logo
Atomic Kitten's Liz McClarnon Pregnant at Age 44 Following 2 Miscarriages

Atomic Kitten's Liz McClarnon Pregnant at Age 44 Following 2 Miscarriages

Yahoo02-06-2025
Atomic Kitten singer Liz McClarnon is expecting her first child at the age of 44.
In an interview with The Mirror, published on Sunday, June 1, McClarnon detailed the emotional journey behind her pregnancy, which was announced via Instagram last month. The musician revealed she experienced two heartbreaking miscarriages before a round of IVF led to joyful news.
McClarnon, who is currently in her second trimester, explained that she and her doctor husband, Peter Cho, began exploring fertility options not long after meeting each other online in 2021. McClarnon experienced three failed embryo transfers via IVF and then two miscarriages towards the end of 2024, 'following their first successful cycles.' (In vitro fertilization, more commonly known as IVF, involves mature eggs collected from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab, per Mayo Clinic.)
McClarnon told the outlet she had thought she would stop trying. 'I said I was done after the last one, and Peter was absolutely on board with that, he didn't say anything other than, 'This is your body and I'll support whatever you decide you want,' which was a huge thing for me,' she told the outlet. 'I felt so bad emotionally, it was really tough. But then we spent Christmas at home in my tiny two-bedroom flat, and my mum and dad came down from Liverpool and we all squeezed in. That time actually helped me heal.'
Stars Who Struggled to Conceive Children Share Their Fertility Issues
In her May 13 Instagram reveal, McClarnon posted a video of herself seated on a park bench as the camera slowly approached her from behind. Text appeared over the top of the clip, reading, 'After years of sometimes quite painful IVF and quite dark times,' before the singer stood from the bench to show her growing bump.
'I'm pregnant! We feel like we've been given the world!' then appeared alongside footage of McClarnon beaming.
She also reflected on the news via the video's caption, which read, 'I just can't believe we're here. ❤️So many have been through exactly what I went through and worse. ❤️ I want to share what I can and add my voice and ears to those who already help others understand or deal with all that comes with ivf and loss after so much hope.'
Over 40 — and Pregnant! See Stars Who Welcomed Babies Later in Life
McClarnon told the outlet that she is 'loving life' while aware 'of the potential impact of her age on her pregnancy and labor.' She is reportedly 'already taking aspirin as she falls into the high-risk category' and is being monitored for preeclampsia, described as 'persistent high blood pressure that develops during pregnancy' by the Preeclampsia Foundation.
The outlet noted that she will soon start taking 'regular blood-thinning injections' as she moves towards a pregnancy milestone — learning the gender of her baby.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Just How Big Can Fashion Substack Get?
Just How Big Can Fashion Substack Get?

Business of Fashion

time40 minutes ago

  • Business of Fashion

Just How Big Can Fashion Substack Get?

