Pat McAfee, host of The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN, is soon to be a father of two.
Erin Andrews is opening up about the one regret she has from her fertility journey.
The 47-year-old sportscaster, who has been married to former NHL player Jarret Stoll since 2017, per Us Weekly, welcomed her first child — a son named Mack — in July 2023 with the help of a surrogate.
Erin Andrews’ baby came after a decade-long battle with infertility and pregnancy loss.
In an interview with TODAY, published Sept. 16, Andrews reflected on that journey — which began when she started freezing her eggs at the age of 35, several years before being diagnosed with cervical cancer.
She was diagnosed in September 2016, but didn’t reveal the diagnosis until January 2017, per Sports Illustrated.
Despite already struggling to conceive prior to the diagnosis, Andrews and Stoll moved forward with their in vitro fertilization (IVF) journey shortly after she was deemed cancer-free in November 2016.
Looking back, Andrews says she wished she had started that IVF process a long time ago.
“If I had known about freezing eggs and doing IVF in my 20s, I would have done it,” she told TODAY. “But it wasn’t talked about as much as it is now, and I think that’s why I’m so open and honest about it.”
“Young girls that are interested in my profession always ask me, ‘What would you recommend?’ I’m like, ‘Freeze your eggs. Freeze your eggs so you don’t have to worry about it,’” she added.
READ MORE: New data reveals just how popular — and successful — IVF pregnancies have become in recent years
According to Penn Medicine, “the best time to freeze your eggs is in your 20s and early 30s” because “this is when your eggs are the healthiest.”
“Though there are no eligibility requirements for egg freezing, it is not recommended for people over the age of 38 due to declining egg quality,” Penn Medicine adds.
Andrews encouraged women everywhere to do what they feel is best for them — but to not do it alone.
“There are so many people that want to help people have a baby and figure out what path is the right one for them,” Andrews says. “You just have to figure out when the right time is for you.”
Erin Andrews’ fertility journey was heartbreaking until it wasn’t — then it was again
Andrews has now been a mom for two years, but it took a heartbreaking 10-year journey to get there.
She and her husband underwent nine unsuccessful rounds of IVF. After nine years of trying to conceive, they hit a turning point and decided to pivot to surrogacy.
“One day, it just clicked. We were both just like, ‘We’re done. This is the path for us,’” she told TODAY of that decision.
But even that road wasn’t easy for the couple.
In a July 2023 interview with TODAY, Andrews opened up about “losing twins via surrogacy” prior to welcoming her son Mack in the family.
“That was really hard,” she said at the time. “I really struggled mentally. I didn’t handle it very well ... I kind of tried to push it aside and act like everything was OK."
The couple’s dream of becoming parents finally came true with the help of their second surrogate.
But tragedy struck again when they were trying for a second child.
During a May 22 episode on her “Calm Down with Erin and Charissa” podcast, the sportscaster revealed that she and her husband had lost a baby girl via surrogacy.
“So I have dealt with this before, but things were going really, really well. And her little heartbeat and her numbers were really good,” she said on the podcast.
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“Been sitting here thinking about Taylor Swift’s song, ‘I Can Do It with a Broken Heart.’ I’m really good at doing this s--- with a broken heart,” she added.
