Olympic icon Nicola Adams and her pregnant girlfriend Ella Baig have opened up about their IVF battle – and shared details of their unconventional sex reveal party.
The 39-year-old boxer and historic Strictly Come Dancing contestant has been dating 24-year-old blogger Ella since 2018 and they are set to become parents together.
Ella went thought an IVF procedure to fall pregnant and is carrying a baby boy – with the child being conceived in one of Nicola’s eggs which she had frozen back when she was 30.
The mothers-to-be were guests on Loose Women on Monday when they opened up about their IVF journey and explained how they shared the news that they are expecting a boy.
Speaking on the show, Ella opened up about her challenging IVF journey.
She said: “Well it’s been a few years. Yeah, so we went through three IVF cycles. We had one failed attempt, one miscarriage and then a baby.
“I’m in the second trimester now, so past the hard bit. Unfortunately I had very, very bad morning sickness.”
Nicola admitted it was difficult to watch Ella struggle with morning sickness as she supported her, explaining: “It was funny smells and she was sick.”
Asked if she was worried that something could go wrong following their previous miscarriage, Nicola said: “I was really worried.
“I kept asking her ‘Are you sure you want to try again? It might be too soon.’ So I was really worried in the first trimester, but luckily everything’s turned out fine.”
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The ladies then revealed that they are expecting a boy.
Asked if they had a sex reveal party, they explained that they did – with the ladies using pink and blue paint to make a giant painting before adding every other colour imaginable onto their canvas.
After the paint set, the ladies peeled away parts of the canvas to reveal the declaration: “It’s a boy!”
Ella opened up about the planning process for their reveal event.
She said: “We were sort of a bit hesitant about doing one at all because it’s quite controversial especially in the LGBTQ+ community. But we decided to use it as an excuse to bring awareness to gender stereotypes.
“We did our sex reveal and started out with the pink and blue and then sort of destroyed that and revealed we were having a boy.”
They also discussed that they decided to use one of Nicola’s eggs to conceive their child with a sperm donor as the sport star had already frozen a batch of her eggs in her 30s.
She explained: “Yeah. I was recommended to [freeze my eggs].
“I didn’t realise how much or how IVF is seen outside of the sports perspective. I support every woman in every business and career. I just thought that a lot of people just did that so they can concentrate on their work.”
They also explained that Ella had always wanted to carry the baby so she is the one who is pregnant – while she hopes having youth on her side will make it easier to get back in shape after she gives birth.
She laughed: “Hopefully I’ll bounce back!”
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