeks before her documentary’s TV debut. “And to a degree, you do. You’ve seen me do reality TV, and I’ve grown up in the public eye since I was 17. But there’s also a lot you don’t know about me.”

“I’m going to take you on a rollercoaster journey,” she teases. “And at the end of it, you will be mentally exhausted.”

“But just imagine, if you’re mentally exhausted, how do you think I feel?” she quips. “It’s my life!”

As one of the most iconic pop culture figures of the 21st century, Katie’s story is already very well-documented, between her past fly-on-the-wall reality shows, her whopping eight autobiographies, years’ worth of candid social media posts and, of course, the continuous stream of articles that have been written about her – both fact and fiction – over the last 30 years.

Katie claims that while people will have “seen headlines” and “judged me on them”, her new documentary allows her to put forward not just her version of events and lived experiences, but those of her family, loved ones and other figures from her life who contributed to the series and witnessed it all firsthand.

“When I decided to do the documentary, I literally said, ‘you can interview anyone you like from the past to the present – anybody – and you can ask me any questions you want, no matter how hard or tricky or in-depth it is’,” she recalls.

Clearly, producers took Katie at her word, with the list of subjects interviewed for Nowhere To Hide encompassing family members (including two of her grown-up children, Junior and Princess Andre), close celebrity friends (I’m A Celebrity co-star Kerry Katona and former bridesmaid Michelle Heaton are both featured), famous exes (Gareth Gates and Dane Bowers both lift the lid on their respective relationships with Katie, as does her second husband, Alex Reid) and even her cosmetic surgeons get the opportunity to say their piece.

“People they’ve interviewed, even I have gone ’you’ve interviewed them?’,” the former glamour model and reality star admits with a gasp. “‘What? What did they say about me?’.”

Already renowned for her unfiltered approach to public life, she claims that the Katie we see in Nowhere To Hide is “a proper open book”, and “couldn’t be any more authentic and raw”, as she reflects on the creation of her media “empire”, “marriages”, “relationships” and “every up and down”.

The first two episodes deal mostly with her first decade in the public eye, as she rose from a page 3 favourite to dominating the front pages. Seemingly, no subject is off the table, whether she’s taking accountability for what went wrong in past relationships, reflecting on the public thrashing she received from the tabloid press (and, as a result, the British public) and discussing some of the darkest moments from her personal life.

One such incident discussed early on in the documentary comes when she reflects on being sexually assaulted as a young child by a stranger in a park, something she has previously claimed had a profound effect on her self-image.

In an opening scene of Nowhere To Hide, Katie looks back at childhood pictures of herself, as well as some of the magazine covers she appeared on during her glamour modelling days, describing the latter as “ugly”.

“What’s really sad… there’s a picture I hold up when I’m five, and when I’m seven,” she explains of this scene in the doc. “They’re the only pictures I look at and I think, ‘aw, I was a sweet-looking girl’. But then, something happened to me around then…”

“So I’ve tried to work out, why do I think that I’m so ugly? Because from then, I just think I’m ugly,” she shares. “And that probably explains why I always do surgery.”

“It’s weird, because I’ve been a model all these years, selling out magazines, calendars, being booked for this job and that job, but yet I never look in the mirror and think, ‘phwoar, she’s a sort’,” she adds, with the distinctive laugh viewers of her past reality shows or YouTube series will already know so well.

The most difficult part of making Nowhere To Hide, she says, came when she reflected on a past attempt to take her own life.

“That was the darkest moment. I mean, you can’t get any darker than that,” she notes, saying the documentary allowed her to look back on “the effect it had on my family, the people around me and, obviously, myself”.

Recent years have seen something of a reckoning over the way women in the public eye were treated in the media in the 1990s and 2000s’ tabloid culture, at a time when the private lives of stars including Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, as well as others who are no longer with us, like Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston, were treated as a commodity.

Similarly, Nowhere To Hide offers us all a chance to look back at those early years when Katie Price (or Jordan, as he was still known to most of us) became an overnight tabloid fixture.

