Hollyoaks actress Jessica Fox is expecting a baby and shared her tragic story of going through two miscarriages last year.
The actress, who plays Nancy Hayton on the Channel 4 soap, shared the exciting news on Instagram while opening up about her story of loss.
Posing with her partner Nicholas Willes and a baby scan, Jessica smiled wide and gave her baby daddy a warm hug.
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She said: “This week has been baby loss awareness week. So it seemed a good (and bad) time to share out story at the end of such an important and heartbreaking campaign and to show our support to all those who have been or are going through a similar journey.”
Jessica said: “Nick and I have been on a rocky road to get to this point.”
She added: “If I only post about the shiny happy stuff that’s a disservice to others in the same position, myself and the babies I didn’t get to hold in my arms.”
The actress said miscarriage “is awful”, saying: “It robs you of the future you had planned, your faith in your body, it’s isolating, lonely, frightening and something no one seems to talk about, it’s incredibly painful. It’s pass out in your bathroom painful.”
Opening up, Jessica said: “Nick and I lost two babies in 2021. Both losses were at the end of the first trimester and completely heartbreaking.
“In a cruel twist of fate, when I got pregnant the second time the character I play on Hollyoaks was pregnant too.”
She said that fans on Twitter were speculating that she must be pregnant in real life too, and admitted due to her short frame she “looked pregnant almost straight away” as she had “started to put on weight”.
“Maybe people thought I’d gone method and was really committed to the storyline,” she said.
“I started to show at work, I felt very smug that I’d have the most realistic baby bump ever.
“Maybe my actual baby could even play my child on screen?!
“The wardrobe department (who are the kindest people on Earth) were the only ones who knew I was expecting.”
But she said she lost the baby and was next “putting on a fake” baby bump for her soap job.
“It was every bit as horrific as it sounds,” she said. “I tried to keep it a secret and get on with it.
“I’m a pretty private person when it comes to the hard parts of life and sympathy makes me fall apart.”
She admitted she never thought she’d be sharing her story on social media.
When it came to filming the soap birth, Jessica said she was “terrified”, especially considering Nancy had been through miscarriages too, saying: “It was all a bit close to the bone.”
Then on her due date she was given a “beautiful tiny baby” to work with and was naturally very emotional, saying she was “broken”.
It wasn’t until after the pregnancy storyline that Jessica realised how much of a strain on her mental health it had been.
“I’d given up sleep. I’d developed a fear of driving, intrusive thoughts, and we think a form of OCD,” she said.
She and Nick went on holiday to Greece to try and help, and she was “pregnant by the time she got home”.
Jessica said this time around she is under close observation and “every time we have a baby scan I hold my breath ’til they tell me they see a heartbeat and I cry every time they do”.
Her baby is now 20 weeks along and is “healthy and growing”, though she hasn’t felt any kicks as her placenta is at the front.
She revealed she is due in spring of 2023, and added she and Nick are “chuffed as punch”.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
