Celebrities are breaking the stigma around pregnancy loss by speaking out about miscarriage

Olympia Valance

In July 2023, former Neighbours star Olympia Valance revealed she had suffered a miscarriage during the COVID pandemic with her husband AFL player Thomas Bellchambers.

“I don’t usually show my vulnerabilities on my social platforms but I hope it might provide some comfort to anyone who is struggling with some fertility issues as we are,” Olympia said in a video shared to Instagram.

“Thomas and I miscarried twins, right in the middle of COVID, which as you can imagine was excruciatingly painful. Ever since then, we haven’t been able to conceive. That would be two years now of really trying.”

The former Dancing With The Stars contestant confessed she was “petrified to go down the IVF path” after “never” responding well to hormones. However, Olympia put aside her fear and underwent her first IVF session with plans of documenting her journey to help her followers.

Laura Byrne

While Laura Byrne and Matty J are now proud parents to Marlie-Mae and Lola, the couple experienced two painful miscarriages before each of their daughters were born. Speaking of her first loss, Laura said: “When you’ve had a miscarriage, you worry if there is something wrong with you. It is not something that people really talk about but actually one in four pregnancies end that way, you just don’t hear about it.

She continued: “All I could think was ‘why is this happening to us?’ I didn’t know anyone who had experienced miscarriage before. I couldn’t shake the guilt that maybe I had done something wrong, or worse that there was something wrong with me. After confiding in a few close friends and my good old pal Google, I realised I wasn’t alone at all … how could it be so common and yet so rarely talked about?

After experiencing a second loss in 2020, before her daughter Lola was conceived, Laura confessed that it “still feels raw” the second time around. She said, “I guess I never thought I would be someone who would have one miscarriage, let alone someone who would have two miscarriages… It is painful and it is lonely, but it doesn’t need to be quite so lonely and the more that we talk about it and the more the we destigmatise it, then I feel other women who are going through the same thing may feel more supported.”

Meghan Markle

In 2020 this royal mum shocked the world by revealing in a raw op-ed that she experienced a painful miscarriage the year before. Writing for the New York Times, the Duchess of Sussex said of the tragic experience: ”Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few.”

She continued: “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second. Hours later, I lay in a hospital bed, holding my husband’s hand. I felt the clamminess of his palm and kissed his knuckles, wet from both our tears. Staring at the cold white walls, my eyes glazed over. I tried to imagine how we’d heal.”

She and Prince Harry would go one to welcome daughter Lilibet Diana the following year.

Nicole Kidman

Before welcoming daughters Sunday and Faith with husband Keith Urban, Nicole lived through the heartbreak of losing two pregnancies during her marriage to ex Tom Cruise. Speaking candidly about it in 2018, the actress said, “That’s massive grief to certain women.”

Speaking to Tatler, she revealed she experienced an ectopic pregnancy and miscarried shortly after their wedding, then lost another pregnancy at the end of the relationship. She added: “I know the yearning. That yearning. It’s a huge, aching yearning. And the loss! The loss of a miscarriage is not talked about enough.”

Irena Srbinovska

The Bachelor winner and boyfriend Locky Gilbert experienced a tragic pregnancy loss in 2020, Irena revealing to Who at the time: “”During our first few months together I, unfortunately, suffered a miscarriage. But Locky was my absolute rock and having his support made me love him even more.”

In 2021 she added: “Having the miscarriage last year was upsetting. Since then I’ve seen a specialist and got all the tests done so hopefully we won’t have any issues. I know I have the biological clock ticking (it’s something that I am very aware of) but I am hopeful that a baby or two is in the near future.”

Jennifer Hawkins

The model mum and husband Jake Wall have two beautiful children, but the road to parenthood was difficult for the couple. Shortly after announcing her first pregnancy, Jen bravely opened up about the heartbreaking miscarriage she experienced in 2018.

“Last year was such a tough year for Jake and me. It was the toughest year of our lives,” she told Stellar magazine. “I felt like I almost broke and, in fact, it’s still really raw. But Jake was amazing. He let me sit with the pain, feel it and not be OK. I had so many years of planning, but the one thing I so dearly wanted couldn’t be planned. Everything crumbled. With women, we want everything to be OK, but sometimes it’s just not.”

Speaking about falling pregnant after the loss, Jen said: “When we went to see the heartbeat scan for our little girl, it was the most incredible, overwhelming feeling because prior to that we were so scared.”

Sarah Roberts

Beloved Home And Away star Sarah spoke candidly about her heartbreaking miscarriages with husband James Stewart in 2020, revealing she experienced two in just 12 months. Digging into the stigma that surrounds pregnancy loss, Sarah penned: “I think there should be a new word instead of ‘miscarriage’. In some insidious way, it suggests the mother dropped something or decided not to carry.

“I’ve learnt over the past few years [that in] most cases, it has nothing to do with what the mother did or didn’t do, so if we can take the blame off the table – and try not to blame yourself that’s a great start… While it may not have been for long enough, you held your baby in your womb, maybe even in your arms, or perhaps you got to stroke his head as you laid him to rest for the last time. And that, most certainly, makes you a mother. Then, now, and always.”