While she certainly doesn’t shy away from discussing enjoying the highs that came with that time of her life, there’s also no denying there were plenty of lows “and lots of dark moments” that came along with them. If nothing else, the documentary serves as a reminder of just how young Katie was when she first found herself being vilified by the media, as she transitioned from glamour model to media personality.

“When people watch this show, they will realise, I did actually start when I was 17,” Katie points out. “That is so young. I had no media training, and literally, overnight, I’m not joking, I had all the paps following me. Like, carnage.

“I had the media against me. Then the public turned against me – and I’m only a baby, having to deal with all of this.”

She continues: “You go back to your younger self – or even if you are young, the nights you go out, and you’ve gone clubbing with your friends, and got drunk. Imagine if a camera took pictures of your night, of you coming out of a nightclub, then that goes in a newspaper, so the whole UK can see it. And then, they write whatever they think with that picture.

“And it’s not just that day, because then the weekly mags, the following week, write about your night out. This is what I’ve had to deal with constantly – and grown up like. It does affect you. And it’s not normal, really, is it?

“I just became a product for people to just easily target, hate, make fun of, write crap about. And that’s all that I’ve been used to. And, really, that’s quite sad.”

“And it’s been constant, like that, till… the present time!” she adds.

For those tuning in to the doc, she promises equal measures of laughs and tears – “but what’s most important,” she says, “is that anyone from any walk of life will come away and think, ‘I didn’t know that about her’, or you might think ‘I feel really bad for what I thought she was’”. “You will see a different side,” she insists.

One surprising outcome of watching Nowhere To Hide back, Katie says, is the “closure” it’s given her over certain events from her past. Perhaps most notably, in episode two, she and singer Gareth Gates separately reflect on their brief fling in the early 2000s, something Katie observes that “everyone thought was, like, a one-night stand”, but both profess was more serious than many will have realised.

The documentary offers new information about their romance, which took place when Gareth had become an overnight sensation on Pop Idol at the age of 17, and Katie was in her early 20s.

“I’ve had to wait 25 years to get answers for things,” she admits, claiming that watching the documentary back felt like she was “reliving my life, but getting answers I never had at the time”. “It’s quite interesting,” she observes.

Throughout Nowhere To Hide, the constants in Katie’s life – including her beloved mum, Amy – offer their unfiltered opinions on everything from her public falls from grace, her infamous break-ups and the way she’s handled different aspects of her private and professional life.

Both Amy and the glamour photographer Jeany Savage, a mentor to Katie in those early years, profess that they didn’t agree – at least, at the time – with the way she chose to introduce her newborn son Harvey into the spotlight.

“They couldn’t understand why I would do photo-shoots and that with Harvey,” Katie says. “And I’m trying to explain to them, ‘if I don’t control it and put pictures out, then a paparazzi will just come and take pictures and make money from it’.”

She adds that while “they couldn’t get their heads around it” in those days, “now it all makes sense to them why I did it”, insisting she was “quite switched on, at a young age”.

Harvey is now 24 years old, with Katie standing by the decisions she made in her younger years.

“He’s my child, he’s an ambassador for Mencap, and I’m glad I did show everyone Harv,” she enthuses. “You know, I’m proud of him, he’s a credit to me. And just because he’s got his disabilities or complex needs, why should he be hidden away?

“He’s a great character, he’s my son, and I love him.”

“And the same with all my other kids,” she adds, referring to sons Junior and Jett and daughters Princess and Bunny. “They were all brought up on TV, and it hasn’t harmed them. They absolutely love it.”

As Katie mentions, tabloid gossip and public scrutiny is something that has gone hand-in-hand with her media career since she was first came onto the scene as Jordan.

“So, it got to a point where it’s like, ‘well, I suppose I’d better play the game, and do it back’,” she remembers of those early days. “But it never got better. It’s never got better.

“It’s literally one scandal after another scandal, and another one, and another one, and another one. Even till this day there is a scandal!”

“Why? Why me?” she ponders. “What did I ask for? I didn’t ask for peace in my life, but come on. A girl needs a break sometimes.”

