Taylor Hill has revealed she suffered a miscarriage after unexpectedly getting pregnant while having an IUD.
The Victoria’s Secret model, 28, recently opened up about her difficult miscarriage during an appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast. Hill explained during the June 17 episode that she experienced the miscarriage three years ago, when she was still using an IUD as birth control.
“It was a really strange circumstance under which I had my miscarriage,” she told podcast host Jay Shetty. “I had an IUD. I had it for about three years so I wasn’t actively trying to get pregnant. I didn’t want to get pregnant at all. I was engaged to my husband. We were not planning on starting a family for a while, so I wasn’t in the headspace at all to be pregnant.”
Hill – who married her now-husband Daniel Fryer in June 2023 – recalled feeling “shocked” after discovering she was pregnant, but also “terrified” because she “didn’t understand what it meant” to be expecting with an IUD.
An IUD is a T-shaped birth control device inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy. The Vogue model shared that her pregnancy at the time was “viable” because the fetus was growing in her uterus.
“It was technically healthy but the circumstances and environment in which I conceived was a bit of a turbulent environment,” Hill explained. “My doctor said: ‘We don’t really know what’s going to happen here because you conceived in an environment where your body is telling you you shouldn’t be pregnant because of the IUD and also, if we remove it, we’re changing the environment. We don’t know, 50/50 on whether you’re going to carry this out.’”
She described the weeks after learning she was pregnant as a “waiting game,” and recalled how “painful” it was that her then-fiancé was in London during the Covid-19 pandemic at the time.
“He wasn’t with me when I found out I was pregnant and that was really hard for both of us because all you want to do when you’re going through something like that, as shocking and unexpected as it was for the both of us, is to be there with each other,” Hill shared. “I know he wanted more than anything in the world to hold my hand and tell me it’s gonna be okay.”
After she underwent an internal ultrasound and doctors were able to find a heartbeat, Hill admitted that she suddenly felt a whirlwind of emotions at the idea of becoming a mother. “You do get excited,” she said. “I was trying to stay as neutral as I possibly could, but it was difficult.”
However, around nine weeks into her pregnancy, Hill began to experience spotting and a week later she had a miscarriage.
“I’m alone in my house,” Taylor recalled, as she began to tear up during the podcast. “I call my husband and I’m just devastated because I know this is about to happen to me. We’re both crying. And I could just tell he was so heartbroken that he couldn’t be there. I think that was really painful for him, too.”
The model went on to describe how she recovered from the miscarriage, but didn’t give herself enough time to properly grieve the loss of her pregnancy. Instead, Hill said she busied herself by booking several doctors appointments to make sure she was healthy, rather than process her emotions.
“I kind of went into ‘take care of it’ mode and I just remember feeling so confused because it was really just a rollercoaster of emotion,” she explained. “I didn’t even want this, I wasn’t expecting this, I wasn’t planning on having a child.”
She also emphasized how “confused” she was that she was able to get pregnant with an IUD, considering it’s “one of the most efficient forms of birth control.”
Looking back three years later, Hill admitted that she still has some conflicting emotions about her miscarriage experience. While she knew that it wasn’t the right time for her to start a family, she still finds herself feeling “absolutely devastated” that she’s not a mother.
“Two things can be true at once,” the model said. “Even with some time and space and some perspective… relief. Wow, the timing wasn’t right. Everything happens for a reason. I wasn’t ready to be a mother. I wasn’t ready to have a child.
She added: “I’m absolutely devastated that I’m not a mother and I don’t have a child. That makes no sense. How can you feel both of those things? I don’t know… How do I make this make sense? In terms of miscarriages, sometimes they don’t make sense.”
An IUD, which stands for intrauterine device, is a long-term and reversible form of contraception that works by changing the way sperm cells move so they can’t get to an egg. According to Planned Parenthood, an IUD is more than 99 percent effective in preventing pregnancy – meaning fewer than one out of 100 people who use an IUD will get pregnant each year.
