Nicole Kidman’s IVF journey was rather difficult as she struggled with infertility over several years and is known to have experienced a miscarriage, an ectopic pregnancy, and also faced difficulties in her IVF treatment, before being able to conceive.
Despite her difficult journey, Nicole Kidman is a mother to four children, a son and daughter who are adopted, a daughter that she gave birth to, and a daughter birthed via surrogacy. She had the biological daughters with her husband, Keith Urban, whom she married in 2006.
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IVF treatments are expensive and even though Hollywood celebrities may not have to worry about how much IVF costs, it is important to understand that the emotional and physical stress of infertility is just as strong.
Reading more about Nicole Kidman’s IVF journey may help you appreciate that you are not alone.
Nicole Kidman’s miscarriage
Nicole has publicly stated that she suffered an ectopic pregnancy not long after she married Tom Cruise at the age of 24.
As the couple then struggled a lot to conceive, they went on to adopt their two children—Isabella, now 27, and Connor, now 25.
When talking about her pregnancy loss and subsequent choice to adopt, she told People magazine in 2007 that “There’s a complicated background to that, given that I never speak much about many things. One day maybe that story will be told.”
Nicole went on to suffer a miscarriage during her break up with Cruise. She was around three months pregnant at the time.
Birth of her biological daughters
Following the breakdown of her marriage to Tom Cruise, Nicole remarried Keith Urban in 2006. The couple were eager to start a family; however, they also had trouble trying to conceive. This would not have been helped by Nicole’s advancing age, as at this point, she was fast approaching 40.
Nicole is reported to have tried many different fertility treatments in a bid to conceive with her new husband.
She has openly talked about her difficulties in conceiving, stating “I had tried and failed and failed and failed”.
She even spoke up about the emotional effects of infertility, saying: “Every woman who has been through all those ups and downs knows the depression that comes with it.”
Their first daughter, Sunday Rose, was born in 2008 and Kidman calls her “the miracle of my life.”
“I had so much time thinking that wasn’t going to happen in my life and trying to understand that. When it did happen—and for it to be a surprise—that was great.” Sunday is now 12 years old.
Nicole credits her conception with swimming in Australian ‘fertility waters’ as despite her previous fertility problems, this was a natural conception.
About the time she was filming her movie Australia, Nicole said: “Seven babies were conceived out of this film and only one was a boy. There is something up there in the Kununurra water because we all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we can call it the fertility waters now.”
Nicole and Keith struggled to conceive again after having their first daughter. After failed IVF treatment, the couple were advised to follow the surrogacy route.
Nicole Kidman’s Surrogate
Nicole’s decision to opt for a surrogate to carry her fourth child may have been influenced by her age. She was 43 years old at this point. While carrying becomes riskier as you age, it is actually the eggs that make conception in older age more difficult. IVF over the age of 40 has rather low chances of being successful, when a woman’s own eggs are used.
However, luckily for Kidman, she was able to conceive with her own eggs once again. The Oscar winner has confirmed that her own eggs were used in the process.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour Nicole said: “I’m one of the few people in the world who has experienced so many different forms of (motherhood).
“But I haven’t had the child from a donor egg. I haven’t also been a foster mother and I’m very interested in that… But I did foster a child that I met through school, an aboriginal boy.”
A few years ago, she took her six-year-old daughter, Faith, to meet the surrogate who they nicknamed ‘Aunty Sheila.’
Nicole and the surrogate were both in tears, it is reported. While Faith remained cool, she put a lot of questions to her parents later.
More babies for Nicole Kidman?
Nicole Kidman has battled with infertility throughout much of her adult life. As she herself puts it, she has “done all the stuff you can possibly do to try get pregnant.”
She is close to 50 years now, but Nicole still has a little hope that she’d fall pregnant again, and have another child naturally. Female relatives of hers had late pregnancies, which raises the hope for Nicole too.
“I still have the faintest hope that something may happen to me this year. Keith and I would love to have more babies,” she said on the radio show. “My grandmother gave birth to my mother at 49! I would be beyond happy and just welcome it with open arms. Children are the joy of my life.”
Nicole is correct in that infertility trends run in the family; however, many conditions have changed now and just because your mother had in easy pregnancy in her 40s, it does not mean you’d be able to do so too.
Fertility in women starts to decline between 35 and 40 years of age, as the quality of eggs starts to decline. Infact, poor quality of eggs is one of the main reasons for failure of IVF, which is why doctors recommend IVF with donor eggs to older women.
Hopefully, reading such an inspiring story, of a woman who has not let anything get in the way of the family she wants and deserves, inspires you to remain positive throughout your journey.
We are grateful for all these celebrity infertility stories as this helps raise awareness and remove the stigma around infertility.
