I’m A Celeb stars Liz Ellis and Debra Lawrance share heartbreaking miscarriage stories
"The hardest thing is there's no word for the grief"
Former netball player Liz Ellis and Home and Away actress Debra Lawrance opened up about their fertility struggles and the heartbreak of miscarriage in Tuesday’s episode of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!.
The emotional scenes began when The Below Deck star Aesha Scott told Liz Ellis, 50, that she did not feel ready for children.
“I’m 31 and I don’t want kids for ages,” said Aesha.
“You’re fine, but what I would say to you is your fertility falls off a cliff, theoretically, after the age of 35,” Liz responded, saying she was 38 when she had her first baby, her daughter, Evelyn, and her doctor told her there may be issues if she wanted more children in the future.
“When she was born, the obstetrician said ‘You’re old, if you want another one you’ve gotta start trying straight away’ and it took us five years to fall pregnant.”
Liz welcomed her daughter Evelyn in 2011, and her son Austin in 2016.
Liz Ellis told Below Deck‘s Aesha Scott that “your fertility falls off a cliff, theoretically, after the age of 35”.
Debra, who welcomed her daughter Grace in 1992 and son, William in 1999, shared her own heartbreaking journey to motherhood revealing she “lost four babies” before she had Will.
“Oh I’m so sorry,” Liz said as she began to well up.
Debra responded, “They weren’t meant to be. I lost two single babies and then identical twin girls. They were later into the pregnancy, they had a syndrome, and they were never going to survive. And my belief, Liz, is when Will was born… he was the baby we were waiting for. And so it makes him really precious.”
“I can’t believe I’m the first one to cry in here,” said Liz.
“No, It’s good to cry about it. It’s actually good to acknowledge the loss. There’s this weird thing about how it’s almost like some women feel ashamed if they miscarry, which is so bizarre to me,” Debra told her.
“The hardest thing is there’s no word for the grief,” Liz responded through her tears.
“The hardest thing is there’s no word for the grief,” said Liz about miscarriage.
Debra also began to cry, while speaking about the loss of her twins when at the 16-week-scan there was no heartbeat.
“It was a 16-week scan – oh, I’m going to cry now – but at 16 weeks, he said one heartbeat wasn’t there, and that they had the same syndrome, that he could tell from the ultrasound. I’m very pragmatic about things … You’ve got no choice but to accept it. There’s no wishing it away.”
She added: “It’s actually good to cry about it. It’s actually good to acknowledge the loss.”
Aesha told the women she felt “privileged” to hear their stories. “You guys are such strong women,” she told them, as they embraced in a group hug.
