How was Sarah Jessica Parker's IVF & Surrogacy journey?

Sarah Jessica Parker struggled with infertility, as she tried to conceive her second baby with husband Matthew Broderick. Their first son, James Willkie Broderick, in October 2002, when Parker was 37 years old. He was conceived naturally.

Parker grew up as one of eight siblings and did not want James to be an only child. She stated that she “didn’t want him to have to shoulder the burden of us later in life—by himself.”

The couple tried unsuccessfully to conceive again for many years but in vain. “We tried and tried and tried and tried to get pregnant; it just was not to be,” she told the US Vogue magazine.

So, they considered hiring a surrogate and also listed for adoption, and surrogacy happened sooner.

Parker and Broderick were delighted when they found out that their surrogate was in fact carrying twin girls, but for a long time they were unable to share this joy with anyone.

“All the stuff that matters is secretive and worrisome. You can’t talk about how you feel about the woman who’s carrying your children; you can only talk to your husband,” SJP said. “And he just doesn’t want to talk about it as much as you do.”

Media troubles for SJP’s surrogate

Due to the media interest in actor’s life, once their surrogate was named, she was hounded by the press. Michelle Ross was subjected to behavior such as being followed and having her personal phone and computer hacked.

This culminated in a former police chief being jailed after breaking into Ross’s house and taking photographs of her surrogacy file, including ultrasound pictures, in order to sell these to the press.

During this time, Parker was very stressed that she couldn’t do enough to protect her surrogate and unborn babies. It kept her from sleeping every night. “It’s really incredibly upsetting to think of her so far away and me not being able to do something, beyond what I’m legally allowed to do,” she said.

Yes, SJP was was closer to 40 while trying to conceive again, and it seems they struggled quite a bit before deciding to opt for surrogacy.

“We’ve been trying to expand our family for a number of years and we actually have explored a variety of ways of doing so. [Surrogacy] was one of the things we discussed with seriousness that had real possibilities for us,” she said in an interview with Access Hollywood.

She also talked about the disappointment of not being able to conceive, as people can be judgemental of celebrities opting for surrogacy as a luxury.

“Yeah, I mean, I couldn’t pretend otherwise … It would be odd to have made this choice if I was able to, you know, have successful pregnancies since my son’s birth.”

Tough journey it seems; I'm glad she got 3 children on the other side of it.