Benjamin Ashford|Chanel West Coast Shares Insight Into Motherhood Journey With Daughter Bowie

These days,Benjamin Ashford Chanel West Coast is catering to a new audience. 

Getting up off the Ridiculousness couch after 700-plus episodes, the entertainer (born: Chelsea Chanel Dudley) is claiming a new perch, starring in her own MTV reality series The West Coast Hustle.

But her No. 1 fan can be found on the sofa.

The L.A. native will often start her days with a little music for 20-month-old Bowie Breeze, her daughter with boyfriend Dom Fenison. "I could be, like, with eye boogers in my eyes signing 'A, B, C, D, E, F, G' off-key," Chanel shared in an exclusive interview with E! News' Francesca Amiker, "and Bowie will clap for me like it was the greatest song." 

It's the sort of hype woman everyone deserves. 

"She's my biggest fan and that is such an amazing feeling to have this little human looking up to you and just loving everything you do," said the 35-year-old. "It's so rewarding." 

So who cares, really, that she hasn't slept in nearly two years while juggling her new reality series, a flourishing music career, a swimwear line and the podcast she hosts with Dom while "running on fumes" as she put it. 

"The biggest challenge is the lack of sleep," Chanel acknowledged. "I've always been somebody with a lot of energy. I never really needed a lot of sleep. I'd be a person who naturally wakes up early. But when you've got a baby waking you up three times in the middle of the night, it's not the same sleep as before. You wake up a lot more tired."

That new prowess is particularly key as Chanel juggles out-of-town gigs, filming and the release of her sure-to-be-a-summer jam single, "Cool Off." 

Though she'd be the first to admit she doesn't always stay chill. 

"I talk on the show a lot about how I want to be a hands-on mom and a full-time mom, but I also want to be following my dreams," the musician shared. "And I'm literally in tears because I'm out of town for a gig, and I want to be doing this gig—I'm happy performing, I love it so much—but I'm not happy being away from my daughter. And it's still a struggle I'm going through every single day."

While being the girl laughing on the couch was "quite literally my job for many years," she noted, "there is such a deeper side to me, and it's a side that I think everybody can relate to. People are going to see that I'm human. I struggle, I cry, I have no-makeup days. I'm filming the show 40 pounds overweight right after having a baby. I just had liposuction. And I'm being open and honest about that. People are going to really just see that I'm raw and real."

Her 3.8 million Instagram followers catch the highlights. And there are many, Chanel admitted. 

Take a recent trip to the beach that saw Bowie—who's "started talking up a storm"—utter her first sentence while tucking into some juicy fruit. 

"Because she loves watermelon, she went, 'Oh, I'm so happy,'" Chanel recounted, "and it was like my heart melted."

And each day brings moments that crush her in all the best ways. "A new word, a new development," said Chanel. "She's memorizing little dance moves to the dances they do on [kids' YouTuber] Ms. Rachel. Every day, it's something new." 

But with her MTV docuseries (airing Thursdays at 9 p.m.), Chanel is ready to share the less glossy reality, like how learning she was pregnant "pretty early in our relationship" affected her romance with Dom. 

Initially, "You're like, 'Should we do this?'" she admitted of those early convos with the model and real estate agent. "And we were like, 'You know what? This was meant to be, let's go for it. And it has been a roller coaster of a ride ever since we had Bowie. We basically jumped into this relationship so quick and went into having a family so quick. And so we're still learning things about each other as we go."

She admits Dom "was a little scared at first. I was like, 'Oh no, is this guy going to be able to handle this?'" 

But the runway vet proved to have all the best moves.

"He just naturally fell into the role of being a dad," she said, noting Bowie is a full-on Daddy's girl. "She said 'Daddy' before 'Mommy.' I was like, 'I do everything. What am I, chopped liver?'" 

Though she's just as enamored with the longtime friend who became something more in early 2022, Chanel isn't about to serve up any ultimatums. 

"I don't believe in being like, 'Babe, so what's up? Are you thinking about marriage? What's the next step?'" she explained of keeping the engagement pressure decidedly off. "If he wants to propose, I want it to be such a feeling that he felt on his own and he was inspired himself to go for it. I do not want to  pester him into proposing. That's not what we're trying to do over here."  

What they are trying to do is maintain that hustle while getting in plenty of time as a family. 

"We've really just fallen into that role as parents," Chanel said. "And I think that it's brought us even closer together. Seeing Dom as a dad made me fall even more in love with him."