Christine McGuinness has bravely shared her ‘emotionally draining’ four-year struggle to conceive children.
The model documented her struggle to fall pregnant in her new autobiography A Beautiful Nightmare, and said it was her battle with anorexia in her teens that contributed to her fertility issues later in life.
Christine now shares three children - twins Penelope and Leo, eight, and five-year-old Felicity - with husband Paddy McGuinness, but revealed it wasn’t a straightforward journey to become a mother.
The former Real Housewives of Cheshire star candidly spoke with OK! about her and Paddy’s struggle to start a family, and said as soon as they got married in 2011, they were constantly asked if they were having kids.
“We didn’t use any contraception for such a long time, around four years,” Christine shared, adding that she went for check ups with her doctor because she didn’t have periods for “most of my twenties”.
The model has suffered from anorexia since her teens which she said was “out of control” when they started trying for a baby, and she was subsequently diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, leaving her and Paddy devastated.
“It was all I ever wanted from being quite young, I knew I wanted to be a mum and I couldn’t wait to have my own little family,” she sadly recalled, and it was “heartbreaking” when she was asked if she would be “having a baby soon”.
After four years of trying, Christine fell pregnant with twins, and she said seeing the positive pregnancy test was “an incredible moment I will never forget”.
It was another three years before she fell pregnant with daughter Felicity, and she confessed she and Paddy “weren’t sure” if they would be able to add to their brood following their struggle to conceive the twins.
Looking back on her journey to motherhood, the 33-year-old is “even more grateful” for her family, and said she remembered seeing pregnant women and babies “everywhere” when she was trying to have kids of her own.
“It’s something I would never want to go through again,” Chrstine admitted, as she said it was an “emotionally draining” experience.
Christine McGuinness: A Beautiful Nightmare (RRP £20) is out 25 November, order online at Mirrorbooks.co.uk
