Carol McGiffin isn’t "proud" of having two abortions but doesn’t regret her decisions.
The ‘Loose Women’ panellist has opened up about both terminations – the first when she was 28, and the second aged 38 – and admitted she didn’t realise she hadn’t spoken about the latter publicly until an appearance on the ITV daytime panel show earlier this month.
She told The Sun newspaper: "It was only when someone who knew me well questioned me about it that I realised I probably hadn’t.
"I had also genuinely forgotten that I didn’t mention it in my autobiography. Maybe, at the time, I was embarrassed to admit it.
"That doesn’t mean I was ashamed of what I did, but an unexplained mishap 10 years earlier could be excused, whereas having it happen a second time, well, there was no excuse. No one would believe that I’d been on the Pill both times, which I was."
Carol, now 60, explained how she had the first abortion while in a relationship, and her boyfriend was supportive of the decision.
The second "was more complicated", and came after a one night stand which occurred while she was "sort of seeing someone else".
She added: "So I didn’t tell anyone; not my employer, not my friends or family, not the guy. I don’t feel bad about that either.
"I mean, what would have been the point? His opinion simply didn’t matter to me because I had no intention of allowing myself to be connected to him for the rest of my life by carrying on with the pregnancy and having his baby.
"That’s why I kept schtum. But to say I’m not ashamed doesn’t mean I’m proud of what I did either."
Although Carol has sympathy for people who "would have given anything" to be pregnant, she knows she made the right decision for herself.
She said: "I didn’t want to have the terminations for all the obvious reasons. I’m not totally heartless — there were potential lives that had, I suppose, already been created — and I feel for all the women who would have given anything to be in my situation.
"But I don’t regret anything because I know absolutely that if I hadn’t done what I did, I’d definitely have regretted it more. Which made them both very easy decisions to make. I just knew it was the right thing to do."