Emily Schuman thought she was done writing anything longer than an Instagram caption. With Cupcakes and Cashmere, where she started posting daily updates since 2008, she became one of the first fashion bloggers to turn her side hustle into a multi-faceted business, eventually hiring a team of writers and editors and selling jewellery, homewares and more online. But by 2021, she stepped back from posting to focus on her e-commerce shop. Then came Substack, the newsletter publishing platform that has convinced fashion to fall back in love with longform for the first time since Instagram took off in the early 2010s. While blogging had moved 'further and further away from how I had started back in 2008,' Substack, Schuman felt, provided an opportunity to go even 'deeper, not as Pinterest perfect … as in the 2010s.' She launched her newsletter, Fwd: From a Friend, in February; already, she has over 110,000 subscribers and is #16 on Substack's fashion and beauty ranking. Schuman is one of several high-profile recent additions to Substack, which has increasingly gone from a launch pad for writers and former editors striking out on their own and a way for influencers to diversify their income to attracting big names. In the past six months, that's included brands like Nike and American Eagle, founders like Crown Affair's Dianna Cohen and Hill House's Nell Diamond, stylists such as Allison Bornstein and Abby Arad and fashion podcasters Nymphet Alumni and Style Zeitgeist's Eugene Rabkin. 'The floodgates have really opened within the last year,' said Christina Loff, the head of lifestyle partnerships at Substack, of fashion's adoption of the platform. For the early adopters, however, the stakes are changing. Many of the brands, celebrities and founders who recently joined Substack aren't charging for their content, viewing the platform as a way to connect with potential customers rather than as a subscription business. Some writers who are counting on readers' monthly payments say the competition is altering the economics of the newsletter business, and not necessarily for the better. 'It was a lot easier to convert somebody when there were less people on the platform, and asking someone to pay $5 or $10 a month wasn't as big of a deal,' said Jess Graves, the writer of the Substack newsletter 'The Love List,' who has been publishing on the platform for over four years. 'Few people will subscribe to 30 different Substacks and pay for all of them.' Fashion publishers of all stripes are also running up against Substack's limitations: the platform doesn't offer support for selling ads or sponsored newsletters, two common ways they make money elsewhere. Substack has no plans to add these features, believing subscriptions are 'the best model for monetising,' Loff said. (One possible reason: Substack's top echelon is dominated by political and business newsletters, where ads and sponsored posts are less common). For now, the benefits — having a place to connect directly with followers and earn subscription income — outweigh the negatives. Still, keeping that community happy and publishing regularly is a priority for Substack, which is reportedly looking to raise up to $100 million from investors (the news was reported last month by The Newcomer, itself a Substack newsletter). The company's primary source of revenue is the cut it takes from subscriptions — reportedly bringing in about $45 million, or a little under 10 percent of what creators receive annually. Fashion newsletters represent $10 million of that, and are growing fast, according to Substack, with both the number of publications and subscriptions doubling over the past year. It sees beauty in particular as a space with room to grow, too. 'When we have these new platforms, people are more open to exploring before it becomes too formulaic,' said Nya-Gabriella Parchment, the vice president of brand partnerships, UGC and marketing at influencer management firm DBA, which represents Schuman. 'Everyone's just trying to figure it out.' Substack as Community-Building Tool For founders like Diamond and Cohen, Substack allows them to experiment with a platform their influencer partners are using, but also bring a more personal touch to their own brands. A recent post from Diamond, for example, detailed the behind-the-scenes chaos of a 2021 launch that at the time was its highest sales volume day to date. Cohen, meanwhile, offers a hair tip at the end of every post, even if the larger content is unrelated — a subtle nod to Crown Affair. 'Substack allows me to give context to Crown Affair and have it live in a more evergreen way than an Instagram Story or a Tiktok,' said Cohen. Substack's community elements — where newsletters can host chats for subscribers and readers are fed a consistent stream of recommended content — also help boost awareness. Rose Colcord, founder of London-based Cou Cou Intimates, moved the brand's 'Cou Cou Talks' content series over to Substack in May from its own website, where she said it hadn't gotten much traction. 'When people go on a brand's website, they're there to shop, not to read,' said Colcord. On Substack, meanwhile, readers are fed a consistent stream of recommended content, which brings in more eyeballs. Larger brands, like Nike or American Eagle, also use Substack to foster community and further build out their brand worlds. Both have enlisted writers on the platform: American Eagle hired Casey Lewis, the author of the Gen-Z culture-focused Substack After School, to write the first three editions of its newsletter, Off the Cuff. Even without a high-profile author, the key is making it feel personal. The RealReal's Substack, which launched in March, for instance, is authored by an anonymous author called The 'RealGirl;' in her opening post, she lists the ways she's similar to the site's most devoted customers, suggesting they 'might even own each other's clothes.' 'You have to find a way to talk to people about things they are already thinking about and interested in,' said Kristen Naiman, chief brand officer of The RealReal. The Challenges Ahead Big brands like Nike, and successful influencers like Schuman have a built-in audience ready to subscribe. It's harder for less well-known writers to get noticed as Substack becomes more crowded. They need other ways to make money, said Graves. '[Subscriptions] are not enough of an income for just about anybody on the platform, unless you have tens of thousands of paid subscribers, which very few people do,' she said. She added that she'd like to see Substack create its own built-in advertising tools, or offer integration with platforms like LTK and ShopMy, which help creators line up sponsorships and set up affiliate links. Not everyone is waiting around for Substack's next move. Some newsletter writers are jumping ship for rival platforms like Beehiiv, Ghost and Patreon (though there's plenty migrating in the other direction as well). Graves said she regularly considers leaving. Stylist Subhrina Heyink, for example, decided to shut down her Substack newsletter last month, explaining that it felt that fashion Substack was dominated by sameness, alleging that the platform gives preference to those that fit that mold. '[Wearing] The Row is the standard, and it's like, 'Okay, so if I don't wear The Row, does that mean that you don't take me seriously?'' she said. Graves said the cookie-cutter newsletter problem could be rectified in part with more personalisation options, which Substack has offered to some of the platform's biggest users, including former New York Times' columnist Bari Weiss' The Free Press, which allows for custom typefaces, homepage layouts and more, making it feel more like a true publication and less a newsletter. A spokesperson for Substack said that is part of a limited test, and they are 'working on making more of these features available' to a wider audience; just this week, they announced they'd be allowing users to select a cover photo for their pages, while bestsellers can change the colours. But while some want their Substacks to more resemble a freestanding website, others appreciate its simple nature. For Heyink, for example, the added pressure to use features like Notes — Substack's Instagram-esque feed, where users can share photos for likes and comments — contributed her feelings of exhaustion. The expanded features, though, are bringing in new talent. Substack's increased focus on audio, for instance, was part of what encouraged the Nymphet Alumni podcasters to make the move, with host Biz Sherbert saying 'the ease of the UI has been really nice for creating more types of content.' Now, they're publishing more written content in addition to their weekly episodes. It's an important reminder that, despite the fact that algorithm exhaustion is often cited as an impetus for joining, Substack itself is a platform, just as Instagram and TikTok are. 'Substack could be bought by Meta tomorrow, and that could change the whole algorithm,' said Parchment. 'You just never know, so you want to have a space that you can totally own.' Joan Kennedy contributed reporting to this story.

