One in four pregnant women in Australia will suffer a miscarriage. You wouldn’t know that the rates are this high because women are often forced to suffer the devastating loss of a pregnancy in silence.
These are the celebrities who have shared their stories in an attempt to tackle the taboo around infertility and pregnancy loss.
Jessie J
In November 2021, singer Jessie J took to Instagram to make an emotional announcement that she had suffered a miscarriage after doctors couldn’t find a heartbeat at her third pregnancy scan.
After splitting up with Channing Tatum early in 2020, and ending her seven month relationship with Max Pham in October 2021, Jessie made the brave decision to have a child on her own.
“I decided to have a baby on my own. Because it’s all I’ve ever wanted and life is short. To get pregnant was a miracle in itself and an experience I will never forget and I know I will have again.”
She received an outpouring of support, while also sending her love to every woman who has suffered in the same way.
“Im still in shock, the sadness is overwhelming. But I know I am strong, and I know I will be ok. I also know millions of women all over the world have felt this pain and way worse. I feel connected to those of you I know and those of you I don’t. It’s the loneliest feeling in the world.”
In May 2022, the singer opened up about the moment she shared the devastating story with her followers. Speaking on the podcast, Diary of a CEO, she said: “I posted it because I didn’t have anyone to break on… I didn’t have anyone to fall apart on, and that’s what I needed, that’s what I wanted.
“I was by myself, I had no one advising me, my mum and my sister weren’t there to go, ‘no, don’t share this with the world, make it real for you first’.”
The day after it happened, Jessie J was expected to perform in a show.
“The hardest part for me wasn’t doing the show, the show was actually kind of a weird trippy dream, and I was actually grateful that I wasn’t by myself, and loads of people that I loved turned up,” she said.
But afterwards, the singer was overcome with grief: “It was when I got in the car after the show by myself, and I got home, and I opened my front door, I closed the door and I fell to my knees.
“That was the worst moment of my whole experience was realising that, other than my career, being a mother and having a child has been the biggest excitement of my life.
“I felt like I’d been given everything I’d ever wanted and then someone had gone, ‘but you can’t have it.”
Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone has opened up about the nine miscarriages that she has suffered, in a powerful message about women’s right to reproductive health. The Basic Instinct star’s comment came as a reply to an Instagram post by People magazine which was promoting a story about professional dancer Peta Murgatroyd’s loss of pregnancy while her husband, Maks Chmerkovskiy, was in Ukraine.
“We, as females, don’t have a forum to discuss the profundity of this loss. I lost nine children by miscarriage,” she wrote, adding, “It is no small thing, physically nor emotionally yet we are made to feel it is something to bear alone and secretly with some kind of sense of failure”.
“Instead of receiving the much-needed compassion and empathy and healing which we so need. Female health and wellness left to the care of the male ideology has become lax at best, ignorant in fact, and violently oppressive in effort.”
Her comments came after the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the historic, 50-year-old Roe v. Wade, returning the power to regulate abortion to state legislatures, which puts the lives and safety of countless women under jeopardy.
Maya Vander
Mother-of-two Maya Vander, who you’ll recognise from reality real estate drama Selling Sunset, revealed that she suffered a miscarriage months after giving birth to her stillborn child.
“Miscarriage after ten weeks following my still birth 😢,” the realtor and reality star shared on Instagram.
The news comes after Vander suffered a stillbirth at 38 weeks back in December 2021.
“Instead of delivering a baby, I get to go home with a memory box… I do not wish this on anyone. You will always be in our heart baby Mason,” Vander wrote on Instagram.
Whitney Port
In January 2021, The Hills: New Beginnings star and podcaster revealed she recently suffered a pregnancy loss—her second in less than two years. The 35-year-old reality star shared via Instagram that she and husband Tim Rosenman had planned to document both their pregnancy and house renovation journey prior to the loss, noting, “This is not an easy one.”
“Sadly, I lost the pregnancy,” Port wrote. “Timmy and I weren’t sure if we still wanted to put this out there. I wasn’t sure I wanted to relive the pain. However, this time around, I felt differently about the situation. Last time, I don’t think I was ready to have another child, and I had different feelings about the miscarriage. This time, I really connected.”
The couple are already parents to three-year-old son Sonny.
Beyoncé
In 2013, Beyoncé produced an autobiographical HBO documentary called Life Is But A Dream. In an interview for the documentary, the Formation singer revealed that she and husband Jay-Z had suffered a miscarriage. Queen Bey explained: “About two years ago, I was pregnant for the first time. And I heard the heartbeat, which was the most beautiful music I ever heard in my life. I picked out names, I flew back to New York to get my checkup and no heartbeat.”
