Katie Piper introduces new baby: Hello! finally finds worthy cover star as acid attack victim, who had more than 100 operations, shows off Belle

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It’s not often that Hello! magazine does something we would think twice about covering.

But today, their cover star is an acid burns victim who has, after more than 100 corrective operations, not only forged a successful career in television for herself, but enjoyed a lasting romance with her boyfriend James and now brought a new life into the world.

"To have had my own life saved in hospital and then to be there giving life to this precious little person, I thought, 'This is why, this is what it's all about',” Katie Piper, who gave birth by caesarean, told the publication.

"People used to say to me, 'It's a love like no other,' and I understand that now. She's so precious and I just feel so incredibly blessed to have her. She's our world.

"I already felt grateful that, after the attack, I'd managed to restore a life, have a job, friends, a social life, and I thought, 'You can't expect to have everything, this is enough'.

"Then, to meet and fall in love with James, a man I knew I wanted to have a baby with and who makes me so happy, and now to have Belle - it's just amazing.

"Most of all I want her to be happy. I thought I knew, after all that happened to me, what happiness meant, but having Belle has shown me what true fulfilment is."

Piper announced the arrival of her newborn on Twitter earlier this month.

"I am delighted to tell you that our daughter Belle Elizabeth was born today! Overwhelmed with happiness," she wrote. "We can't wait to get to know her!"

Piper has undergone extensive medical treatment and reconstructive surgery after an ex-boyfriend carried out a horrific attack by throwing acid on her face.

Her documentary about her trauma, called Katie: My Beautiful Face, struck a chord with several people and allowed her to set up the charity, the Katie Piper Foundation, which aims to help people suffering from disfiguring burns.

X Factor mogul Simon Cowell is now a patron of her charity after being moved by her story.

The full interview is in Hello!, out now.