Actress Hannah Waddingham has shared the heartbreaking story of the moment she ‘accidentally’ found out ‘it would be unlikely’ for her to conceive and revealed how her subsequent pregnancy was impacted by the news.
The Eurovision presenter has revealed she was stunned to find out her fertility was 'low' during a routine medical check she underwent before filming for the TV show Benidorm commenced back in 2014. Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast, the 48-year-old began by saying it happened 'kind of by accident.'
She explained, "I did my medical for Benidorm and I got a letter back saying 'blood type this, blah blah that, fertility low, deh deh deh.' And I was like 'woah, woah, woah, what?'. It was just on a form."
However, soon after she was told she may not be able to conceive, Hannah discovered she was pregnant with her daughter Kitty, who is now eight-years-old.
The arrival of her newborn made the actress re-think her hectic career, that at the time was seeing her performing in theatre productions six days a week, so she could better fit work around motherhood. Apparently then, we can thank Kitty for the actress' transition into full-time TV acting that has brought us streaming hits like Apple TV's Ted Lasso.
She told the White Wine Question Time podcast, "I was told it would be unlikely for me to conceive, so then when I did, she's a precious little thing that was meant to come to me and I thought 'Ok, I need to be with this precious little love that's been given to me'."
Later in the podcast, Hannah opened up about the routes she took to find out the root cause for her low fertility and admitted that she realises her pregnancy was a 'privilege' that not everyone gets to experience.
She said, "I got that medical thing through, and during Benidorm I was on a mission to find out a way and I went down the homeopathic route and that seemed to work.
'Her [Kitty's] dad, at the time, was like 'if this isn't for us...'. And I was like 'No, no, no, there's nothing wrong with me - I need to see what's happening here.' And gosh, the blessing that I was one of those women that it did turn around for.
"I know two or three of my girlfriends haven't had that privilege and so I'm acutely aware of the privilege that it is."
But while Hannah decided to 're-think' her career, that didn't mean she gave up on it. Just nine weeks after giving birth, she began filming Game of Thrones, in which she played Septa Unella.
She previously revealed how when she auditioned for the show she was 'nearly eight and a half months pregnant,' which made for an interesting audition that definitely stuck in the minds of the show's producers.
She told the the White Wine Question Time podcast, “I was nearly eight and a half months pregnant, like pregnant from the cheekbones out, you know, when your face joins in, in the last month! I walked in, and honestly, I genuinely thought I was in the wrong place.
“All the women were like 70-odd, about five foot two and about 20 foot wide. I was like, ‘Right. I appreciate that I’m pregnant at the moment but I’m definitely in the wrong casting'. Apparently I’d been put in as the wild card. So when I went in for the meeting, and met [producers] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss], and I was a bit like, ‘Hello. I don’t really know why I’m here and I know nothing about Game of Thrones. And I’m so pregnant, I might have an accident right here'!”