As for her most recent tabloid scandals – which, this year alone, have included her recent whirlwind marriage to Dubai-based entrepreneur Lee Andrews and the bumps in the road they’ve faced since tying the knot – Katie acknowledges: “Even now, there’s scandal in my life. Yes, I know. But I’m doing no different to anyone else. Everyone else shares their life on social media, so why can’t I?”

“All the speculation about my life and what’s going on now, none of you have any idea,” she adds, teasing: “But if you watch the documentary, there’ll be a lot of things answered to things you always wanted to know.”

Despite the headlines and drama, the controversy and backlash, the court cases and lapses in judgement, the scandals and still-rampant scrutiny, Katie is adamant that she’d never “walk away from this industry”.

“I love being [in front of] the camera,” she enthuses. “I love doing my photo-shoots. I love filming. I love what I do! I’m a grown-arse woman, I’m 48, and it’s my choice what I do, and my decision.

“And I’m still driven, and it’s not the end of me yet. In fact, I will never give up, until I’m on my deathbed. And that’ll be the last quote. ‘Bye everyone!’.”

Katie Price: Nowhere To Hide arrives on Sky and Now on Wednesday 8 July.

• Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
• Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI – this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
• CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
• The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk
• Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.
• Rape Crisis services for women and girls who have been raped or have experienced sexual violence – 0808 802 9999
• Survivors UK offers support for men and boys – 0203 598 3898

If you’re trying to avoid stay out of the sun this July, Netflix has some great excuses to stay inside, point a fan at your face and distract yourself from the next heatwave.

July is, sadly, when we say goodbye to Heartstopper’s Nick and Charlie for good, when the hit teen drama comes to an end for good. There are also big laughs in the pipeline, as Kings of Comedy Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell both bring new films to the platform.

For those true crime fans out there, there are more dramatic docuseries coming that are sure to have you gripped. And if you’re just looking for your next reality TV fix, some old favourites are returning in the next few weeks, too.

Here are 11 of our top picks to stream on Netflix this July…

Tell me more: Sherlock Holmes’ strong-willed and equally brilliant little sister returns in Enola Holmes 3. Once again led by Millie Bobby Brown, this threequel sees the young detective taking on her most personal case to date, after Henry Cavill’s Sherlock gets kidnapped at Enola’s wedding to Louis Partridge’s Tewkesbury.

Part three in the series promises romance, action and mystery, as more famous characters from the Sherlock Holmes novels are reimagined for a brand new audience.

Netflix says: “The latest instalment in the adventures of the young detective sees her tackling another mystery, this time on the island nation of Malta. As Enola heads to the altar to wed Lord Tewkesbury, she learns the distressing news that Sherlock has been kidnapped. The gumshoe is immediately on the case, all while grappling with her complicated feelings around marriage.”

Tell me more: Netflix has become the go-to destination for true crime lovers, and this month they’re bringing us a new four-part series to get our teeth into.

The latest instalment in Netflix’s “Worst Ever” franchise highlights appalling and deadly behaviour carried out by next-door neighbours.

Expect exploding houses, harassment and identity theft in this chilling new docuseries – that will make you appreciate your own neighbours a little bit more.

Netflix says: “Calling all fans of Worst Roommate Ever and Worst Ex Ever: The franchise is back with a spotlight on the people who live next door.

“Worst Neighbour Ever takes a deep dive into four different cases, each set in a seemingly close-knit neighbourhood, until everyday quarrels spiral into harassment, intimidation, and sometimes deadly violence.

“Season one utilises eyewitness accounts from community members, sit-downs with law enforcement, and startling body-cam footage to tell these unbelievable, yet true stories.”

Tell me more: Michelle Bateau’s hit rom-com series is back for one last outing.

Season two saw New York City stylist Mavis Beaumont continuing to make mistakes, learn about herself and evolve after a major break-up, with this new run of episodes introducing her at a much happier place in her life.

Creator and star Michelle has teased that the upcoming third and final season will tie up all the loose ends and prove you can thrive at any age.

Joining series regulars Tone Bell, Marouane Zotti and Garcelle Beauvais this time around are exciting guest stars like Wanda Sykes, Ashley Graham and Jenna Lyons, who are on hand to help our protagonist navigate singledom in her 40s.

