Olivia Bowen reveals her son, 4, almost lost an eye after impaling it with a stick at nursery and needed surgery to fix the wound

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1d ago

By LILY JOBSON, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER 19:59 08 Oct 2026, updated 20:15 08 Oct 2026

Olivia Bowen has revealed her four-year-old son Abel almost lost an eye after a freak accident at nursery.

The former Love Island star, 32, said Abel was rushed to hospital after he impaled his eye with a stick while playing during forest school.

Recalling the worrying ordeal, Olivia called it the ‘scariest’ moment of her life as she remembered seeing ‘blood everywhere’.

Olivia shares Abel and daughter Siena Grace, 14 months, with her husband Alex Bowen, 35.

She explained: ‘It was probably his first big accident, and when we got there, he just had a patch over his eye, there was blood everywhere.

‘We didn’t know whether it had gone right into his eye and touched his eyeball, if it had missed it, if it was stuck, we had no clue, because he wouldn’t let us open it.’

Abel underwent surgery to fix his sliced tear duct and had a stent fitted to help with drainage during his recovery. Luckily, Abel recovered with 20-20 vision.

She added to The Sun: ‘I’ve never really thought about how important eyesight is, it’s something we take for granted every single day, especially with the kids, starting school, learning to read, it’s something I’ve never particularly thought about until that moment.’

Olivia and Alex have previously said they were considering moving to their Spanish home but last month she admitted she was having doubts about a permanent move with ‘everything going on right now’.

Sharing a statement to her Instagram Stories, she penned: ‘Everyday I wake up thinking about moving our life to Spain for the kids (and for us obviously).

‘I wake up thinking about homeschooling too. With Abel due to start school this year, a lot doesn’t sit right.

‘Everything is so heavy at the moment, it’s why I haven’t been very active online. I am so worried for everyone.

‘We’ve spoken about moving for a different lifestyle abroad for a good couple of years but the last few months it’s come up more than ever.’

She continued: ‘I can’t work out whether it’s because I genuinely do want to move or, I’m trying to escape the feeling of constant worry about the world & I’m imagining that if I move I’ll move away from that.

‘But like I said to the girls, it’s not like I am moving planets. Hope everyone is ok! P.S. If you have moved to Marbella with young kids (surrounding villages) please message me.’

The TV personality shared a second post thanking fans for their advice and said she and her family will be ‘starting the journey’ of moving later this year.

She wrote: ‘So many messages already wow thank you. There’s so much to think about with this & we are starting the journey this year looking into areas, visas, schools etc so there’s lots of research to be done.

‘Spending as much time in Spain as possible this year to see if it’s really what we want. The ideal would be to have a smaller house here to come back to when we wanted & have our main life in Spain.

‘It’s crazy I would say 98.5% of the messages are absolutely do it which is crazy. Who knows… But I really appreciate your comments & messages it’s soooo helpful xxxx.’

Olivia and Alex moved into their current Essex home in 2024, having spent ten months completing the build and renovating after they bought the plot for £250,000 in June 2023.

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