celebrity

Hilarie Burton: 'Every morning, I'd weep out of jealousy for how easy it was for them.'

 

Last month, former One Tree Hill star Hillarie Burton and her husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan welcomed a baby girl. Her name is George Virginia Morgan and she was born February 16th.

George is a sister to seven-year-old Augustus.

However, Burton is only choosing to announce the birth now, after having more than three weeks in a bubble of privacy and newborn love. And when she did eventually post on Instagram about the birth, her announcement was striking in its totally frank nature.

“As some of you know, [Jeffrey] is off in Europe getting ready to do some big conventions. And he’s self aware enough to know his track record for “spilling the beans” isn’t so great (bless his heart!). So before he starts tripping up in an attempt to maintain our privacy, he asked that I go ahead and post something about our little girl’s birth,” she began, before stopping herself.

A post shared by Hilarie Burton (@hilarieburton) on

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“But before I do that, there’s something I really want to say to all the women out there who are trying…..

“It took a long time for Jeffrey and I to have this baby. The first time I got pregnant, it took a year and a half. I surprised him on Christmas with baby Seahawk booties. We cried. We celebrated. We picked out names. And we lost that baby.

“More losses followed, and as so many couples know, it was heartbreaking. It still is heartbreaking.”

Burton explained that for five desperate years, they tried for a baby.

“And every morning of the five years it took us, I’d open my computer at the kitchen table and see the news and I’d grow bitter over the endless parade of celebrities showing off their bumps and babies. I’d weep out of jealousy for how easy it was for them. Didn’t they know something could go wrong? Didn’t they know that there were other women out there struggling? It pained me to see the corporate sponsored baby showers and magazine covers capitalizing on this human miracle that wasn’t happening for us.”

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News presenter Deborah Knight did 14 rounds of IVF, and then fell pregnant naturally. She shares her story, on I Don’t Know How She Does It. (Post continues after audio.)

For this reason, when her most recent pregnancy began, she admits they were “cautious”.

“I didn’t want to celebrate for fear of jinxing it. I didn’t want a baby shower. I checked her heartbeat every day, up until the day she was born. And now that she is here, I just stare at her in wonder all day. I see her in her daddy’s arms and I don’t take any of it for granted. She screams bloody murder and I smile because she is so wildly alive.

“So now that folks know she’s here, I don’t want her birth to cause any other woman to weep at her kitchen table. If anything, my wish is that she would restore hope for others. Fertility is a fickle thing. And for the other couples out there who have had dark days, we want to introduce our miracle baby to you and send you our love and support in finding yours.

“Please meet George Virginia Morgan. She was born February 16th. Her daddy delivered her. We love her very much.”