BBC Strictly’s James and Ola Jordan share miscarriage heartbreak as they open up on difficult decision
Ola and James Jordan have opened up about their emotional IVF journey in a candid new interview.
The former Strictly Come Dancing stars, who married in 2003, welcomed their daughter Ella through IVF in 2019 after struggling to conceive naturally.
Appearing on Tuesday’s edition of the Vanessa Feltz’s new Channel 5 talk show, the couple shared their experiences with fertility treatment.
“It’s hard but when we came out with our story that we were going through IVF and struggling to have children, there was so many people who contacted us,” Ola revealed, adding: “It’s not easy and it’s better to talk about it.”
The couple explained how they had initially focused on their careers before trying to start a family.
“We had been together for a long time and tried for 18 years not to be pregnant because you’re on the show, have this career and life,” Ola told Vanessa.
She continued: “One day we said ‘let’s just take it easy and see what happens. We’re not not trying to get pregnant anymore but let’s not put pressure on it’. Years went pass and nothing happened.”
After attempting to conceive naturally for three years, Ola, who was 37 at the time, was recommended by her GP to try IVF.
The couple decided to pursue this option as their next step, with their first attempt at IVF being successful.
“We had our wonderful Ella, she is wonderful and very clever. I don’t know where she gets it from, neither of us. Very funny, very cheeky, she is just amazing,” Ola said.
The couple had two embryos left “frozen waiting to use” and initially decided to try for a second child naturally.
James explained: “We were told by the doctors that sometimes it reboots something in the body and naturally you get pregnant the second time.
“We’ve heard it from our friends who went through IVF and six months later something happens. That didn’t happen for us.”
They eventually decided to try IVF again, using one of the frozen embryos.
After the embryo transfer, Ola discovered she was pregnant. Sadly, after eight weeks they received devastating news.
“It was very heartbreaking, devastating,” she bravely recalled. “We went in and suddenly everything went quiet and I knew something was not right.”
The couple explained how doctors had confirmed there wasn’t a heartbeat.
Following the miscarriage, doctors told Ola she had only a “5 percent chance of having a healthy baby” with further IVF treatment.
This led the couple to make a difficult decision, with Ola admitting: “As much as I would like Ella to have a sibling, I am realising now that isn’t going to happen. It’s hard, but at least I have Ella.”