Victoria Derbyshire has revealed she suffered a miscarriage on a plane but still carried on working.
The BBC Newsnight presenter – who has since had sons Oliver, 20, and Joe, 17, with husband Mark Sandell – has recalled the ‘very upsetting experience’, and admitted it was ‘bizarre’ how ‘practical and pragmatic’ she felt at the time.
‘We had a miscarriage first, that was very upsetting,’ the 56-year-old broadcaster told the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast.
‘I actually had the miscarriage on a plane; I was so practical and pragmatic I was like, “Well this is happening now and I’m going to work” and I just carried on; it’s absolutely bizarre.’
Victoria admitted her heartbreak was ‘one thing’ she struggled to talk openly about for a long time afterwards.
‘I’m a talker, I talk about everything. I’m very open – maybe it’s partly because of the way I was brought up; we talked to my mum about all the crap that was going on,’ she said.
‘That was one thing I couldn’t talk about for about five years; it was so odd, I could not speak about it.’
Her sons both know about her miscarriage, and they often ‘fondly’ wonder what it would’ve been like to have a sister.
She added: ‘My boys know I had that miscarriage and they think fondly, “What if that had been a sister?” I know what we’d have called her; they would have liked to have a sister.’
Victoria admitted she didn’t give herself enough time to grieve after her miscarriage, instead keeping herself busy.
‘I was happy to go through the pregnancy,’ she added. ‘Happy to eat loads of food and you know, put loads of weight on. I loved it, I loved it, yeah.’
And being in her mid-50s hasn’t stopped Victoria – who underwent a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 – wanting another baby.
She said: ‘I feel like, obviously I can’t now, I’m in my 50s and I haven’t had a period since chemotherapy, [but] I feel like I could have a baby now, isn’t that mad?
‘I love being the mum of a newborn.’
Pregnancy loss helpline
For emotional support, you can contact Miscarriage Association’s pregnancy loss helpline on 01924 200799 or email info@miscarriageassociation.org.uk.
