The Sun Baby officially has a baby of her own. Jessica Smith, who is best known as portraying the smiley and giggly sun on the popular children’s series Teletubbies, announced in October that she was expecting her first child with longtime boyfriend, Ricky Latham. According to ET, the child star welcomed baby girl Poppy Rae Latham in early January.
On Jan. 15, Smith shared a sweet photo on Instagram of her holding her daughter’s hand with the caption, “One whole week of you.” Since then, she’s been frequently posting photos of her new bundle of joy. Smith even changed her name on Instagram to “Jess & Ricky & Poppy.” It’s not hard to point out that her daughter’s middle name is Rae, which might possibly be a nod to Sun Baby. In a very recent post, Smith even shared that baby Poppy is holding the red Teletubbies, Po, at one month old and two months old.
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In an interview with ET after announcing her birth, Smith gushed over all of the love and support she had been receiving. “I am feeling overwhelmed with the amount of love I am receiving from people around the world,” she shared. “I have received countless messages congratulating me and wishing us well for the future.” Smith also noted that her daughter “will be watching my version of Teletubbies.”
Jessica Smith portrayed the Sun Baby during Teletubbies’ original run, from March 1997 to February 2001. It aired on BBC2 in the UK and Nickelodeon in the States. A revival of the series ran from 2015 to 2018, airing on the UK children’s channel CBeebies as well as Nick Jr. In 2022, it was announced that a Teletubbies, with 26 episodes premiering later that year.
As of now, there isn’t another Teletubbies series in the works, but it wouldn’t be surprising if that happened. Perhaps little Poppy could carry on her mother’s legacy and become the next Sun Baby. It would be pretty perfect, especially since it looks like she loves her little stuffed Po doll. For now, though, it seems Smith is perfectly happy with her growing little family and passing down her version of Teletubbies to the next generation as she makes the generation who watched her version when it was airing feel very old.
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