While Samantha Armytage was smiling on morning television, she was quietly letting go of her dream of becoming a mother.
For the very first time, Sam spoke about her heartbreaking fertility struggles and an unsuccessful IVF journey in an episode of her podcast, Act Two.
“There is a unique kind of grief in letting go of that specific future,” she shared. “Many high-profile women are happy to talk about IVF when the journey is successful.
“But coming to terms with a failed IVF journey takes time.”
Sam, 50, underwent IVF with her now ex-husband Richard Lavender, an equestrian businessman and farmer. The pair separated in later 2024 following four years of marriage. Sam clearly noted infertility struggles were not the cause of their divorce.
Reflecting on the “emotional and physical pain,” Sam confessed she had suffered “many” miscarriages. “Ultimately, it did not end with the baby we were trying for.”
The Weekly recalls sitting down with the former Sunrise host in 2015. She was 38 at the time, and trusted that if children were meant to be in her life, “it will happen if it is meant to. I am very happy with my life.”
“I’d like to have children and I don’t think that is impossible,” she admitted. “I think I’m pretty clever, so if I knew I was running out of time I might start to panic a bit, but I’m not panicking yet.”
In conversation with Dr Devora Lieberman, Family Planning NSW’s former president, Sam revealed she “thought she had done all the right things,” including freezing her eggs in her 30s.
Bidding farewell to this dream is a pain that many women know themselves. It had taken Sam a long time to come to terms with it, telling viewers that not even her family and closest friends knew the full story.
“Because I know how incredibly lonely the fertility rollercoaster can feel, and I want any woman sitting in a waiting room today to know that you are not alone, and there is a fulfilling, happy life on the other side of no,” she shared.
Now, Sam is “completely at peace” with her journey and living with a “full, busy and happy” life.
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