If there’s anything to be excited about in the Afrika-Bredenkamp stable, yes, it’s the baby, say the power couple.
Cape Town - It’s 6pm on a Friday and there’s an express delivery of piping hot tikka chicken and mango lassis on the way to the Afrika-Bredenkamp household. This is one of those rare cravings for TV and radio personality, and mom-to-be, Elana Afrika- Bredenkamp.
It’s a rare craving because Elana, who is due to give birth any day now, has had a “textbook pregnancy” and is probably the happiest pregnant woman I’ve ever met. So, yes, the tikka chicken was a ruse to find out what’s next for the multitalented presenter of the Expresso TV show who lights up our screens every weekday morning.
Her mission: to become a “mom-trepreneur”.
“If there’s anything to be excited about in the Afrika-Bredenkamp stable, yes, it’s the baby. It’s very exciting and everyone is expecting me to make a business from my baby. No, when it comes to my baby, I want to be a mother,” says Elana.
Elana and husband Ian Bredenkamp, a music radio authority and businessman, recently featured in a promo for M-Net’s new reality show, Power Couple. But truth be told, they’re pretty close to being the real deal of what a power couple is.
The couple were married two years ago and couldn’t wait to fall pregnant.
“I’ve wanted kids for a very, very long time but I never found the right guy. When Ian and I got together, even though we knew each other, we dated for like a month, I said to him: ‘I wouldn’t mind falling pregnant, I really want a baby.’
“But we knew we had to wait and get married first. We planned for a month and then we didn’t plan anymore and we fell pregnant. It happened very quickly. We didn’t have much time to think about this when we decided we’re going to be parents. And then the next month we were pregnant. I’ve taken to this because I really want it, hey… I really want to be a mom. And I really want Ian’s child.”
Ian adds: “Elana hasn’t had any crazy cravings. You hear stories about women who lick the bricks outside the house… nothing like that. She’s had a cheese craving and a couple of midnight sessions… or at 2am (Milo and cookies, Elana reveals).
“She’s been very blessed with a textbook pregnancy that if the baby is supposed to move according to the book, the baby moves. Everything has gone the way it should be and she’s carrying beautifully. I think she looks amazing.”
Elana: “I’ve picked up 13cm and 13kg.”
Ian: “You look the same from behind except you have a big tummy in front. But the nursery is sorted… we’re ready to go now.”
Elana: “We have a hospital bag packed. I packed nipple cream. We even have a food bag (in which a range of goodies is packed).”
Elana admits she made Ian paint the nursery a number of times in their new Welgemoed home before she settled on the right colour.
The couple, who recently celebrated their second anniversary, lived in Fresnaye when they got married but needed space. “I wanted a walk-in cupboard,” says Elana.
Says Ian: “The baby should run around with her feet on the grass and grow up in a place where kids ride bikes in the road and where they can have space.”
Elana: “My husband painted the nursery himself. He’s painted it four times! I changed my mind about it: it was first going to be purple, then pastel then pink then it became yellow and then it was butter.”
They settled on butter. There is also an elegant, shiny piano in the entrance of their new home.
“My husband gave me a recording contract as a Christmas gift and he’s expecting me to write songs on that piano,” says Elana. “Have I written a song? Many, and every time I play him one he says: ‘I don’t like your lullabyes, I need a radio hit.’
“But the one thing that is doing well and that I’m ready to pursue is something that he started that he thought would take me out of my boredom in my maternity leave. It’s called Media Menu.
“Ian started IB Media about two years ago and became one of the first music powerhouses that does PR for musicians but also making sure that South African songs get played.
“People like Ian… he’s a likeable person. I can be quite serious at times or quite whacky. But people like him because he’s friendly and accessible and he started getting other contracts for people to do PR and he decided that he doesn’t have the capacity and I’m very good with it so he’s passing it on to Media Menu.
“An overseas company heard about us so we have a tender out in Cyprus. We have people locally interested and we have a client in London and potentially Australia. It’s been nice in terms of showing me that I’m a mom but I can still like and do other stuff. I’m becoming a mom-trepreneur.”
Ian insists that Elana is underselling her talents as a singer, songwriter and recording artist.
“People don’t know that she recorded a duet with Loyiso Bala a couple of years ago – it’s on his album. She performed live with Macstanley for two concerts they did on stage at the Artscape. Both nights sold really well. On Expresso she sang live with Macstanley as well. She was also the lead in this Afrikaans musical called Droom at the KKNK two years ago.
“The talent is there and most people in my experience can either sing or write a song. Writing a song is damn hard. Singing is hard but writing is even harder. But to do it all together is a gift and she’s got that gift.”
But what Elana does next, after the arrival of her baby, is entirely up to the one she describes as her new “personal assistant”.
“I think where my interest lies at the moment is how I will preserve me through this whole journey and be able to sustain my independence. I’ve always been financially independent and I don’t see it any other way, other than being a mom-trepreneur.
“I’m also in talks with a company to start retail. I can’t say much about it now but what I do know from selling my own wine is that I had a taste of retail and it was my own product. I was very proud of it because I worked very hard. I’m ready to license another. So my business is not about my baby but I think my personal assistant will be my baby because she’ll be able to determine what is good to have on board or not.
“I’m very serious about music and it’s something I’ll teach my kid as well. It’s part of our lives. We have a piano entrance and Ian has his guitars, and I play the concertina and I love instruments. I think part of this product that I want to license is going to be about music. It might not be conventional where I bring out hip hop like AKA or perform for the president like Thembi Seete, but I know that my product needs to be unique and it needs to be something that I’m enjoying. And at the moment I’m enjoying making music.”
Elana and Ian laugh at the idea that they’re a bona fide power couple. Falling in love with each other came naturally, they say. Ian says they don’t wake up and say to each other: “So, honey, what are we going to do today to conquer the world?”
“We haven’t branded ourselves as a power couple and this power couple thing is fairly new and almost surreal,” says Ian.
Elana says their relationship is not based on who approves of it.
“I think people have always loved. Love is not new. But people were never open about how much they love or how much they hate. They never showed it openly,” she says.
“I’ve been in love a few times in my life. But I told myself that the day I fall in love with the man I settle down with or the man I have kids with I’m going to do it face first. And I think that is what made it exciting.
“I didn’t meet Ian or say nice things to Ian on social media. It just happened. Facebook is sometimes a way for your brain to extend. It leaks and you just post stuff and say stuff. But what is real for me is falling in love and being public about it because I didn’t actually care who approved of my relationship and who didn’t. I’m happy… happy first, it’s not a social media relationship or a TV relationship. We’re not living a Jessica Simpson and whoever that guy she was with and then got divorced… that was never real in real life.”
Ian interjects: “Nick Lachey.”
“Nick Lachey,” Elana repeats, smiling. “It was never a Nick Lachey relationship where big brother is watching you. I’m not saying we don’t have relationship quarrels. I won’t call it ups and downs – I don’t think there are any downs in relationships, you just work things out.
“But it’s nice that people acknowledge (our relationship). It’s a good feeling when they say we’re praying for you or we’re thinking of you or wow, you teach us so much or you need to write an inspiring book about relationships.”
Straightaway Ian dispels the notion of a power couple. He makes a racket in the kitchen washing the dishes then packing them away while Elana has a look of deep reflection (and satisfaction from the tikka chicken) on her face.
She then holds her tummy with both hands before pronouncing: “She’s already a power baby… she keeps me awake at night.”
Cape Argus