Kellie Bright has opened up about the rollercoaster of emotions she's been through while trying to get pregnant again.
The EastEnders star has just shared the happy news that she's expecting a third "miracle" child with her husband Paul Stocker following a battle with IVF.
Declaring she's "one of the lucky ones", the 44-year-old actress shared the stark realities of her journey to conceive.
Speaking honestly, she said that while she didn't want her "rollercoaster" journey to be seen as a "sob story", she wanted to be open about what she'd been through.
Kellie, who plays Linda Carter in the BBC soap, and her husband already share son Freddie, nine, who was conceived naturally, and four-year-old Gene, who they had with the help of IVF.
After freezing embryos, they decided at the end of 2019 to try for their third child, but when they began the process in September last year, their first two embryos didn't work.
She told OK! : "So this baby inside me now was the last one we had – the last chance of a pregnancy, because at 44 we were not going through IVF again. I believe it was meant to be."
Kellie feared she'd lose her miracle baby when she started bleeding.
She said: "With the third one, I didn’t think that had worked either because I had a bleed two days before I was due to take the pregnancy test. It was significant enough for me to be in floods of tears with my husband cradling me."
She said when the bleeding suddenly stopped, she did the test and almost fell to the floor when it said she was pregnant.
Kellie added: "I was so shocked and thrilled, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I ran downstairs to Paul. I just stood crying – really crying – and he couldn’t understand a word I was saying! It took my breath away.
"I knew it was my last chance, so the fact it was a positive was so unbelievably wonderful. A truly wonderful, crazy life moment."
Kellie and Paul are due to welcome their third child in August.
