Rebecca Adlington has confirmed the birth of her third child, after suffering two heartbreaking miscarriages in the space of three years.
The former competitive swimmer announced her pregnancy in September, describing it as a ‘miracle’ after struggling to conceive her second child with husband Andy Parsons – and third in total.
Adlington, 37, already shares son Albie, two, with her husband, as well as daughter Summer, eight, from her previous marriage with ex-husband Harry Needs.
Taking to Instagram on Sunday evening, the former Olympian confirmed she and Parsons had welcomes daughter Thea Joy to the fold, telling followers: ‘Our family is complete.’
Adlington accompanied her post with a first look at her baby daughter as she slept in her hospital cot as the family formed hearts with their hands around the tot.
Fans and famous friends were quick to share their best wishes with fellow Olympian Greg Rutherford writing: ‘Massive congratulations’ while Tom Parker‘s widow Kelsey gushed: ‘So special, congratulations’.
Rebecca Adlington has confirmed the birth of her third child, after suffering two heartbreaking miscarriages in the space of three years
Yet another Olympian, Jazz Carlin added: ‘The most amazing news, congratulations to you all! Hope you’re feeling ok, sending lots of love’.
Meanwhile fans said: ‘Congratulations, she is beautiful’: ‘Beautiful name for an absolute beauty congrats to you all’: ‘Aww congratulations to you all’: ‘Aw congratulations baby girl will be so loved by you all’: ‘So pleased for all of you xx’.
Last year Rebecca opened up about the heart-wrenching reminder of her second miscarriage that left her ‘hating her body’ when she got home from hospital.
The TV star and husband Andy spoke to This Morning hosts Emma Willis and Craig Doyle about their two devastating miscarriages – in a bid to raise awareness and help anyone else who has suffered.
Rebecca had her first miscarriage at 12 weeks back in 2022, and was told that she had a molar pregnancy – so this resulted in her having emergency surgery.
A molar pregnancy occurs when a lump of abnormal cells grows in the womb instead of a healthy foetus.
The following year she was told about her second miscarriage at her 20-week scan, and she had to give birth to her child, a daughter the couple named Harper. She admitted that she really struggled to look at herself afterwards because it looked like she was still expecting.
Speaking about her heartbreaking ordeal, Rebecca bravely told ITV viewers: ‘I was angry at my body, my body let me down, it didn’t give me that: “This is going wrong! Go get help!”‘
Adlington, 37, already shares son Albie, two, with her husband, as well as daughter Summer, eight, from her previous marriage with ex-husband Harry Needs
Fans and famous friends were quick to share their best wishes
‘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.
‘That is very hard to deal with, 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.
‘It’s incredibly hard. I hated my body, I fell out of love with my body, even though my human body delivered two healthy children, four Olympic gold medals and yet I just couldn’t understand why it had let me down now.
‘And the second time as well. It’s hard the second time around.’
Meanwhile during a This Morning appearance, Andy gave the partner’s perspective, and he said: ‘well straight away my role was the supportive role, I was supporting Becky from the off, when it happened.
‘From there, all energy and thoughts are with Becky, its her body, her trauma, it’s her issue essentially with what’s happened.
‘So when I realised that 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.
‘We had petals, who were really fundamental in being able to talk about it going forward. Petals is a baby loss charity, so we ended up having couple’s counseling, which really helped.
‘One hour a week on focusing on talking about the loss of Harper, so that was key.
‘There’s not enough support for the men in this situation, with regards to, they’ve also lost a child as well, but the focus rightly so is on the lady, there needs to be a focus on the man as well.’
For support, contact the Miscarriage Association (miscarriageassociation.org.uk) or Sands (sands.org.uk)
