Lisa Riley opened up about her fertility struggles while appearing on Tuesday’s episode of Loose Women.
The 49 year old, who is best known for playing Mandy Dingle in ITV‘s Emmerdale, spoke candidly about her attempts to conceive as a guest panellist alongside Kaye Adams, 63, Janet Street Porter, 79, and Oti Mabuse, 35.
Kaye revealed that it has been reported that abortions are at a record high in England and Wales, which led the panel to speak openly about topics surrounding it, including contraception.
This led Lisa, who has been in a relationship with her partner Al since 2014, to say: ‘I’ve spoken a lot, about me personally, being a catholic, it drummed into us, you don’t use contraception and you don’t have sex before marriage.
‘That was in my head a lot, then later in life, career, I did chose my career, apps weren’t available then to look at your cycle, I waited… waited… found the right person in Al, when it came to the time of trying, I couldn’t fall pregnant.
‘I would have given everything in my life to have had a child.
Lisa Riley opened up about her fertility struggles while appearing on Tuesday’s episode of Loose Women.
The actress is best known for playing Mandy Dingle in ITV soap Emmerdale
The 49-year-old (pictured with her partner Al) spoke candidly about it as a guest panellist alongside Kaye Adams, 63, Janet Street Porter, 79, and Oti Mabuse, 35
‘I look now at your happiness [Oti] and the baby, and you have got that career. It’s amazing.
‘I wasn’t that lucky, I tried everything until the point where Al turned to me and he literally said “You have to stop all the IVF treatment because it’s diminishing you, it’s taking your personality away, you’re trying to hard”.
‘Sometimes in life, it’s not meant to be. I have to sit with you girls here today knowing that.
‘However I am very lucky, because I am a family unit. My nephew and my niece, they are a big part of me.
‘I say they are now my jigsaw, but what I do know, when I couldn’t get pregnant, feeling so rubbish in myself, and I’ve said this a lot, I felt like a jigsaw with a missing piece.’
Janet asked: ‘You felt diminished?’
‘Yeah I did, I felt really diminished,’ Lisa replied.
‘There’s still times at work now where I struggle when conversations are very that way.’
Lisa recalled: ‘I wasn’t that lucky, I tried everything until the point where Al turned to me and he literally said “You have to stop all the IVF treatment because it’s diminishing you, it’s taking your personality away, you’re trying to hard”‘
Janet went on to explain: ‘This isn’t to make you feel any better, but as someone who chose not to have children, I’ve got people saying to me at work, “Did you try and it didn’t work?”
‘It was like having a child right through my early career is what everybody just did. It was completely expected that you do it.
‘My sister did it and I didn’t have a child and I chose my career, and my partners were happy to go along with that.’
Kaye asked the panel: ‘Did you feel it was a choice – child or career?’
While Lisa nodded and said ‘Yes’ to herself, Janet said: ‘Yeah it is, really. It was then. I think it was really.
‘I was pushing ahead at a time where I needed to travel a lot.
‘My first husband was a photographer, we travelled to America for a year, we travelled all around America, when I was a fashion editor, I was travelling a lot.
‘I was utterly focused on being successful. I was utterly focused on my career.’
Janet believes that she had to pick between her career and a child, admitting: ‘I was utterly focused on being successful. I was utterly focused on my career’
Kaye then asked Lisa: ‘But you are happy with where you are now?’
Lisa explained: ‘Yeah I am happy, but also, I have to be happy.
‘I’m happy when I see all my friends getting pregnant at work at Emmerdale.
‘I’m over moon for them, but there is always going to be that little, little, scuff in the back of my head going “It didn’t quite work out for me”, and I have to find peace in that.
‘Thank God I’ve got Al, because you do that together.’
Loose Women airs weekdays from 12:30pm on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.
