Lisa Riley says people treated her "differently" when her IVF didn’t work.
The ‘Emmerdale’ actress is delighted the ITV soap are discussing infertility after she was previously told by doctors IVF was unlikely to work for her, but the 44-year-old star – who plays Mandy Dingle – admitted she is "very happy" in her personal life.
Speaking on the Digital Spy ‘Soap Scoop’ podcast, she said: "I’m elated we’re discussing it [infertility] because it’s opened a massive door for me as well … I’ve spoken openly in my own personal life, where my IVF didn’t work and people treat you differently.
"It’s like, ‘Oh and are you okay with that?’
"I’m very happy that in my own personal life I have a family, my niece, my two beautiful nephews are a huge part of my life – so yeah I don’t have a child of my own, but I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything."
Lisa admitted ‘Emmerdale’ are going to revisit infertility, and said the plot has given the writers "a lot of avenues to go down" with Mandy.
She said: "We are going to re-visit the infertility because obviously Paul has no idea that Mandy was pregnant all those years ago with his baby.
"Some girls were as young as 20, 21, where they knew for the rest of their life they would never be able to biologically have a child, and I think that’s really difficult … it’s an emotion that can set women up differently in life moving forward, so for us to tackle it in a soap opera, it gives us a lot of avenues to go down, because we now realise that Mandy’s been holding this emotion within and things can come to the forefront differently and that’s what you’re definitely going to see.
"A lot of women keep infertility quiet because they feel ashamed, they don’t feel womanly anymore…you never know, Mandy might have a bit of happiness coming … we’re still going to realise that Paul is Mr Shady isn’t he, he truly, truly is. And obviously Vinny’s got his blinkers on at the moment and we need to get those blinkers off Vinny’s eyes, don’t we."
Listen to the full Lisa Riley interview on the Digital Spy ‘Soap Scoop’ podcast, available now.