The songstress now has three children, Blue Ivy Carter and twins Rumi and Sir Carter.
Pink
Back in 2010, Pink opened up to Ellen DeGeneres about her issues with pregnancy loss, stating: “I have had a miscarriage before.” The singer revealed that she and husband Carey Hart had lost a planned pregnancy.
The couple now has two children together—Willow Sage Hart and Jameson Moon Hart.
Gwenyth Paltrow
In 2013, Gwenyth Paltrow told YOU magazine: “I had a really bad experience when I was pregnant with my third [child]. It didn’t work out and I nearly died.”
Paltrow has two children with ex-husband and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, daughter Apple and son Moses.
Courteney Cox
Before the birth of daughter Coco, who Cox shares with ex-husband and fellow actor David Arquette, Cox suffered ‘multiple’ miscarriages. “I get pregnant pretty easily,” the actress told People magazine, “but I have a hard time keeping them.”
Lily Allen
“It was horrendous and something I would not wish on my worst enemy. It’s something that I still haven’t dealt with… But it’s not something that you get over. I held my child and it was really horrific and painful—one of the hardest things that can happen to a person…I nearly died. But I was numb and I didn’t care. I’d just lost my baby,” Lily Allen revealed to The Sun.
The singer and her ex-partner Sam Cooper have two children together.
Nicole Kidman
In an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, Aussie actress Nicole Kidman revealed that she lost a baby shortly after marrying ex-husband Tom Cruise. Kidman stated: “From the minute Tom and I were married, I wanted to have babies.”
The couple went on to adopt two children together, Isabella and Connor Cruise, and Kidman now shares two daughters with husband Keith Urban.
Mariah Carey
In 2010, Mariah Carey revealed in an All Access Hollywood interview with then-husband Nick Cannon that she had suffered a miscarriage in 2008. Carey stated that losing the baby “took me to a dark place.”
Carey and Cannon went on to have two children together before their divorce: Moroccan Scott Cannon and Monroe Cannon.
Brooke Shields
American actress Brooke Shields wrote about losing a child in her 2014 autobiography There Was A Little Girl. While waiting to go on stage to perform with the Muppets, Shields received a call from her doctor that she had miscarried. She penned: “We were just crushed. Up until then, I thought simply because it was time and I wanted to have a baby, it would work.”
Shields now has two children.
Celine Dion
Before giving birth to twins, singer Celine Dion had been expecting triplets, but lost one of the three babies early on in the pregnancy. She revealed to the French press in 2010 that: “[The miscarried child] chose to let go to give space to his brothers to grow.” Dion had also already had a miscarriage before using IVF to fall pregnant with her twins: “They said I was pregnant, and a couple of days after, [my husband and I] were not pregnant again…”
Giuliana Rancic
E! News presenter Giuliana Rancic is no stranger to heartbreak, as the 42-year-old suffered through a very public battle with breast cancer in 2011. In 2010, Rancic and husband Bill were given some goods news—that IVF had been successful and Giuliana was pregnant. However, just nine weeks later at a routine ultrasound, the couple learnt that Giuliana had miscarried.
“Both of us were in shock…I was angry at life and angry at God. Our dreams were coming true, and then we’re supposed to start all over again?”
The couple now has one child together, Edward Duke Rancic, who was born in 2012.
Oprah
In 2011, Oprah appeared on Piers Morgan’s CNN show as a guest, and spoke candidly about her pregnancy and miscarriage as a 14-year-old. She told Morgan that after the miscarriage: “I went back to school and nobody knew because had anybody have known at that time I wouldn’t have been able to be head of the student council.”
Winfrey went on to explain that if she hadn’t had the troublesome experience: “the whole trajectory of my life would have been different.”
Elizabeth Banks
In an interview with Lucky, actress Elizabeth Banks shared her issues with fertility and miscarriage, explaining: “…the one true hurdle I’ve faced in life is that I have a broken belly…years of trying to get pregnant, exploring the range of fertility treatments, were all unsuccessful.”
Banks now has two children.
Jamie King
American actress and model Jaime King took to her Instagram to tell her story of infertility and her issues with pregnancy loss. The blonde beauty explained that she struggled for eight years with undiagnosed poly-cystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis. King also suffered five ectopic miscarriages, five rounds of IVF and 26 IUI’s and spent a total of four and a half years trying to get pregnant.
King now has two children, James and Leo.
Lindsay Lohan
In 2014, Lindsay Lohan revealed in the finale of her OWN network docuseries Lindsay that she suffered a miscarriage. The Mean Girls actress explained: “No one knows this…I had a miscarriage…I couldn’t move. I was sick. And mentally that messes with you.”
