Carol Decker had no qualms about becoming a first-time mother at the age of 40 - on the contrary, the Eighties pop star revels in her new-found role. She lives in a spacious house in Tufnell Park, north London, with her partner Richard Coates, executive chef of the Belgo Group, and their new baby daughter Scarlett, who was born on June 2. Although Carol readily admits that she is not the 'clucky' type, she is clearly besotted with baby Scarlett.

'To be honest, I'm still not particularly enamoured of other people's children, and I'm sure they would feel the same way about Scarlett,' she says. 'Throughout my thirties, I began to become more tolerant towards them, but I only really started to mellow when I got to know Richard.'

The couple met at the Lord Palmerston pub, which is at the top of Carol's road. 'I actually met Carol's dog Murphy before I met Carol,' says Richard with a laugh. 'I was having Sunday lunch, and his head appeared on the table, looking at my food.'

The couple became close through a mutual love of The Fast Show, and a similar sense of humour. They both got out of their other relationships, and started going out with one another. Carol's decision to have a baby stemmed from her new-found security with Richard: 'I just knew it was the right relationship.'

Her pregnancy was virtually problem free, apart from the labour, which lasted 23 hours. 'It was absolutely awful,' she says. 'I had every drug I could lay my hands on. A mother in the next room said she could hear some woman screaming her head off - it was me!

'But the moment they handed me Scarlett, I forgot it all. When you have your baby in your arms, everything becomes wonderful.' Just minutes later, Carol was videoing Richard holding Scarlett. 'Anyone who has watched the video doesn't know how I did it. You forget the pain that quickly.'

Richard is clearly a hands-on father, and was very much involved with the birth. 'It was the most life-changing experience I've ever had,' he says. 'The midwife got me really involved, and I ended up cutting the umbilical cord.'

Although Carol split from the band T'Pau in 1991, she has maintained a large fan base. The group's hits included Heart And Soul, and China In Your Hand, which stayed at number one for five weeks in 1987. At the height of T'Pau's fame, Carol would find photographers camped outside her door every day, and she needed security when she went shopping.

'It is funny when the fame goes away; it can end abruptly, which is sometimes hard to come to terms with,' she says.

Carol's own experiences with T'Pau made her understand why Geri Halliwell decided to leave the Spice Girls. 'I understood the tension that built up; I know what it is like to be that busy and never be out of each other's pockets. I would never allow the things that happened to me in T'Pau to occur again.'

Carol recently took part in the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Concert, which she found a great honour. 'My memories of Diana are very positive: I met her on three occasions - two Prince's Trust concerts and one Prince's Trust Gala. She was charming, and witty. I remember an amusing incident at the Gala where she turned round to us when we were having our photos taken, and said, "Don't say cheese, say bitch, because you get a much sexier smile".'

Carol is preparing for a nationwide tour with the new line-up of the band in the autumn, and is preparing to take Scarlett with her. 'I did wonder how I'm going to cope,' she says, 'but other artists like Chrissie Hynde and Neneh Cherry' have taken their children with them. You just need the right back-up.'

Richard plans to join them whenever his career allows. When the couple have a chance to relax, they like nothing better than entertaining friends, walking the dog on Hampstead Heath, and going out to eat. They also like taking holidays, and particularly love the Caribbean, and Barcelona. Carol has travelled extensively, and spent a lot of time in LA.

'We both have a cosmopolitan attitude, and would settle down anywhere as long as we were together,' says Carol. 'When you have a child, you have to start paying attention to things you never considered before, like the school system.'

'I want to end meetings quickly to get back home to Scarlett,' adds Richard. 'Having Scarlett ultimately changed my life for ever.'

FEATURE BY MARINA LICHT PHOTOGRAPHS BY TONY WARD