11 Celebrities Who Have Struggled With Infertility

Infertility sucks. There's no getting around that fact. It's emotionally draining, physically exhausting, and more than a little bit crazy-making. Throughout my own experience with infertility, I've found it incredibly helpful to know that I'm not alone, and that other people understand how hard it is when you can't have babies the old-fashioned way. (Seriously, reproductive system: You. Had. One. Job.)

Strangely enough, hearing about celebrities who've battled this beast can be somewhat comforting. Although they're blessed with personal trainers, individual chefs, and gorgeous mansions in Hollywood Hills, many of them struggle with infertility just as much as the rest of us do. They, too, have been through the wringer with miscarriages, fertility treatments, and IVF, and they know how miserable the whole experience is.

Each celebrity here experienced a different path to parenthood — some did IVF, some adopted their children, and others turned to gestational surrogates — and in the end, they all became parents to kiddos they adore.

In 2015, supermodel Chrissy Teigen opened up to Tyra Banks about her struggle to conceive, saying "John [Legend] and I are having trouble. We would have had kids five, six years ago if it had happened. But my gosh, it's been a process!"

In a separate interview with SELF Magazine, Teigen explained how bewildering and difficult her journey had been. "The big question was why this wasn't working for us when I was young and he was healthy," Teigen said. "I thought, people get pregnant by accident all the time! How does this happen?" The couple turned to IVF and had to undergo a few rounds of treatment before getting pregnant, but eventually welcomed daughter Luna in February 2016.

Teigen told People that she'll likely have to undergo more rounds of IVF in order to complete her dream of having a large family, saying "the number of embryos we have left is not matching the number of people I want at my dinner table, so we'll have to do it again...we have a few more on ice. Who knows what will work?"

After marrying her husband, Chris Henchy, in 2001, Shields told People that she tried to get pregnant right away — but after six months of unsuccessful attempts, she and Henchy turned to IVF. Shields got pregnant during the first round of treatment, but she miscarried after three months. "We were crushed," she said.

Over the next eight months, she and Henchy underwent six more rounds of IVF. "Being a Type A personality, I've always believed that if I just did my homework, if I worked hard enough, I'd get the results he wanted. But you can't ensure success unless you're God — and you're not. Neither are the doctors. Maybe I'll never know why it happened," she says, "But it made me understand the difference between wanting to have a baby and truly wanting to be a mother." In August 2002, the IVF treatments worked and Shields got pregnant again — and in May 2003, she gave birth to her daughter Rowan.

Having a family didn't come easily to Hugh Jackman and his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness. "We did IVF and Deb had a couple of miscarriages...There's a grieving that you have to go through," Jackman explained.

However, once Jackman and Furness decided to pursue adoption, everything changed. Jackman said that as soon as their son, Oscar, was born, "all the heartache just melted away." The couple welcomed their daughter, Ava, five years later, and Jackman couldn't be happier with his family of four.

"You can't even explain how incredible it is and that avalanche of emotion that comes and how it opens up your heart...how alive you are as a parent," he said.

Nia Vardalos, the star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding and its 2016 sequel, My Big Fat Greek Wedding II, spent many years trying to become a mom. "It was a sad process for me to become a mom, and a long process," she told People in 2016.

Vardalos underwent 13 unsuccessful IVF attempts, had several miscarriages, and pursued unsuccessful surrogate attempts before she and her husband, Ian Gomez, came to terms with the fact that having a family wasn't going to happen the way they had hoped. "I felt so embarrassed that I couldn't have a biological child," Vardalos said.

But in 2008, after nine years of trying to become parents, Vardalos and Gomez adopted a 3-year-old girl through the foster-care system. Their daughter, Ilaria, is now the light of their lives. "I'm so grateful," Vardalos says, "and I can't imagine my life without her."

Courteney Cox, best known for her role as Monica on Friends, had numerous miscarriages before getting pregnant with her daughter, Coco. "I get pregnant pretty easily," Cox told People in 2003, "but I have a hard time keeping them."

Cox and her then-husband, David Arquette, turned to IVF, which Arquette described as "nerve-racking." The recurrent miscarriages and stress of pursuing IVF were hard, and Arquette added that he felt "terrible that she [had] to go through so much." Cox's IVF treatments wound up doing the trick, though — the couple welcomed Coco in 2004.

For those of you reading who are trying so hard to become parents, hang in there. I know, from personal experience, how hard it is to want a baby with every fiber of your being, and how the process of getting there can be bewildering and painful. Even though there are many paths to parenthood (thank you, modern medicine), while you're in the thick of it, know this you're not alone.