Rebecca Adlington has revealed her grandmother died the day she gave birth to her ‘rainbow baby’, after welcoming a long-awaited daughter with her husband Andy Parsons.
The former Olympic swimmer, 37, revealed on Sunday she’d given birth to her third child named Thea Joy after suffering two heartbreaking miscarriages in the space of three years
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.
In a post on Instagram, Rebecca shared that she’d paid tribute to her late grandmother Joyce by naming her daughter after her, with the middle name Joy.
The star added that she’d spent three days in hospital while giving birth to her baby girl, describing the journey to falling pregnant and her arrival as a ‘rollercoaster.’
She said: ‘What a rollercoaster this whole experience has been. Three years, two miscarriages, 39 weeks carrying our magical rainbow girl, and 87 hours in hospital.
Rebecca Adlington has revealed her grandmother died the day she gave birth to her ‘rainbow baby’, after welcoming a long-awaited daughter with her husband Andy Parsons
The former Olympic swimmer revealed on Sunday she’d given birth to her third child named Thea Joy after suffering two heartbreaking miscarriages in the space of three years
‘Thea Joy Parsons arrived on 28th February, the very same day my nana, Joyce, passed away. A true full circle moment of life. Joy is a nod to her, and we know Thea will bring us all so much joy.
‘We are so incredibly happy she is home and healthy. I know so many of you are still waiting for your rainbow, and we are thinking of you, sending so much love and support your way.’
Taking to Instagram on Sunday evening, Rebecca confirmed she and Parsons had welcomed 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.’
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.’
Rebecca shared she’d paid tribute to her late grandmother by naming her daughter after her with the middle name Joy (Thea is pictured with Rebecca’s daughter Summer and son Albie)
She also shared sweet snaps of her two children meeting their new baby sister, as she reflected on the ‘rollercoaster’ of little Thea’s arrival
Rebecca also shared a sweet snap of her husband Andy with little Thea as they headed home from the hospital
In a lengthy caption, Rebecca shared that in a ‘full circle of life’ moment her beloved grandmother passed away on the same day her daughter was born
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!”
‘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 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 counselling, 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)
