Gemma Collins has opened up about her future plans for motherhood, amid her battle with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and an underactive thyroid.
The former The Only Way is Essex star dismissed the suggestion that she could use a surrogate to have children, declaring that she has “the best doctors going” to help her get pregnant when she is ready.
Speaking to OK! Magazine at the Chelsea Flower Show recently, Collins, 42, admitted that she did not know if she sees herself ever having children in the future, despite having previously said she was “desperate” to have a baby with fiancé Rami Hawash.
“Obviously I’ve got PCOS and all of that,” she said. “I could have a child at 50. If I’d had kids sooner, I would probably have been crazy, whereas now, I’m Miss Organic, I can just be at Zen with the child.”
However, Collins said that going to mother and toddler groups has “never interested” her, unless they are in “Knightsbridge, darling”.
“I’m happy to host my own one indoors or around the vegetable patch,” she continued. “A bit of organic pressed champagne!
“It’s a lot having a kid. It’s a big commitment but it’s also very rewarding. But my life will take me where it’d going to take me. It’s taken me this far and as sure as hell, it’s not over yet.”
Asked if she would consider having a child via surrogate, the TV personality said: “I don’t think I’ll need too. I’m The GC, honey. I can have the best doctors going. I’ll just ring one up and say, ‘Right, come on, get me pregnant!”
Collins also gave an update on her mental health and said she was off all anti-depression medication as it “really clouded” her judgement.
In her 2021 documentary Gemma Collins: Self-Harm & Me, Collins revealed that she was “always put off having children” due to the fear that her depression and self-harming would make her an “unfit mother”.
However, instead of taking medication to treat the condition, she now uses a device called the Flow Neuroscience Headset. The device, created by a Swedish company, uses electric pulses to increase brain activity and is currently being trialled by the NHS.
Collins said: “I do it in the morning when I’m making a cup of tea. It’s a head device programmed to an app on your phone and it stimulates the frontal area of the brain linked to depression.”
The I’m A Celebrity star claimed the headset has so far helped to clear her head and bring her emotions back, which she said were “numbed” by anti-depressants.
“I’ve got all my feelings again and I felt that my judgement was quite clouded. I didn’t feel like I could see dodgy people around me. People were taking me for granted but my brain is so sharp now and I’ve got no side effects,” she said.
“I was desperate to get off medication – but everyone is different and they need to consult their GP. But I was like, ‘I don’t want them in my life.’ That’s it.”
