Jaime King: Infertility talk is "not sexy," and "so taboo"

by

Sara McGinnis

posted in Celebrities

Jaime King is determined to further conversation about infertility and miscarriage, even if that means taking a risk with her celebrity image.

A look at what the beauty, who is currently pregnant with a little brother or sister for her and Kyle Newman's 19-month-old son James, had to say in a recent interview with FitBump:

Q: You’ve been very open about your difficulties getting pregnant, giving birth, breastfeeding, going back to work and the like. Why is it important to be so vocal?

A: I think that in Hollywood it’s so put upon us to put out there that somehow our lives are perfect and we live this glamorous, unattainable, beautiful existence. That’s just not the truth. My journey with having polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis and not finding out until I was 28 and having years of suffering and pain and not knowing why and being very confused about it -- it took basically seven years from the first time I got pregnant to have my first child. I would see in the press 'Jamie King is so beautiful and her beautiful baby and her beautiful family and her perfect existence and blah blah blah' and it really irritated me.

Q: Those are things a lot of people don’t want to discuss at all.

A: I was scared to come out and talk to people about what I went through because it’s so taboo and it’s not sexy. But it’s like, welcome to the real world. If I want to make an impact here, I’m going to use my voice so that I can change things. And if that means a young woman is diagnosed early because I bring out the awareness of what the symptoms are than I know I’ve done something right with my life. That I haven’t hidden in the shadows just because I thought it was the cooler, sexier way to sell myself.

I totally get what she is saying and commend her choosing to be vocal, but at the same time I know I've seen others try to have these conversations as well.

A look back at what other celebrity moms have had to say about their experiences with infertility and loss:

I think each of these women, who has stepped out of the celebrity image that's been crafted for them, has been brave. Like Jaime said, it's not easy to show others you're a real human who is vulnerable to pain and heartache when you've been carefully displayed and marketed as a brand.

But even knowing that and appreciating what they've shared I'm at a loss as to what we can do to improve the conversation further. We've been trying in recent years to talk of the realities of infertility, miscarriage and loss, but how do we make that big change for the better?

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What do you think will help women feel infertility is less taboo?

Photos: Matt Baron/BEImages, PR Photos