Florence And The Machine singer Florence Welch has said her pregnancy was “the closest I came to death”.
The 39-year-old revealed she suffered a miscarriage in August 2023, before an ectopic pregnancy on stage at a festival in Cornwall which caused internal bleeding.
She told The Guardian: “The closest I came to making life was the closest I came to death and I felt like I had stepped through this door, and it was just full of women, screaming.”
Welch said her pregnancy was initially a “big shock” as she was about to turn 37, but said it “felt magical”.
She continued: “I think, because it was my first time being pregnant, and it was my first miscarriage, I was like, ‘OK, I’ve heard this is part of it’. I spoke to my doctor and they are not generally dangerous. Devastating, but not dangerous.
“Emotionally, I was sad and scared, but I think, also, I was coping.”
The Shake It Out singer said she pushed on with performing following the miscarriage, despite feeling unwell and being told to get a scan by her doctor before the Cornwall show.
She added: “It’s funny. I took some ibuprofen and stepped out on stage.
“I was in the elements, in the wind and rain, and I just felt something working through me, and I felt this thing take over, the thing that’s always there, the safe space of performance.”
The London-born singer said the pain returned when she got on the tour bus to return to the capital, but she was so sure she would be OK that she said she did not want her boyfriend, a British guitarist in an indie band who she did not name, to join her at the hospital.
Welch continued: “I didn’t want to go for the scan. I thought, ‘I’ve done this show, I’m fine, I can cope’. But my doctor’s insistence that I come in saved my life.”
She said the doctor found she had “a Coke can’s worth of blood in my abdomen” and was told she would need to undergo emergency surgery, which saw her fallopian tube removed, immediately.
According to the NHS, an ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes.
It says around one in every 90 pregnancies in the UK is ectopic, around 11,000 pregnancies a year.
After forming in 2007, Florence And The Machine have had four UK number one albums with Lungs (2009), Ceremonials (2011), How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015) and Dance Fever (2022).
The band, known for songs including Dog Days Are Over and Cosmic Love, will release their upcoming album Everybody Scream on record, CD and cassette as well as on streaming on October 31.
In 2024, Camberwell-born Welch joined Taylor Swift on stage at Wembley Stadium during the US pop star’s Eras Tour to perform their collaboration Florida!!!, with Swift describing the moment as “unforgettable”.