Carrie Bickmore

Carrie tragically suffered a series of devastating miscarriages which she spoke about in a column for Stellar Magazine in 2018.

“I was struggling to get my head around what had happened and was not in the mood to talk about it,” the star wrote.

Carrie also confessed that she was grateful to have not yet told anybody about the pregnancies before the losses occurred. “I can’t imagine how I would have coped seeing the sad look in people’s faces or answering all the questions: ‘How’s bub coming along?’; ‘Have you got a bump yet?'” she penned. “I needed time to adjust.”

Tammin Sursok

The former Home and Away actress and Pretty Little Liars star, suffered two miscarriages in a row after her five-year-old daughter Phoenix was born. Speaking of her heartache, Tammin revealed: “When we decided to have a second child, I got pregnant really fast again – and we lost that baby in the doctor’s office. It was pretty far into my pregnancy, so it was quite shocking.

“When things like that happen, you never think it’s going to happen to you. But they’re so common, and we don’t talk about it. And then I had another miscarriage before Lennon, so two back to back … We feel so isolated and feel so alone. It took me a long time to share it.”

Megan Gale

She is now a mother to son River and daughter Rosie but the model and founder of baby skincare range, The Mindful Life, has been open and honest about the miscarriage she had prior to her pregnancy with Rosie. She started worrying during her pregnancy but couldn’t have known what was coming, recalling: “I can’t put my finger on it. There was no physical change or a sign or symptom… [the doctor] just said, ‘I’m so sorry, it’s gone.”

“In some ways it is different to my first [pregnancy] because of the experience of going through a miscarriage. I was very conscious to not put a lot of pressure on myself or Shaun or us or as a couple [to fall pregnant again] and let it happen organically. We very were lucky that it happened so quickly.”

Candice Warner

The famous Ironwoman miscarried in 2018 after husband David Warner was involved in a cricket ball tampering scandal that had the media hounding their family for weeks. Speaking to The Weekly about the ordeal and how it affected her, Candice recalled the moment she knew she had lost her unborn child.

“A week after the press conference I woke up feeling pretty ordinary. I called Dave to the bathroom and told him I was bleeding. We

knew I was miscarrying and we held one another and cried. The miscarriage was a tragic consequence, a heartbreaking end to a horror tour,” she said.

Like so many families who’ve experienced a miscarriage, it’s just really sad … At the time, I felt like I’d let us down – that my body had let us down – but I’ve come a long way since then. I’m a very spiritual person and I truly believe it wasn’t their time to be with us. Despite our terrible loss, I do know without any doubt that my calling in life is to be a mum.”

Em Rusciano

In 2017 the iconic funnywoman sadly miscarried at 13 weeks and shared her heartache in a raw Facebook post, writing: “About 10 weeks ago I got the most wondrous surprise. I found out I was pregnant … Yesterday I found out that my little boy, was lost to me.”

She continued: “I’m not sure I’m built to withstand this kind of heart break, I’m not sure any Mother is. A lot of you know exactly what I’m going through, this kind of loss isn’t uncommon and yet it feels entirely unique to me. I think you all heroic for continuing on, I’ve been in the same pair of pyjamas since yesterday, crying a seemingly endless supply of tears and can’t imagine ever leaving my bedroom again.”

She later went on to welcome son Elio in 2019, calling it “just magic” to become a mother again

Lisa Origliasso

One half of The Veronicas, Lisa, shared in 2020 that she had suffered a miscarriage after an ectopic pregnancy with husband Logan. Speaking about the grief she felt on Instagram, the singer wrote that she experienced bleeding early in her pregnancy and was shocked when doctors told her they couldn’t find her baby during an ultrasound. It was later revealed the pregnancy was ectopic and she lost the child.

“Inevitably, I know one day we will have a family,” Lisa wrote afterwards. “But it just wouldn’t feel right to share the good news in the future, without paying respect, love and bringing awareness to the heartbreaking journey so many women and couples face everyday. If this story makes one less woman feel alone, then that to me is worth it.”

Madeleine West

The Aussie actress shares her heartbreaking experience of loss over a decade after it happened, revealing in 2020 that she’ll never forget her “bundle of hope”. Sharing a sonogram of her third child with then partner Shannon Bennett, Madeleine wrote: “I didn’t forget, my darling girl!…I never ever will. Today that little bundle of hope would have turned 11…had she not been called on to greater things before we had the chance to meet her.

“I’ve reprinted the little tribute I wrote to her, to you, to all of us who have loved and lost, yet so rarely get to speak out loud the heartbreak of miscarriage,” she added. You can read the tribute here.

Georgie Gardner
They Today show host has two children, Bronte, 13 and Angus, 11, and has previously opened up about the heartbreaking miscarriage she experienced when trying for her third child.

“Some women I know have miscarriages and are very accepting and say that’s OK, that’s nature taking its course but, my god, it really took me to a very deep and dark place actually,” she said. “I think there are a lot of women and men walking around feeling a real ache in their heart about losing babies, I really do.”