Christine McGuinness has opened up about her struggles before and during her pregnancy, as well as bringing up her children. The 31-year-old shares three young children - two-year-old daughter Felicity and six-year-old twins Leo and Penelope - with her husband, TV presenter Paddy McGuinness. Speaking to Giovanna Fletcher on her podcast, Happy Mum Happy Baby, Christine revealed it took her around four years to fall pregnant because of her battle with anorexia.
© Photo: Getty ImagesChristine McGuinness shares three children with Paddy
"It took four years for me to get pregnant, I think," she said. "I had anorexia for over ten years as a child and all through me teenage years. It sort of got better when I met my husband, 19/20. I was getting better and it was that strive and that I just really wanted to be a mum that made me get over that." She added: "When I went to see the doctor, they said that the reason I wasn't ovulating and wasn't have periods. It was all down to me having an eating disorder so that is what made me get better but it took four years for everything to regulate itself if that makes sense and eventually, I tried a bit too hard and I got pregnant with twins! But yeah, it was amazing!"
READ: Christine McGuinness felt like 'a carer rather than a mum' to her children
When asked what it was like to be pregnant with her twins, Christine replied: "Do you know my pregnancy was really really good! I was tired like you know, most are for the first twelve weeks." However, the former model did experience a scare. "There's one part, I'll never ever forget," she recalled. "I still get emotional thinking about it. I thought I lost the twins and I think just after trying for so long, the thought of losing them, it broke my heart. Thank god they were absolutely fine."
"I had a really heavy bleed, really heavy at three months," she added. "I was convinced I must've lost them but yeah, I went for a scan and they said, 'no they're absolutely fine.' Apparently that can happen with twins or in any pregnancy really, it can happen. You can bleed through your pregnancy but the thought of losing them, I'd already fallen in love with them. These were babies to me and for people that that does happen to, god I can't imagine how that must be."
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Despite the joy of welcoming her twins, who were diagnosed with autism back in 2017, Christine suffered with post-natal depression. "Now looking back, I would say yeah I definitely did [have post-natal depression] and it took me a good three years," the mum-of-three explained. "It took me until I got pregnant again to realise that because when I was pregnant the second time I felt completely different and I just thought why don't - how come I didn't feel like this the first time around. But the first time round you don't know what to expect."
Tickets for Giovanna Fletcher's Happy Mum Happy Baby Live are onsale now via www.gigsandtours.com and you can download Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast from acast.com
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