For the first time, Perrie Edwards has opened up about suffering two miscarriages, detailing the ‘horrendous’ impact of losing a baby at 24 weeks.
The Little Mix pop star, 32, is a proud mum to son Axel, who was born in August 2021 and whom she shares with footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Perrie and midfielder Alex, also 32, got engaged in June 2022 and frequently share an insight into their wholesome family life via social media.
However, in her latest interview, Perrie reveals that things definitely aren’t always as rosy as fans might assume.
Chatting to Celebs Go Dating expert Paul C Brunson on his warts-and-all podcast, We Need to Talk, the Forget About Us hitmaker gets candid about pregnancy and mum life.
During their exposing chat, Perrie shares that toddler Axel is a ‘rainbow baby’, which is a term used to describe a little one born to a family that has previously lost one or more children.
Her first miscarriage happened at 24 weeks, with Perrie detailing that she ‘started bleeding not long after’ finding out she was pregnant.
‘I went to the hospital, and I had the scan, and they were like, “There’s no baby”.’
Of her initial denial, Perrie adds: ‘And I was like, “Oh, I’ve made this up. Maybe I got a false positive or something.” And I remember being on my own at the appointments because nobody was there.’
When she fell pregnant with Axel, Perrie says it was ‘one of the happiest times of [her] life’.
However, she was still ‘a bit on edge’, desperately hoping to make it past the 12-week mark and be reassured that everything was OK.
Thankfully, her pregnancy was ‘complete bliss,’ somewhat ‘perfect’, even, with baby Axel bringing some much-needed joy into their lives.
Unfortunately, heartache struck once more when Perrie got pregnant again, not even a year after Axel arrived.
‘Axel wasn’t even walking yet, and we were pregnant.’
Perrie took a positive test while rehearsing for Little Mix’s last tour ahead of their hiatus, having had ‘every symptom under the sun’, which told her she was expecting.
The singer later went for her 20-week scan, but was 22 weeks along at the time. She now says this was ‘the worst day of [her] life’.
‘Like, horrendous,’ Perrie recalls, having lost her second baby. ‘And I just knew something was wrong in the scan, and he (the doctor) just kept going over the same thing, over the same thing… I’ve never experienced an out-of-body experience where everything goes in slow motion.’
While Perrie remembers ‘sobbing’ intensely, much of the experience was a blur, as the new parents also had Alex’s injury to contend with.
‘He [Alex] was injured at the time, and he couldn’t really drive. He was struggling to drive, but I couldn’t see straight.
‘I was just distraught. And yeah, we basically lost the baby at, like, 24, weeks.’
Asked by Paul what the differences are between early and late pregnancy loss, Perrie admits that while the first miscarriage was ‘hard’, it hit her ‘really hard’ when she was further along, as she and Alex had been making plans for the baby’s birth, such as decorating a bedroom.
‘And nobody knows other than, like, immediate friends and family. And I remember, like, shortly after, like, friends would message and be like, “How’s the bump?” And I’ll be like, “There is no bump”.’
Thankfully, Perrie has had husband-to-be Alex by her side through all the ups and downs of motherhood, praising him for helping her feel ‘safe’ and ‘loved’ again.
She describes the former Liverpool footie star as ‘very mature’ and ‘laid back’, not being one to ‘kick off’ at little things like she feared he would, or like a previous partner might.
‘He’s very levelheaded. He’s not the type to get mad or get angry or get funny about things.’
Probed on what love feels like with the sportsman, Perrie declares her relationship now as ‘unproblematic’ in the best way.
‘It’s not that horrible pit in your stomach that you need to, like, get the love. It doesn’t feel that way. It’s like, you just accept it because it just comes, if that makes sense.’
Prior to dating Alex, Perrie was in a high-profile relationship with One Direction’s Zayn Malik, whom she got with in 2012. He popped the question the following year and even had a portrait of her inked on his arm.
Their split was messy, though, with Perrie revealing in 2015 that the ex-boybander dumped her by text.
Perrie was then rumoured to be dating model Leon King in 2015, before being linked to Skins actor Luke Pasqualino in 2016.
Finally, she got her happily ever after when she met Alex, and they started seeing each other in November that year, going public in early 2017.
Sands UK charity
Sands UK is a stillbirth and neonatal death charity, which works to reduce the number of babies dying and to ensure that those affected by the loss of a baby receives the best possible care for as long as they need it.
The charity aims to better understand the causes of baby deaths and works with governments and other organisations to raise awareness of issues surrounding baby loss.
Sands provides bereavement support at a local and national level.
Please visit the Sands UK website for more information and contact details.