EastEnders star Sid Owen has opened up about his heartache after his fiancée Victoria Shores suffered a “traumatic” miscarriage that left him feeling “numb”.
The 49-year-old actor – who appeared on the BBC soap for 24 years – suffered with mental health issues after his waitress partner miscarried their first child together at nine weeks pregnant.
Sid is now calling for better support to all women who have to go through similar pain after losing a child.
His partner Victoria already has two children from a previous relationship but, at the time, the actor, who played Ricky Butcher, was going to be a dad for the first time in his life.
The pair are now expecting again but it hasn’t made their suffering any easier.
(Image: PA)
After 20 years of friendship Sid and Victoria reconnected through social media and while dating she became pregnant unexpectedly.
It was an exciting time for the pair who could not stop talking about their unborn child and thinking about what could be when Victoria began bleeding suddenly one evening.
The pain and blood loss became heavier so the pair raced to the hospital where their worst dreams became a reality.
(Image: sidowen/Instagram)
Victoria and Sid were told that they’d sadly lost their baby.
The pair were sent home from Guy’s Hospital in central London with just some sanitary pads and were given no after care for the trauma they had just suffered.
Sid was so wracked with depression he was unable to leave the house for days which left his partner feeling “guilty” as she told him she was “sorry”.
He explained: “We were so excited and then suddenly it felt like we had lost everything. I was trying to be strong for Vic. I felt I couldn’t break down as I wasn’t in physical pain, but emotionally I was in pieces.
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
“I was so attached to this idea of our baby. There wasn’t a day that passed when we didn’t speak about the baby. It was a grieving process.”
Sid added: “It took the emotion out of me. I felt numb and didn’t want to go out or see anyone. It took a real toll on my mental health.”
After the miscarriage, the pair knew that they wanted to try to conceive again and were even prepared to have IVF treatment if necessary.
Fortunately, they didn’t have to go down that route as Victoria fell pregnant naturally more or less straight away.
Now six months into their journey as expectant parents they wanted to open up about their pain with the hope that something more can be done to support parents going through similar tragedies.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
