Celebrities like Mariah Carey and Nicole Kidman are notoriously private. But when it comes to their struggles with infertility, these celeb moms are happy to share their stories — and all the obstacles that they had to overcome to become parents.
Celebrities Who Struggled with Infertility
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Brooke Shields
Children’s Names: Daughters Rowan, 12 and Grier, 9
After having no luck conceiving a child naturally Shields and her writer husband Chris Henchy went through seven IVF treatments before she became pregnant with Rowan.
Photo: Getty
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Celine Dion
Children’s Names: Sons Rene-Charles,14, and twins Eddy and Nelson, 5
After a number of failed attempts at conceiving, the Canadian singer and her husband Rene Angelil turned to IVF. Dion became pregnant when she was 41, with eggs that she had frozen eight years earlier.
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Courteney Cox
Children’s Names: Daughter Coco, 10
Cox and her ex-husband David Arquette went to great lengths to have a child together, including multiple rounds of IVF. The former "Friends" star admitted to Barbara Walters that staying pregnant was her biggest challenge. Daughter Coco was born in 2004.
Photo: Getty
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Elizabeth Banks
Children’s Names: Sons Felix, 3, and Max, 2
After years of unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant, the Pitch Perfect star and husband Max Handelman eventually turned to a surrogate. Banks says the decision wasn’t easy but admits, “Once my focus became the baby and not the pregnancy, it was a very easy decision.”
Photo: Getty
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Giuliana Rancic
Child’s Name: Son Duke, 2.
After recovering from breast cancer the “Fashion Police” host and husband Bill Rancic turned to a surrogate to carry son Duke. They recently revealed that the same surrogate miscarried their last embryo.
Photo: Getty
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Jaime King
Children’s Names: Son James Knight, 17 months; baby #2 is due this summer
After giving birth to her son James Knight, the “Heart Of Dixie” star revealed on Instagram that she had battled miscarriages and infertility as a result of endometriosis. She wrote, “"9 doctors until Dr. Randy Harris diagnosed me & saved my life from a severe ectopic, 5 miscarriages, 5 rounds of IVF, 26 IUI's, most with no outcome, 4½ years of trying to conceive, 26 hours of brutal labor, early delivery b/c of sudden preeclampsia, tearing and tearing after the stitches were in once I was home, milk supply issues, painful mastitis, uncontrollable crying while breast feeding, worked until the day before I [gave] birth and went back after 6 weeks after because I was afraid of letting others down."
Photo: Getty
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Jimmy Fallon
Children’s Names: Daughters Winnie Rose, 20 months, Frances Cole, 4 months
The “Tonight Show” host and wife producer Nancy Jovonen turned to a surrogate to carry both of their daughters. Regardless of how his daughters were conceived Fallon is one proud papa! He showed off photos of his kids on Twitter shortly after Frances was born.
Photo: Getty
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Marcia Cross
Children’s Names: Twin daughters Eden and Savannah, 7
The former “Desperate Housewives” star admits to starting to think about having children well before she was 30. But it wasn’t until she married Tom Mahoney and was nearly 45 years old that the star used IVF treatments to conceive her twin girls. The two even cancelled their honeymoon to go through IVF saying, "We did in vitro a week after we got married. We were supposed to go to Greece and Paris and have this fancy honeymoon, and I said, 'Let's stay put and see if we can't give this baby a chance.'"
Photo: Getty
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Mariah Carey
Children’s Names: Boy-girl twins Moroccan and Monroe, 3.
Shortly after marrying husband Nick Cannon in 2008, Carey admits to suffering a miscarriage. To get pregnant, Carey took progesterone before she became pregnant and while she was pregnant with her boy-girl twins, Moroccan and Monroe.
Photo: Getty
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Nicole Kidman
Children’s Names: Daughters Faith Urban, 4, Sunday Rose Urban, 7, and Isabella, 22; son Connor Cruise, 20
During her first marriage to superstar Tom Cruise, the Australian beauty and Cruise adopted both Connor and Isabella after losing a baby early on in their marriage. Kidman's first child with her second husband, Keith Urban, as born naturally; the couple used a surrogate to become parents together a second time, however. Daughter Faith Margaret Urban was born in July 2011. Kidman says she longs to have another child saying, “Every month I hope I am pregnant.”
Photo: Getty
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Sarah Jessica Parker
Children’s Names: Son James Wilke, 13, and twin daughters Marion and Tabitha, 6
While Parker and husband Matthew Broderick were already parents to son James Wilke, the admitted to facing, “a lot of disappointment” when it came to trying to have more children. When it came to choosing to use a surroagate the “Sex In The City Star” said, “Well, you know, we’ve been trying to expand our family for a number of years and we actually have explored a variety of ways of doing so. This was one of the things we discussed with seriousness that had real possibilities for us.”
Photo: Getty
