Lisa Cannon reveals that keeping 'high-risk pregancy' a secret helped her stay calm

Extra.ie​

4 days ago

TV presenter Lisa Cannon said she kept her 'high-risk pregnancy' under wraps as a 'protective cocoon' after years of trying to have a baby.
Lisa, 46, dropped the bombshell news that she had become a mum for the first time on Valentine's Day last year when she posted a black-and-white picture of herself holding her newborn baby, Seren, announcing: 'A star is born.'
The presenter and producer had spoken publicly about her strong desire to start a family and to try fertility treatments. Pic: Instagram/Lisa Cannon.
But aside from a tight-knit circle – her husband Richard Keatley, a few friends and her doctors – nobody knew about her pregnancy.
Speaking about her reasons for keeping her big news out of the public eye, one year into motherhood, Lisa told Extra.ie: 'It wasn't really that it [the pregnancy] was in any way kept quiet, it was just really more of a protective cocoon because I was a high-risk pregnancy, as anyone would know if you're in your forties.
'My focus and the doctors' focus was ensuring the baby's safety and, of course, that my well-being was above everything else. I was encouraged by all the wonderful doctors to focus on that safety, so we just had to cherish each milestone, and we had to do it privately.' Lisa Cannon. Pic: Brian McEvoy
Lisa also said she and her husband did not want to 'disappoint' anyone as they had been trying for so long to have a baby.
'I was worried that if we announced anything and it didn't go according to plan, not only would there be the weight of the disappointment for me, but it's all the people I love, family, friends, and people who would wish this for us as well, they would have been crushed alongside ourselves,' she said.
'In some ways, you can really bear your own worries, but seeing loved ones be upset for you, that's hard to bear at times. Pic: Lisa Cannon/Instagram
'Genuinely, I was gently encouraged to keep things quiet until we were reaching those proper milestones, and thankfully, I was lucky that it happened.'
Keeping her pregnancy a secret wasn't easy while being in the glare of the public spotlight; Lisa continued to work on TV and radio until a few weeks before Seren's birth.
Despite continuing to appear on the Ireland AM couch, Lisa said the time of the year helped to disguise her pregnancy.
'I think, ultimately, because I was pregnant during the wintertime and bundled up in the scarves and the coats, I was more like that cosy teddy bear than a glowing mum-to-be, which actually made my heart tickle, to be honest,' she said.
'Of course, I had my heart set on being this nurturing kind of pregnant woman, but you are worried week-on-week and all you want is the safety of her arrival and all the doctors, as I said, were urging me gently to just take it week by week and just mind myself.'
While trying to remain calm and healthy, Lisa also had to care for her sick father.
She recalled: 'I had to do that and take that very seriously because you think you can run and gad about, but you can't if you're in any way of a risk, I had to stay close and be minded and be on a bit of bed rest too.
'My friends said it was great because I did get to slow down, but it's not the way you want to! I did keep everything [with work] going because I'm freelance, so I was writing, and I did my radio show with Pat Kenny on Newstalk right up until two or three weeks before she was born.
'Honestly, nobody really knew [that I was expecting]. Pat didn't know, maybe everyone just thought I just looked like a snowman for a few months. Nobody ever really asked me if I was pregnant.'
Now her little girl is a year old, and Lisa can't believe her lucky stars and is besotted with her Seren (Welsh for star).
'I'm a year in now and honestly, it's just fantastic. [Being a mother] is a hard thing to describe, because it's so joyful and the journey is amazing, but it's busy,' she added.
'Where I thought maybe I'd be able to have some dinners and drinks and things, I'm definitely only able to meet people for coffees now for 20 minutes, and then I'm gone again. I'm enjoying it, but I don't know if I've got the glow as a new mum.
'I feel I'm bringing a little bit of experience as I've been a godmother eight or seven times over. I'm loving the journey, and I suppose I'm a little more confident than I probably thought I'd even be because I've had so many godchildren.'