Olympian Laura Kenny shares baby gender after miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy
Olympic cyclist Dame Laura Kenny has revealed she is having a baby boy with her husband and fellow cycling superstar Sir Jason Kenny.
Great Britain's most successful female Olympian announced she is expecting a second child with her husband in January.
Five-time Olympic champion Laura announced the happy news just months after they experienced unimaginable double pregnancy heart-break.
Laura, who is already mum to five-year-old Albie, suffered a miscarriage in 2021 which was quickly followed two months later by an ectopic pregnancy.
That led to her undergoing lifesaving treatment to remove a fallopian tube.
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In a candid interview with Mirror Online in December, the cycling icon, 30, opened up on the agony she has experienced through a traumatic year, crediting husband Jason's support through the darkest period in her life.
Five-time Olympic champion Laura announced the happy news just months after they experienced unimaginable double pregnancy heart-break (Catherine Harbour)
Olympic cyclist Dame Laura Kenny has revealed she is having a baby boy (Catherine Harbour)And now, Laura has revealed she and Jason are expecting another little boy.
“We didn’t have a preference, as we’ve been through so much trauma we just wanted a baby that was well,” Laura told OK! Magazine as she announced the happy news.
“But we asked Albie what he wanted and he kept saying a little boy. I said to him, ‘What happens if we get a baby sister?’ And he was like, ‘I don’t want it’.
“I’ve never felt so relieved as when we got the result,” she smiles. “We showed him the scan and he said, ‘I hope he grows up quickly.’ He wants the baby to be born aged five!”
Laura is expecting another little boy (Getty Images)
The Olympian told how they plan to choose another moniker than can be shortened, as Albie's full name is Albert Louie.
Laura revealed her roller-coaster of emotions as she discovered her pregnancy in an airport toilet in Mallorca, less than a year after suffering a miscarriage on the exact same island.
“It was the exact same place, the same airport, heading to the same velodrome where I lost my first baby,” Laura told the publication. “I was sitting on the plane and I felt horrific – really hot and claustrophobic – so when we landed I got a test. When it said ‘positive’ I was in shock.
"A little part of me wanted to be excited, but I knew the other outcomes. I texted Jase with a picture of the test straight away and he said, ‘Of all the places for this to happen!’ It felt like we’d come full circle after so much heartbreak."
Laura told how she's now starting to relax into the pregnancy, at 25 weeks, after suffering some horrendous symptoms including projectile vomiting from morning sickness, heartburn and tiredness.
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Laura and Jason are parents to five-year-old Albie (Tim Merry)
Dame Laura Kenny has opened up on her mixed feelings about her pregnancy (Getty Images)She revealed how Jason had to put vessels around their house at one point as Laura was being sick so often, but told how she's found comfort in the symptoms and found them to be "reassuring".
The 30-year-old announced that she is pregnant in a heart-warming post on her Instagram page in January.
She shared the news with her 197,000 followers by posting a picture of two adult bikes and two children's bikes lined up alongside each other with a rainbow in the distance.
Laura told how she and Jason waited seven months before trying again for a baby after her ectopic pregnancy.
She confessed that she felt an "overwhelming desire" to try again for another baby, despite the pregnancy putting her chances at competing in the Paris 2024 Games down.
"Bike riding and gold medals bring happiness, but it’s for such a short period of time," she told the magazine. "Children are your life and Albie is my entire world."
They announced their pregnancy with a snap of four bikesLaura said she felt a responsibility to give Albie a sibling and didn't want to leave him on his own should anything happen to her and Jason.
But their heartbreak lead to feelings of sadness for Laura as they lived in their "big, beautiful house" outside Macclesfield in Cheshire, which they bought to fill with children.
She told how their home felt so empty with just the three of them in it.
After sharing the news of their pregnancy earlier this year, Laura took to her Instagram stories to share her emotions after learning she was pregnant.
“A year ago today I was sat in A&E knowing I was really poorly but not knowing what was wrong with me,” she wrote.
“When I got the news I was having an ectopic pregnancy my world felt like it crumbled.
"We had already lost our second baby in November and I remember lying there searching for some sort of answers. I still feel this heartbreak today and I don’t think it will ever go away. But today a year on…”
The couple have 15 Olympic medals between them (Daily Mirror/Andy Stenning)
Laura and Jason have suffered unimaginable loss (WireImage)And in another post, she continued: “Today I felt like I couldn’t hide away anymore. I’m already starting to show and the anxiety I have felt has been unreal. Telling the world means I have to accept we are having another baby and this fills me with all kinds of emotions.
“I’m scared every single day that I might have to go through the pain of losing another baby. It makes you feel ungrateful for something you’ve so desperately wanted for the last year.
“But I also know there are going to be so many people, like I was, seeing my post and wishing I would go away with my happy ending.
“But I also know, when I was lying in the hospital bed, I was searching for people’s happy endings because it was the only thing giving me any comfort at the time. That maybe, just maybe I would get my happy ending.”
The Miscarriage Association (01924 200 799) miscarriageassociation.org.uk supports women affected by miscarriage, ectopic and molar pregnancies. If you’re worried about a loved one you can also call the helpline which is manned Monday to Friday, 9am-4pm, or email [email protected]
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