Baby's dramatic reaction to first hibachi restaurant experience goes viral
Baby's dramatic reaction to first hibachi restaurant experience goes viral

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Baby's dramatic reaction to first hibachi restaurant experience goes viral

A baby's unforgettable first trip to a hibachi restaurant has taken over Instagram — and her reaction is so over-the-top, it's officially gone mega-viral. The now-famous clip, posted by Instagram user @mer_greeby, shows an infant named Viv coming face-to-face with her very first hibachi fire show. As flames shoot up from the grill, Viv recoils in shock, her eyes wide, her mouth frozen in terror. It's a genuine jump-scare moment, and viewers couldn't look away. 'They say it's too good not to post,' her mom captioned the video. 'No more onion volcanoes, Viv, I promise.' The video has racked up nearly 4 million likes in a week, with Instagram commenters turning it into comedy gold. One wrote, 'She thought she was the sacrifice.' Another joked, 'Her whole six months flashed before her eyes.' One viewer said, 'She screamed as if it was her past life on replay,' while another commented, 'She literally saw hell.' Even a hibachi chef chimed in: 'I love to make a bigger fire if there are a lot of kids at my table.' The reactions poured in from across the internet, with fans calling for the video to be played at Viv's wedding. Whether you're a parent, a chef, or someone who's been personally victimized by hibachi flames, this might be the funniest thing you'll watch all week. Solve the daily Crossword

Baby's dramatic reaction to first hibachi restaurant experience goes viral
Baby's dramatic reaction to first hibachi restaurant experience goes viral

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Baby's dramatic reaction to first hibachi restaurant experience goes viral

A baby's unforgettable first trip to a hibachi restaurant has taken over Instagram — and her reaction is so over-the-top, it's officially gone mega-viral. The now-famous clip, posted by Instagram user @mer_greeby, shows an infant named Viv coming face-to-face with her very first hibachi fire show. As flames shoot up from the grill, Viv recoils in shock, her eyes wide, her mouth frozen in terror. It's a genuine jump-scare moment, and viewers couldn't look away. 'They say it's too good not to post,' her mom captioned the video. 'No more onion volcanoes, Viv, I promise.' The video has racked up nearly 4 million likes in a week, with Instagram commenters turning it into comedy gold. One wrote, 'She thought she was the sacrifice.' Another joked, 'Her whole six months flashed before her eyes.' One viewer said, 'She screamed as if it was her past life on replay,' while another commented, 'She literally saw hell.' Even a hibachi chef chimed in: 'I love to make a bigger fire if there are a lot of kids at my table.' The reactions poured in from across the internet, with fans calling for the video to be played at Viv's wedding. Whether you're a parent, a chef, or someone who's been personally victimized by hibachi flames, this might be the funniest thing you'll watch all week. Solve the daily Crossword

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store