Natalie Imbruglia has reflected on her journey to becoming a mother, after using IVF and a sperm donor to have her son Max Valentine, six.
Speaking on the latest episode of Begin Again with Davina McCall, the 51-year-old Torn hitmaker shed light on her ‘intense and lonely’ hope for a child and how she spent five years trying before falling pregnant with Max at 44.
Natalie has spoken previously about her choice to have IVF stemming from ‘running out of time’, rather than as an act of independence or feminism.
She told Davina: ‘One thing I do like to say out loud is, I didn’t choose some feminist path of not being with a man. I think that’s really unfair to men. Because it’s been written about me, that I made this choice…
‘I couldn’t get arrested, I couldn’t find a boyfriend. I tried really hard for a long time. And then, as a woman, you run out of time. And so then you start going, “I’m going to have to think about it” and there begins the journey, and it’s really intense…
Natalie Imbruglia has reflected on her journey to becoming a mother, after using IVF and a sperm donor to have her son Max Valentine, six
Speaking on the latest episode of Begin Again with Davina McCall, the 51-year-old Torn hitmaker shed light on her ‘intense and lonely’ hope for a child and how she spent five years trying before falling pregnant with Max at 44
‘And I mean, really lonely. So I just make myself available to any woman who, stranger at a party or whatever, who needs advice. I give it so lovingly and freely. Because, yeah, I just didn’t have that kind of support.’
In June, during a conversation with Elizabeth Day, she echoed this when asked if she chose IVF over being with a man: ‘That’s absolute rubbish…
‘Like it wasn’t some kind of ‘I don’t need a man’ or, you know, ‘Women can do this and not have a man in their life’. We just find ourselves in a situation where there’s a biological clock and you know a decision needs to be made…
‘Thank God for medicine that we’re able to have that option because women before us didn’t have that option.’
Natalie shed light on her pregnancy announcement, saying she felt forced to reveal the news due to scrutiny despite keeping the baby secret for half a year.
She said: ‘I hid it for six months because the energy coming at you. And because I’m quite an energy sensitive person, I just didn’t want the energy coming at me. So I kept it hidden for as long as I could…
She told Davina: ‘One thing I do like to say out loud is, I didn’t choose some feminist path of not being with a man. I think that’s really unfair to men. Because it’s been written about me, that I made this choice’
Davina enjoyed the candid chat with the iconic songstress
‘And then I was like, I mean, there’s a price on my head for the photo. So like it’s, you’ve got to make certain choices. And I think it was my family friends, the Bransons were very supportive and helpful with advice at that time of my life…
‘And I just made the decision to put a statement out. And I remember being terrified because I’m very private. And so having to put this statement out to protect myself and the baby, to just get it out the way…
‘And I just remember crying all the way to Oxfordshire, bawling my eyes out… And you know what? I just got inundated with the most beautiful DMs from all these women just saying, thank you so much. I need to talk to you…
‘I really want to do that. And it just hadn’t occurred to me how many people I could help in just that little, that wasn’t that big of a deal. It was just putting a statement out. And then realising that that was actually quite a big deal at that time.’