Netflix says: “Survival Of The Thickest centres on Mavis Beaumont. Black, plus-size, and looking for love while loving herself, Mavis works hard to grow her brand and establish herself as a stylist of note. She’s determined not only to survive but thrive with the support of her chosen family, a body-positive attitude, and a cute V-neck with some lip gloss. The scripted comedy is inspired by Michelle Buteau’s acclaimed book of essays.”

Tell me more: The streamer’s long-awaited reboot of Little House On The Prairie is finally galloping onto our screens, six years after the adaptation was first announced.

Netflix’s reimagining of the beloved 70s series will follow the events of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House On The Prairie book series, chronicling the Ingalls family’s adventures after their father decides to leave Wisconsin to settle in Independence, Kansas.

New showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine has claimed that the long-awaited show, which features newcomer Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls, will be a “love story about a family.”

“They’re a family you want to be with, you want to know, you want to spend time with,” she told Tudum. “That’s really at the core of what Little House On The Prairie is about: a family that is there for each other, tells stories to each other, tells stories about themselves.”

Netflix says: “Part hopeful family drama, part epic survival tale, and part origin story of the American West, this fresh adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic semi-autobiographical Little House books offers a kaleidoscopic view of the struggles and triumphs of those who shaped the frontier”

Tell me more: In 2012, the Costa Concordia luxury cruise ship toppled in the middle of a cruise route along the Mediterranean Sea. Carrying 4,000 people, 32 of them lost their lives after the vessel struck a rock formation.

Shipwrecked: Nightmare At Sea is an “immersive” account of what happened during one of the biggest cruise disasters in modern history.

The documentary uses never-before-seen footage and direct survivor accounts to help tell the story of the accident, which led to a catastrophic shipwreck – and a media frenzy.

Netflix says: “Never-before-seen footage and survivor accounts trace the 2012 shipwreck of a luxury cruise and the disaster that ensued, in this immersive documentary.”

Tell me more: The cast of Love Is Blind UK’s second season are back for a three-episode special of the follow-up series After The Altar – almost a year after we first followed their love stories.

The reality spin-off will reintroduce the couples – and, indeed ex-couples – at a new phase in their journeys, to see where life and love have taken them since leaving the pods.

Hosted by Emma and Matt Willis, After The Altar will catch us up with which couples have lasted from the second season, as well as whether the friendships that began in the pods have survived since the reality dating show last aired.

Netflix says: “From divorces and new beginnings to lingering tensions and unfinished business, relationships are tested, old connections resurface, and new chapters begin.”

Tell me more: Sean Evans is bringing his Hot Ones celebrity interview format to Netflix with a new twist.

Famous faces will still be asked probing questions while eating hot wings – only this time around, they’re being recorded live on location during major Netflix events like sports tournaments, film premieres and on the set of your favourite shows and films.

The first guests are the stars of the upcoming golf comedy The Hawk, Will Ferrell, Fortune Feimster and Jimmy Tatro.

“As a student of the late-night genre, I’m obsessed with the art of the interview, and believe that these conversations warrant a level of scale and spectacle that sometimes can’t be contained by a studio,” Sean Evans told Tudum, promising to keep the “core” of Hot Ones intact in this new iteration.

Netflix says: “In this exclusive new series of specials, Hot Ones: Extra Heat challenges celebrity guests to answer spicy questions while eating even spicier wings.”

Tell me more: What happens when one half of a couple wants to take the plunge and commit, while the other is still unsure?

The Ultimatum: Marry Or Move On follows six pairs who aren’t on the same page about marriage. An ultimatum is issued, and over eight weeks, they must decide if they want to walk away, or walk down the aisle.

Hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, the fourth season introduces audiences to a new cast of indecisive couples in Las Vegas, and asks them if they want to marry or move on.

Netflix says: “Each of the six couples – Hayley and Blake, Ashley and Killian, Casey and David, Monica and Luke, Jessica Grace and Edris and Alex and Jebin – has come to a fork in the road. Will they take the next step in their relationship, or walk away forever?

“A few have known each other for almost half their lives, many share fur babies together, and one couple is balancing romance and business.”

