Actress Jaime King gets real about her infertility struggle

by

Carolyn Robertson

posted in Celebrities

These days actress Jaime King is a busy working mom to her 15-month-old son James Knight, but there was a time not too long ago when her hopes of having a child seemed almost impossible.

Diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis, the Hart of Dixie star had endured 5 miscarriages, 5 rounds of in vitro fertilization and 26 rounds of intrauterine insemination when she got the shocking news that she was pregnant. After trying for over 4 years to have a baby, it seemed like a miracle when Jaime and her husband Kyle Newman learned they had conceived naturally.

“When I got pregnant it was the best thing in the whole world. I had never felt so grateful, happy and elated,” the 35-year-old actress tells PEOPLE. The pregnancy may have been a dream come true, but it wasn't an easy one. She went into early labor due to preeclampsia and went through 26 hours of "brutal labor" before little James was born in October 2013.

When her son celebrated his first birthday this past October, Jaime marked the occasion by getting a tattoo in honor of her little family, a sword bearing the word "Knight," along with “Praying hands because we prayed for years to conceive a child [and] the stars mean that he came from the heavens blessing us with a miracle," she wrote on Instagram.

Though her path to motherhood was a difficult one, both emotionally and physically, Jaime says she feels a responsibility to tell her story: “I was hiding what I was going through for so long, and I hear about so many women going through what I went through," the 35-year-old tells PEOPLE. "If I’m open about it, hopefully it won’t be so taboo to talk about it."

As for baby #2, Jaime says that she and her husband hope that James will one day be a big brother, but adds, “I don’t know what the future holds. “All I know is I can’t control it, and I’m okay with that.”

I'm sure it's not an easy thing to talk about, but I really commend Jaime King for being so upfront and honest about her struggle to conceive. It's something that so many women and families go through. It may not ease their burden, but I think it always helps to know you're not alone.

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Photo: REX USA