'It was traumatising': Real Housewives star Emily Simpson recalls suffering 'horrible' miscarriage with twins at 16 weeks

The Real Housewives of Orange County star Emily Simpson has shared her 'traumatising' miscarriage experience with twins. 

The reality star opened up about what she went through, and why she and husband Shane turned to surrogacy, during a recent appearance on Scheana Shay's Scheananigans podcast.

"When Shane and I first got married 15 years ago, we started trying to have kids pretty early because I was 32 at the time," Emily said. 

Watch the video above.

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"I remember at 32 thinking, like, 'My clock is ticking.'

"I had multiple miscarriages – I don't even know how many at this point, I think it was like five or six or something – just one after another after another. It got to the point where I did in vitro [fertilisation]."

Emily fell pregnant with twins after a cycle of IVF, but one outing in her second trimester changed everything. 

"I'll never forget I was at Costco and I was pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl. I was four months along and I remember saying to Shane, 'I don't feel right. Something feels wrong'," she recalled. 

"Right when I said that, my water broke just all over the aisle. Of course, you know when you're only four months pregnant and your water breaks, something is wrong."

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At the time she and Shane were living in Utah and headed to the hospital where she had to go into labour. 

"I had to have them knowing they weren't going to survive," she recalled. 

"It was the most horrible thing I've ever been through in my entire life. I remember crying the entire time to just holding onto [Shane] saying, 'I'm never doing this again. I can't go through this.'"

There were also complications and Emily had to have an emergency DNC and a blood transfusion. 

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Emily's sister Sara Moffitt came to visit in the days after, because it was also Thanksgiving, and she recounted the whole experience to her. 

"She said, 'Please don't do it again. I don't know what's wrong with you, but your body just can't do it.' She said, 'I'll do it for you,'" Emily said of her sister volunteering to be her surrogate. 

Sara went on to carry all three of Emily and Shane's children, Annabelle, 11, and twins Luke and Keller, both nine. Shane also shares eldest daughters Shelby and Chanel from a past relationship.

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To this day Emily still has no idea why she couldn't carry children to term. 

"It was traumatising. It was the worst thing I've ever been through, so to look at my three children now, I always just think about my sister and how much she sacrificed," she said.

The Red Nose Grief and Loss Support Line is available 24/7 for anyone affected by the loss of a pregnancy, stillbirth or death of a baby or child on 1300 308 307.

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