Tell me more: Will Ferrell has a brand new series for comedy fans, in which he takes the lead as a past-his-prime sports star.

Will stars as 2004’s number one golfer Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins, who is struggling to live up to the reputation he set in his heyday. While his body is telling him to give up the green, his heart says he has more left to give.

Lonnie’s one last try for glory becomes complicated when he must compete against his own pro golfer son, a host of old rivals and PGA Tour board members.

To promote the series, Will has truly immersed himself in the character, embarking on a bus tour of the US and even posing as his character for SKIMS.

Netflix says: “Lonnie was 2004’s No. 1 golfer before hitting the back nine of his career; now he’s making one last attempt at a crowning achievement. His friends and family – including his estranged wife, Stacy, and hotshot son Lance – have their doubts. But sceptics can keep their heads stuck in the sand (trap), because Lonnie Hawkins never saw a challenge he couldn’t swing his way out of.”

Tell me more: Nick and Charlie’s sweeping love story concludes this month with a feature-length last episode of Heartstopper.

Heartstopper Forever picks up after the season three finale, which saw Kit Connor’s Nick and Joe Locke’s Charlie more loved-up than ever after taking their relationship to the next level.

However, as Nick leaves for university, the realities of a more grown-up love take its toll on the couple.

The film also says goodbye to some of other favourite Heartstopper characters, including Yasmine Finney’s Elle, Tao Zu’s Will, Corinna Brown’s Tara and Darcy Olsson’s Kizzy.

Netflix says: “The film – which creator Alice Oseman calls “dramatic and exciting” – will wrap up Nick and Charlie’s journey.

“After season three, the couple is inseparable. But, with Nick preparing to leave for university and Charlie finding new independence at school, the reality of a long-distance relationship begins to weigh on them. Doubts take hold, and their relationship faces its biggest challenge yet.”

Tell me more: Like Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart is delivering big laughs for Netflix audiences this month.

Directed by Ride Along’s Tim Story, Kevin’s new film, 72 Hours, sees him playing a 40-year-old executive who accidentally gets invited to a total stranger’s Miami bachelor party, where he hangs out with a group of Gen Z-ers, after being wrongly added to a group chat, seizing the opportunity to regain his confidence and prove he can still keep up with the youngsters.

Joining Kevin in his new film are SNL’s Marcello Hernandez and Ben Marshall, Scream’s Mason Gooding and One Battle After Another’s Teyana Taylor, fresh from her recent Oscar nomination.

Netflix says: “To save his career, a 40-year-old ad exec joins a crew of twentysomethings for a wild Miami bachelor party after they mistakenly add him to a group chat.”

Depending on how you spent your young adulthood and/or your powers of judgement, you may have heard of Jägerbombs.

These involve a pint glass filled with an energy drink, into which you must plop a shot glass of German liqueur Jägermeister. The pair are drunk together in ill-advised gulps of sloppy hedonism.

In these more sober times, though, the most recent iteration of the drinking style involves zero booze at all.

Enter: the espresso bomb.

It’s a bit like its Jägerbomb cousin, but instead of an energy drink, you use sparkling water or tonic water as the “big glass liquid”.

And in place of a liqueur shot, TikTokers, like coffee enthusiast Dr Coffist, use a single or double espresso.

Espresso bombs have an added step, though.

To create a more dramatic fizz, rub the exposed side of a sliced lemon on the bottom of the espresso glass before dipping it into some salt and then plopping it in the larger cup.

Coffee company Golden Brown Coffee described the combination as “the ultimate cure for your weekend hangover”.

They’re not the only ones to recommend that particular application of the drink.

Performance nutrition specialist and health and wellbeing consultant, Dan Osman from meal prep delivery service Prep Kitchen, said: “While the ‘espresso bomb’ trend isn’t necessarily unhealthy in itself, the biggest issue is the dose.

“People often underestimate how much caffeine they’re actually consuming, especially when double espresso shots are involved.”

He noted that a double espresso can contain anywhere from 120-150 mg of caffeine. Most adults are advised to stay under 400mg a day.

So, while the drink itself might not make you jittery, you risk a caffeine overdose if you’ve already had coffee that day.

