Atomic Kitten's Liz McClarnon opens up her about baby joy at 44 and IVF journey

Daily Record

2 days ago

Singer Liz McClarnon-Cho says that she is somewhat 'petrified' of what's to come but is 'loving life' as a mum-to-be.
The journey to being a mum-to-be has not been easy to Atomic Kitten's Liz McClarnon-Cho. After battling through two miscarriages and IVF, the singer now says she couldn't be more grateful as she is set to have her first baby at age 44.
However, while "loving life" as a mum-to-be, she has also admitted that she is somewhat "petrified" of what is to come and that her IVF journey pushed her to her limits.
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Earlier this month, the Liverpool-born singer announced her exciting pregnancy news in a sweet Instagram post. Since then, she has opened up about her fertility treatments, miscarriages and her "rock" of a husband.
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Speaking to the Mirror, she said: "I really didn't expect people to be interested. I just thought I should probably put it out there before someone else mentioned it. I'm still at that 'is it a baby bump or is it just a big tummy?' stage I think, but it was only a matter of time.
"I wore a Baby On Board badge on the Tube the other day because I didn't want to be knocked, and I noticed someone really look at me... So I decided to just let people know what was happening, then I think it'd been seen by half a million people within a few hours.
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"I'm just here living my fabulous little life, I didn't think people would care. But I think IVF is something that a lot of people can relate to – maybe more than we realise."
Now that she is in her second trimester and finally over the pregnancy morning sickness, Liz and her partner Peter Cho are determined not to be stuck in the past.
The couple first connected over dating app Hinge mid-2021 lockdown, and decided to start their IVF journey quite early into the relationship. Liz explained that they both wanted to have children and were aware that as she was 40-years-old it could delay the natural process.
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Unfortunately, in 2022, the couple had three failed embryo transfers, which the singer admitted hit her hard.
She recalls: "The first time we did it, I thought, 'This will be it.' But by my third cycle, it was obviously very different. When that one didn't work, I was really quite sick and I was in a dark hole.
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"I'd put on so much weight but I didn't want to tell anyone why, because I didn't want the IVF to become my identity, my whole personality. I was still doing shows and I'd see the comments online talking about me.
"I remember one said, 'She's getting really thick,' and others were like, 'She's unrecognisable.' I tried to remember that those people didn't know what was happening, but it was hard. I just felt broken after the third time, so we took a break before the wedding."
Liz also revealed that even with the ups and downs, the whole process made her appreciate that having a baby was a "miracle".
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She added: "There are so, so many things that need to happen correctly for someone to get pregnant, and for that to result in a healthy baby.
"If you fall pregnant naturally maybe you're not as aware, but at times we would be waiting every single day for the phone call to say how many eggs had been retrieved, or how many embryos they had, or if the embryos were healthy, or growing, or to tell us if I was pregnant. Then when it doesn't work, you're just in shock."
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Sadly, towards the end of last year, the couple suffered two heartbreaking miscarriages following their first successful cycles. After this, Liz admitted that she was "done". However, being around family gave her the courage to keep going.
She explained: "I said I was 'done' after the last one, and Peter was absolutely on board with that, he didn't say anything other than, 'This is your body and I'll support whatever you decide you want,' which was a huge thing for me. I felt so bad emotionally, it was really tough.
"But then we spent Christmas at home in my tiny two-bedroom flat, and my mum and dad came down from Liverpool and we all squeezed in. That time actually helped me heal."
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The Atomic Kitten star says she is "loving life" now that the lingering anxiety that followed her earlier pregnancies has disappeared. The next milestone for the couple is to find out if they are having a girl or a boy.
However, as she gets further on into the pregnancy, Liz is aware of the impact that her age may have. She says that she is already taking aspirin as she is within the "high risk" category, and that she is being monitored for pre-eclampsia.
When asked if she believes she will be back to full energy once the baby arrives, Liz responded: "Oh God no, my knees already hurt. Don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful, but I'm also petrified. But you know what? It's happened to women older than me before, and it'll happen again – so we'll just get on with it!"