"Then he let go." Kylie Kwong's partner was four months pregnant when her water broke.

Chef Kylie Kwong and artist Anh Do sobbed while talking about the loss of her son, Lucky, who died in utero and was stillborn in 2012.

Kylie and her now wife Nell met at an art gallery exhibition and quickly fell in love. Having kids was something Kylie had always wanted having come from a big tight-knit Chinese family.

“I was very maternal, I felt confident about being a mother,” she told Anh.

It was decided Nell would carry the baby because Kylie was six years older and had her business to run, whereas Nell’s work as a contemporary artist afforded her more flexibility.

Two nights later, Kylie heard footsteps outside her bedroom door.

“I woke up to my father’s sobbing face on my pillow. And his whole kind of energy and demeanour was of this vulnerable, a lot kind of smaller presence, beautiful presence,” she said.

Her father said to her, "Oh my darling I can’t do it to you, you’re my baby. You’re my little girl and I just can’t do it to you. I just can’t, I can’t. Even though I don’t understand your way of life I can’t throw you out".

Kylie says she felt proud of her 52-year-old father in that moment.

"What he did in that moment was drop 52 years of ego in those two quiet nights," she said.

From then on they had a great relationship until his death from prostate cancer in 2006.

"It was one of those great lessons in life, we have to be ourselves, no matter how hard it is - be yourself. There is no other way," she said.