'So much bad luck': Olympia Valance talks candidly about her fertility struggle as she prepares to welcome her first child

Last month, Olympia Valance joyously announced her pregnancy with her AFL star husband Thomas Bellchambers.

In her post, Valance, 31, admitted she waited five and a half months to tell the world she was pregnant – after a long struggle with fertility.

She previously shared with her fans and followers that she had "miscarried twins, right in the middle of COVID," which she said was "excruciatingly painful".

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In a candid new chat with 9honey Celebrity, the actress spoke about waiting to share the announcement – and how good it finally felt to go public with the news.

"It was nice to finally do it. I was kind of hibernating, obviously my family and friends knew, but when you go through so much fertility bad luck, I wanted to hold back as long as I could," Valance says.

"But by the time it was 20 weeks, I was like, 'Alright, enough is enough. I'm so big at the moment I can't leave the house.'"

Valance admits she "felt funny" about announcing her pregnancy, because she knows how tough it can be to hear when you're in the midst of a struggle with fertility.

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But the actress, who has just been named a Robe Haircare ambassador, says everyone around her has been "so incredible".

''It's been so good to let the world know I'm pregnant... I think I said it in my caption... now that I'm pregnant, I felt funny about announcing it, because I know how sometimes it makes me feel when I see pregnancy announcements," she admits.

"But at the end of the day everyone was so incredible. And I think when someone has gone through absolute hell to get to where they are, you're always happy for them."

Valance went on to praise modern technology and IVF, which she has used, in a bid to give hope to others who might be struggling.

"At the end of the day, there was always options for me, it might be a different path," she says.

"We live in a world of science. As hard as it is, if you really want it, there's always a way."

Valance, who is expecting a boy, reflected on how she never really new about fertility struggles when growing up as it often wasn't spoken about during sex education classes at school.

"You get to the time where you want to have babies and you think it's going to be easy, because when you're at school, in sex ed, it was basically like, 'If you're going to have sex you're going to get pregnant', it's not [entirely] true," she says.

"What they're not teaching in school is when you reach a certain age, go and freeze your eggs... and then you don't have to think about it... it's a peace of mind and it's not a ticking time bomb.

"It's taken us five years to get pregnant. It's outrageous, there's no education about female anatomy."

If you or someone you know is struggling after being affected by pregnancy loss, contact Pink Elephants or SANDS Australia (1300 072 637) for support and information.

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