'I felt broken' - Liz McClarnon shares 'dark times' of IVF journey and the joy of pregnancy at 44

Atomic Kitten singer Liz McClarnon-Cho opened up in a rare and candid interview about the heartbreak she suffered while trying to conceive.

Liz revealed that she experienced two miscarriages and went through five IVF cycles before finally falling pregnant at 44.

In an interview with OK! , she explained that while she is currently 'loving life' as an expectant mother, it's been a long and difficult journey to get here. After meeting her husband Peter Cho online on the dating app Hinge, back in 2021, they quickly began their IVF journey.

They both wanted children and were worried that her age, being 40 at the time, could impact their chances at conceiving naturally.

In 2022, she went through three failed embryo transfers and recalls feeling "broken" after being told they were not successful.

“The first time we did it, I thought, ‘This will be it'", she said of their first round of IVF.

“But by my third cycle, it was obviously very different. When that one didn’t work, I was really quite sick, and I was in a dark hole."

So, the couple took a break. Then, at the end of 2024, they tried again. But after a successful IVF cycle, Liz suffered two heartbreaking miscarriages.

“I said I was ‘done’ after the last one," she explained. "And Peter was absolutely on board with that, he didn’t say anything other than, ‘This is your body and I’ll support whatever you decide you want,’ which was a huge thing for me."

She added, "I felt so bad emotionally, it was really tough. But then we spent Christmas at home in my tiny two-bedroom flat, and my mum and dad came down from Liverpool and we all squeezed in. That time actually helped me heal.”

Now Liz is expecting her and Peter's first baby and is opening up about her ordeal in the hopes that it can help others who are experiencing similar situations.

She said, “If you fall pregnant naturally maybe you’re not as aware, but at times we would be waiting every single day for the phone call to say how many eggs had been retrieved, or how many embryos they had, or if the embryos were healthy, or growing, or to tell us if I was pregnant. Then, when it doesn’t work, you’re just in shock.

“The whole process made me truly appreciate that having a baby is a miracle.

“There are so, so many things that need to happen correctly for someone to get pregnant, and for that to result in a healthy baby."