Gemma Collins opens up about ‘traumatic’ miscarriage while unknowingly pregnant
Gemma Collins has opened up about a “traumatising” miscarriage she experienced in 2012.
The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) star spoke about the incident during a recent episode of her BBC podcast, The Gemma Collins Podcast, and revealed the miscarriage happened when she was unknowingly four months pregnant.
“I’ve had some shocking things happen to me, I’m not sure I’ve spoken about this before,” Collins said.
“But I actually gave birth to a child, sadly, and basically the child was four months old, basically I miscarried but obviously the baby was formed and it died in front of me.”
Collins, who is in a relationship with former TOWIE co-star James Argent, continued: “I had to go to the hospital and my mum was there. I can remember my mum being really upset, I was in shock, I was upset.
“It was a very traumatising experience because I didn’t know I was pregnant, and literally I remember waking up with severe pains and my mum said to me: ‘Gemma you need to go to the toilet.’ I was like: ‘Honey, this is not…’ I mean obviously I couldn’t describe.”
The boutique owner went on to explain that she attempts to put on a brave face, adding: “I try and find the bit of entertainment in this bad situation because I think that’s probably a coping mechanism of mine. I try to laugh or see a brighter side in things even though it was really traumatic.”
This is not the first time she has spoken about her miscarriage. Collins also discussed the experience in her autobiography Basically, where she admitted she was thought it was “God’s way” of punishing her for a previous abortion.
She also previously discussed the miscarriage on Channel 5’s show In Therapy, during which she revealed she attended the 2012 National Television Awards just 24 hours later.
“My mum started crying, but I knew I had to go and perform at the National Television Awards,” Collins said. “I had loads of padding on because I was bleeding heavily, but to the outside world they wouldn't know.”
Recently, the 39-year-old said she wants to have children in her forties to “send a positive message” to working women.
“I would love to have a child,” she told the Sun. “It would be great for me and such a positive message for all the girls out there who don’t want to rush their life or their life has taken a different direction, like me who’s put their career first.”
If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: sands.org.uk, miscarriageassociation.org.uk, tommys.org, lullabytrust.org.uk, mind.org.uk, samaritans.org.
Read more
Vaginal mesh complications ‘often labelled as women’s problems’