Timing matters too, Osman said.

“Caffeine has a half-life of around 8-10 hours, which means it can remain active in your system long after consumption. That’s where we start to see potential issues with disrupted sleep, increased anxiety, and elevated heart rate if intake isn’t managed carefully.”

For that reason, he says, we should try not to consume “espresso bombs” after about 1-2pm.

As for those hangover claims, the expert said: “The addition of a salty or citrus rim may contribute trace electrolytes, but should not be viewed as a meaningful replacement for proper hydration or a nutritional benefit in itself”.

The man behind Landman, Lioness and 1883 recently appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast, where he opened up about Kevin’s involvement in his critically-acclaimed western TV show.

Kevin appeared on Yellowstone as ranch owner John Dutton from its 2018 premiere until he quit in 2023.

His character was shockingly killed off in the last ever episode, which aired in 2024.

During his interview with Bill Simmons, Taylor claimed that Kevin was actually “only supposed to be in the first three seasons” of Yellowstone.

“That was in his contract,” he explained. “In my mind, that’s when his youngest son takes over [on the show].”

He then suggested that the “network was so scared of not having Kevin be a part” of Yellowstone, “even though Kevin was ready” to leave, that his character ended up staying around a lot longer than intended.

The TV showrunner added that Kevin had wanted to go and work on other projects, but continued for another two seasons because Yellowstone ended up becoming “such a behemoth”.

“It was such a huge hit,” he added. “The notion of giving up a hit before it had run out of juice to squeeze is very foreign to a network.”

But, Taylor told the podcast, eventually the Oscar-winning star decided he needed to “go do [his] own thing”.

His exit from the drama prompted Taylor to end Yellowstone prematurely, and continue the story as the recently-released spin-off Dutton Ranch, revolving around Kevin’s character’s daughter, Beth.

Taylor had previously shot down rumours of a backstage falling out between him and Kevin at the time.

“[Kevin leaving] truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it,” he told the Hollywood Reporter in May 2023.

“My last conversation with Kevin was that he had this passion project he wanted to direct. He and the network were arguing about when he could be done with Yellowstone. I said, ‘We can certainly work a schedule toward [his preferred exit date],’ which we did.”

Despite this speculation about behind-the-scenes tension, the Oscar-nominated Hell Or High Water writer praised Kevin’s work on the show.

“His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful [and] I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone,” he insisted.

Kevin shed light on his decision to leave Yellowstone during his September 2023 divorce hearing.

While on the stand, the Waterworld actor shared that a “long, hard-fought negotiation” about splitting season five into two parts was behind his decision to leave.

He explained that he needed to focus on his own Western epic, the four-part movie series Horizon: An American Saga, which would have been impossible to do alongside Yellowstone’s filming schedule.

Kevin testified during the divorce court hearing that he wanted to return for the sixth season of Yellowstone, but negotiations fell apart.

“They offered me less money than previous seasons, there were issues with the creative,” he alleged.

Yellowstone and Dutton Ranch are both available to stream on Paramount+.

Olivia’s been knocked off the top spot as the most popular baby name for girls in 2026, according to BabyCentre, with Eliana claiming the top spot.

Considered a modern alternative to the name Eleanor, Eliana has two meanings. In Hebrew, it translates to “my God has answered” while the name is also thought to derive from the Greek word for “sun” (ílios).

According to The Bump, Eliana ranks 29th in popularity in the US (according to birth data). Common nicknames derived from it include: Ellie, Elle, Liana and Ana.

BabyCentre’s naming expert SJ Strum said: “It’s no surprise to see Eliana reach the top of the charts. Parents are increasingly looking for names that feel special and memorable, that will also grow effortlessly with their child.”

She added that Eliana is “elegant, meaningful and timeless”.

The name made a big jump in popularity, up four places this year. Isabella also climbed into the top 10, rising eight places to rank fifth.

Muhammad is the most popular boy’s name on BabyCentre, closely followed by Noah.

Muhammad is derived from Arabic and means “the praised one” or “worthy of praise” – some Muslim families will give their boys this name as a way to honor the Prophet Muhammad.

