‘I would have given everything in my life to have had a child’ - Lisa Riley speaks poignantly about IVF and how the process ‘diminished’ her

During her time on I'm A Celebrity, Lisa Riley was very open about her struggles with alcohol and grief after the death of her mother, and joined candid conversations with the other ladies in the camp about the effects of menopause.

This week, the 49-year-old actress appeared on Loose Women, where she spoke just as openly and poignantly about her infertility, and the IVF that she subsequently stopped because it "diminished" her personality.

Lisa describes how she was focussed on her career before thinking about a family, and then "waited and waited" to find the right person to have a child with.

"I found the right person in Al," she says of her musician boyfriend Al, whom she's been in a long-term relationship with since 2014.

"I couldn't fall pregnant," she says, adding, "I would've given everything in my life to have had a child." Movingly, Lisa continues, "I wasn't that lucky. I tried everything."

Eventually, Al intervened when he felt the process was taking too much of a toll on Lisa. She recalls that he turned to her one day and said, "You have to stop all the IVF treatment. It's diminishing you, it's taking your personality away, you're trying too hard."

After sharing her story, Lisa says, "Sometimes in life it's not meant to be." Indicating fellow panellists Kaye Adams, Janet Street Porter and Oti Mabuse, the actress continues, "I have to sit with you here today, knowing that."

However, Lisa has tried to look for positives after such a difficult time of her life. "I'm very lucky, because of my family unit," she explains.

She adds that her nephews and niece are "a big part of me," continuing, "they are a part of my jigsaw." She continues, "But I do know, that when I couldn't get pregnant and was feeling rubbish in myself, I felt like a jigsaw with a missing piece."

"I felt really diminished," she reiterates, explaining, "There's still times at work now I struggle to have conversations that go that way."

The Loose Women ladies entered into a discussion about women feeling "forced" to choose between having a family and a career.

Janet Street Porter recalls reaching that time of her life and being happy with her choice to not have children.

Lisa Riley nods vehemently when asked about whether she felt she had to choose between the two options.

The actress concludes, "I'm happy where I am now, but I have to be happy. When I see friends getting pregnant I'm over the moon for them."

"But there's always going to be that little voice in the back of my head saying, 'It didn't quite work out for me,' and I have to find peace in that."