Christine McGuinness took four years to get pregnant because of her past battle with anorexia.
The ‘Real Housewives of Cheshire’ star – who has five-year-old twins Penelope and Leo and two-year-old Felicity with husband Paddy McGuinness – spent 10 years in the grips of an eating disorder which affected her menstrual cycle so it took her body some time to "regulate" itself again when she was trying to conceive.
Speaking on Giovanna Fletcher’s ‘Happy Mum, Happy Baby’ podcast, she said: "It took me four years to get pregnant. I had anorexia for over 10 years as a child and through my teenage years. I went to see the doctor and he said that I wasn’t ovulating and wasn’t having periods and it took a while to regulate itself."
Christine admitted she didn’t feel comfortable looking at herself when she was pregnant as she gained over 80lbs.
She said: "I hate admitting it by I barely took any photographs of that pregnancy because I wasn’t comfortable with my size. At the time, I didn’t like the way I looked."
And the 31-year-old star now regrets her discomfort – but is thankful she took a different approach while carrying Felicity.
She added: "I wish I had documented it. I wish I would’ve videoed it and taken a million photographs. I learnt from it though, I had another baby three years later and it was on Instagram every single day."
The brunette beauty’s second pregnancy was very different to when she was carrying twins and she now thinks she may have been suffering with depression the first time round.
She said: "It took me until I got pregnant again to realise but I felt completely different when I was pregnant the second time. But the first time you don’t know what to expect."
Christine "still gets emotional" thinking about a moment she was "convinced" she was having a miscarriage with the twins.
She said: "I had a really heavy bleed at three months. I was convinced I must’ve lost them. Thank god they were absolutely fine."
Christine feels that, on reflection, she suffered from post-natal depression during her first pregnancy.
Christine McGuinness reveals fertility struggle
