Alesha Dixon knew she wanted to be a mother as soon as she met her husband Azuka Ononye.

The 41-year-old star has two daughters, six-year-old Azura and six-month-old Anaya, with the 39-year-old dancer - whom she tied the knot with in 2017 - and Alesha has now revealed that after meeting her husband a decade ago, she was destined to become a parent.

Asked by Giovanna Fletcher on her 'Happy Mum Happy Baby' podcast when she realised she wanted to become a parent, Alesha replied: ''When I met Azuka.''

The 'Britain's Got Talent' judge says that she knew she could start a family with Azuka because they both share the same ''values and morals'' and their ''thinking aligned''.

Alesha also admitted that before meeting the father of her children, she had been in ''toxic relationships'', and there was no way she was going to bring up children with her exes.

She said: ''We met 10 years ago, and he was the first person that I'd met, that I knew that we could have children together because of our values, our morals, our thinking aligned ...

''Very much on the same page, same belief system.

''I trust him as a human being. I knew he would be an incredible Dad.

''That's the moment that it felt right and I'd been in toxic relationships before where I knew that I could never bring a child into the relationship because having had those times in my life, as a child that were difficult, I knew I couldn't possibly repeat that for my child.''

She added: ''The thought of having children with someone who could so something toxic or show them something toxic that I saw as a child, frightened me more than anything in the world so it was so important for me that the person I had children with, the relationship had to healthy, their mind had to be healthy.''

On how her husband changed her mind about parenthood, Alesha added: ''He says we met years and years ago, but I don't quite remember but apparently, we met a few times.

''But when we really met was 10 years ago and we became really good friends so yeah, he basically changed my whole thinking from that point of view.''

Download Giovanna Fletcher's 'Happy Mum Happy Baby' podcast from acast.com