Gemma Collins has shared her heartache after medical professionals advised her to terminate a pregnancy.
The former TOWIE star, 43, has made no secret of her desire to become a mum and became emotional as she discussed the impossible situation in an interview for the second series of her podcast, Everything I Know About Me, which launches on May 9.
“[Doctors] advised me you need to have a termination. I remember that being really stressful. That hurt me,” the Essex native explained with tears in her eyes.
She also touched on difficult past relationships, admitting: “I was really heartbroken because I was pregnant and he was having an affair.”
Collins, who got engaged to long-term partner Rami Hawash in February this year, has spoken candidly in the past about her fertility struggles, including how she previously suffered three miscarriages.
She experienced her first loss in 2012, but didn’t feel able to speak out about the ordeal until 2020.
Speaking on her own podcast, Collins - who had not realised she was pregnant at the time - said: “I've had some shocking things happen to me, I'm not sure I've spoken about this before.
“But I actually gave birth to a child, sadly, and basically the child was four months old, basically I had a miscarriage but obviously the baby was formed and it died in front of me.'
“I had to go to the hospital and my mum was there. I can remember my mum being really upset, I was in shock, I was upset.
“That was really a shocking moment for me. But this is what I'm saying, I can talk about it now. Things sometimes are not meant to be.
“I'll never forget it, it was a very traumatising experience because I didn't know I was pregnant and literally I remember waking up with severe pains and my mum said to me, 'Gemma you need to go to the toilet,' and I was like, 'Honey, this is not…'
“I mean obviously I couldn't describe… Look I try and find the bit of entertainment in this bad situation because I think that's probably a coping mechanism of mine, I try to laugh or see a brighter side in things even though it was really traumatic.
“But I can remember just being in utter shock. I've been through a lot so I feel in life, nothing shocks me.
“So anything you could tell me now wouldn't shock me because I've been through a lot and dealt with a lot but I'm grateful for those experiences because I can sit here today and relay them to other people.”
Collins, who has polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and an underactive thyroid, suffered her second pregnancy loss in 2020 during the Covid pandemic, while the third incident happened a few months later in July 2020.