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data on popular baby names in England and Wales (from 2024) suggested Olivia, Amelia and Lily were the most popular girls’ names, and Muhammad, Noah and Oliver were the most popular boy’s names.

Interestingly, Eliana didn’t feature in the top 100 names at all.

When asked how they determined Eliana was now the most popular girls’ name, BabyCentre told me the rankings are compiled using data provided directly by users when they join the site – as part of this process, parents share what they called their baby.

Without further ado, here are their top girls’ and boys’ names for this year so far (as per BabyCentre’s user data)…

There comes a point in every parent’s life when their sprogs discover the art of whining – and boy, can it grate.

While the odd whine is fine (who doesn’t need a good moan now and then?), when whining becomes the default, or children seem to constantly complain, it can be exhausting – especially when you’re trying to work, look after them, juggle endless amounts of life admin (yours and theirs), and everything else in between.

Such is the case for one parent of two young girls aged six and nine, who shared that their children’s complaints are “constant” – and it’s starting to really get to them.

“I reached the point that when I am working alone from home and I hear the main door opening (meaning they are back) I pre-stress and I start to have palpitations,” said the parent on Reddit’s r/Parenting forum. “It should not be like this.”

Abigail Finnegan, a psychotherapist and member of Counselling Directory, said: “For many of us who have worked in the field of child development we know only too well that if a child feels that they can’t get the attention they need through being delightful, they will instead resort to less ‘delightful’ ways to be noticed – because, after all, any attention is better than no attention at all!”

Plenty of parents are increasingly stretched to capacity (a survey from this year found nine in 10 mums have experienced burnout) and unless you’ve got a village nearby, or have a lot of money to throw at childcare, you’re very much on your own.

Add this to the fact we’re increasingly living in fast-paced environments where, as Finnegan says, parents have to meet the competing demands of employers, schools, other children, ageing parents and then kids are coming home from school “past the point of exhaustion”.

Mix it all up and you’ve got a recipe for whiny behaviour.

When we’re stressed and bustling about like headless chickens (which I’ll be the first to admit is my default setting) it’s easy to forget that underneath all that whining and complaining is a need to communicate something.

Psychotherapist Pei-I Yang, also a Counselling Directory member, said: “Children often don’t have the words to say ‘I feel overwhelmed’ or ‘nobody’s really listening to me’, so it can leak out as moaning instead.

“The whining isn’t the problem. It’s a communication for parents from their children telling them that something underneath needs attention.”

When your kid whines, your instinct is probably to say something along the lines of: “stop complaining”, “try to be more positive” or “some kids would love what you’ve got”.

However Yang highlights that more often than not, this can leave children feeling “brushed off”. And a child who feels brushed off “tends to complain more, not less”. Eek.

If whining is your child’s way of communicating something, therapists suggest the best way to nip it in the bud is to get to the bottom of why they’re whining. Or at least try to.

“It’s important to verbally acknowledge to both yourself and your child that there is obviously something making them unhappy – otherwise they wouldn’t be whining!” said Finnegan. “The questions is: what to do about it?”

Her advice for parents is to slow down and check no one is hungry or thirsty. (“Healthy snacks in a bag can make a huge difference to mood at the end of a long day,” she added.)

“As hard as it can be when you’re tired as a parent, maybe ask yourself when the last time was that you were able to slow down enough to play or talk with your child without distractions?” added the therapist. “Is it possible to create some time, on a regular basis, just to be with your child?”

If they get plenty of time with you but still complain a lot, sometimes it can help to simply validate their emotions. Yang noted that even a simple “that does sound annoying” can take the heat out of the moment, because they feel heard.

If your teenager has taken to complaining a lot of late, instead of trying to fix or lecture, Yang encourages parents to be curious. You could ask something along the lines of: “You’ve seemed really fed up lately, what’s going on?”

“Often the small complaints are hiding something bigger, and it’s the space to talk, without you rushing to solve it, that helps them open up,” she explained.

“Whatever their age, it comes down to the same thing: connection and being curious before correction. A child who feels genuinely heard rarely needs to complain to be noticed.”