Lisa Faulkner has recalled her experience of trying for a baby and feeling like a failure after her marriage to her first husband ended.
The former Holby City actress, 52, married ex-EastEnders star Chris Coghill in 2005. They adopted daughter Billie in 2008 after unsuccessful fertility treatment. However, the couple divorced in 2011.
Lisa has now admitted how her first date with second husband – MasterChef judge John Torode – was a “leap of faith” after her divorce.
Lisa admits IVF left her feeling ‘really lonely’
On battling infertility, Lisa has told Good Housekeeping: “Those years were a very dark time. One minute I wasn’t that bothered about kids, and then something happened overnight, and I wanted a baby so badly. All my peers were trying at the same time, so it was like we were swimming in the same pool, but they kept getting pregnant and climbing out until, eventually, I was still swimming in there alone. It was really lonely.
“When people would tell me they were pregnant I’d try to be fine, but I’d go home and be full of shame, anger and sadness. When I had IVF, it was with an amazing doctor with whom nine out of 10 patients got pregnant – and I was the one in 10 who didn’t. I thought: ‘Why me?’ It was exhausting.”
Lisa Faulkner on marrying second husband John Torode
Her relationship with her now-husband John blossomed after they first met on Celebrity Masterchef in 2010. They wed in 2019.
Recalling her first date with him, she said they went for dinner and got on brilliantly.
Lisa – who now fronts Weekend Kitchen with John – revealed that she took things slowly because of her daughter – and because of her split from Chris.
She explained: “We took things really slowly because of Billie, and also because I’d been through the end of a marriage – we had a child and I felt I’d failed in something I never wanted to fail at. I never give up on anything, so when you do have to accept that something didn’t work, starting a new relationship is a big leap of faith.”
The couple share five children
John and Lisa share five children – Lisa’s adopted daughter Billie, John’s kids Jonah, 18 and Lulu, 16, from a previous relationship, as well as his grown-up sons Casper and Marselle, who he shares from his first wife.
John & Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen is on ITV Saturdays at 11.40am.
Read more: John Torode and wife Lisa Faulkner share ‘extra special’ relationship first
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