By Emily Bashforth

Copyright metro

I’m A Celebrity’s Rebecca Adlington is pregnant! (Picture: Instagram)

BBC Sports presenter Rebecca Adlington has shared the joyous news that she is pregnant, having previously spoken publicly about her miscarriages.

The Olympic swimmer and former I’m A Celebrity star, 36, took to Instagram with her announcement, posting a snap of her latest scan.

Rebecca, who is married to Andy Parsons, wrote: ‘We want to share that we are expecting a child. It has been an emotional and physical rollercoaster navigating these past 19 months of trying, but this pregnancy has been a small miracle.

‘We questioned whether we wanted to share this news but we want to continue to be open and honest about our journey and be mindful of the struggles that others have had and continue to have.’

She added of the pregnancy: ‘We are taking each day as it comes and are incredibly grateful for the care we are receiving from the NHS (Rainbow Team) and are feeling overwhelmingly supported by them.

‘While we are cautiously overjoyed, we carry awareness of the quiet struggles many face, and we send love to those hearts too. We know so many people are still waiting for this kind of news.’

Rebecca has been in a relationship with Andy Parsons since 2018 (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

After sharing the huge life update, Rebecca and Andy were inundated with sweet messages, with Sam Quek commenting: ‘Beautiful news guys, Congratulations xx ❤️ Big love 🌈💫’

‘Congratulations sending you both love ❤️’, said Richie Anderson.

Rebecca and Andy already have two-year-old son Albie, and she has a daughter named Summer, eight, from her previous marriage to Harry Needs.

The double gold medallist has had two miscarriages. She discovered the first at her 12-week scan in 2022, and was told she had a molar pregnancy (when there’s a problem with a fertilised egg, meaning a baby and placenta do not develop properly), which required urgent surgery.

Her second came in 2023 while she was five months pregnant. Rebecca gave birth to a girl, Harper, two days after being informed that her baby had no heartbeat.

Bravely opening up about her experiences after the first miscarriage, Rebecca said she felt ‘responsible’ for the loss.

The couple have a two-year-old son, Albie, and Rebecca has daughter Summer, eight, from her first marriage (Picture: Instagram)

Reflecting almost one year later, she told The Mirror: ‘Because I’d had two children without any problems, a miscarriage never crossed my mind. I realise this might sound naïve, but I expected some signs.

‘I felt really responsible for the miscarriage, even though it wasn’t my fault. I remember speaking to the doctors, and they said there was nothing I could have done to prevent what happened.’

She added at the time that she wasn’t putting any pressure on herself to have more children, especially due to other health battles, including with her polycystic ovary syndrome.

Rebecca has long been praised for being so honest about what she’s been through, just last month speaking candidly on This Morning about how miscarriages impacted her body.

The athlete, who is keen to raise awareness around the reality of baby loss, told the ITV programme: ‘I was angry at my body; my body let me down, it didn’t give me that, “This is going wrong! Go get help!”

‘It didn’t tell me anything. I had no symptoms. That was really hard to get over, and afterwards, as well, you still look pregnant.’

https://www.instagram.com/p/DO82iW4CKqo/

‘That is very hard to deal with,’ she admitted. ‘The fact that you give birth, the baby isn’t alive, and then you go home; you have to look in the mirror as a woman and still look 20 weeks pregnant.’

She confessed to ‘falling out of love’ with her body after the ordeal, despite how it ‘delivered two healthy children’ and ‘won four Olympic gold medals’.

‘And the second time as well. It’s hard the second time around.’

Husband Andy also shared his perspective and how keen he was to ‘support’ his other half through their shared grief.

‘From there, all energy and thoughts are with Becky; it’s her body, her trauma, her issue essentially with what’s happened.

‘So when I realised that was my main focus, I took a step back at times, went to work, realised that I couldn’t process it properly myself; I was struggling a lot myself.’

He further called more support for men in those situations, because they have ‘also lost a child’.

Rebecca and facilities manager Andy met on the dating app Bumble in 2018, two years after Rebecca split from her ex-husband. He moved from Liverpool to Manchester to live with her in 2019.

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.