Erin Andrews Confronts the Unspoken Pain of Surrogacy Loss

Erin Andrews is experiencing yet another hurdle in her infertility journey.

The sportscaster shared that her surrogate had a miscarriage with her second baby during the Thursday, May 22, episodes of her podcast, “Calm Down with Erin and Charissa.”

“We got some real s***ty news today that our surrogate had miscarried. So I have dealt with this before, but things were going really, really well. And her little heartbeat and her numbers were really good — so much so I even told you guys a couple weeks ago because we thought we had such good news,” Andrews, 47, said, noting that the podcast has been a safe place for her to share updates on growing her family.

Andrews, who is already mom to 2-year-old son Mack with husband Jarret Stoll, explained she hadn’t yet shared the news publicly but was hopeful since it seemed to be a healthy pregnancy.

“Been sitting here thinking about Taylor Swift’s song, ‘I Can Do It with a Broken Heart.’ I’m really good at doing this s*** with a broken heart,” Andrews said, noting that although her producer gave her the option to stay silent on the topic she wanted to bring it up.

“I think I kinda made a promise to myself that when I was really open with how s***ty infertility has been and our journey with two surrogates, because we did lose … we had loss with our first surrogate and then luckily with our second one, we had Mack, that I was just going to be honest with people.”

She continued: “But, like I said, when I was first dealing with all these infertility issues and loss that I just wanted to let other people know that we’re dealing with them, that I get it and I understand. And I’m going to do that again. This really, really sucks but so many people are dealing with it so if you feel alone and you feel like a failure, I do too. But you’re not the only one.”

Andrews added that many families share their successful in vitro fertilization (IVF) stories but not everyone is honest about their losses.

“I just wanted to be open with people and be like, ‘This sucks.’ And today, this really does. It makes you really realize when I have my little boy, and today he was throwing a fit royale with us, it’s like, you know what? It doesn’t matter,” she said

Andrews and Stoll, 42, welcomed their first baby, Mack, via surrogate in July 2023, after years of fertility ups and downs. Andrews has been open about her journey to motherhood, telling Us Weekly in January 2023 that it was “not easy.”

“It’s been one of the most challenging things in my life, and I know in my husband’s life as well,” she told Us at the time.

Reflecting on the biggest lesson she’s learned from her experience with IVF, she said, “I can take about 50 needles in my stomach and just handle it better than my husband ever could. He’s always in the other room watching Seinfeld. I’m like, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got this, just stabbing myself for the 50th time.’ You know that you’re strong and that you can deal with it and it will get better.”

Andrews and Stoll tied the knot in June 2017 after nearly five years of dating. In 2016, amid hoopla surrounding her stalker trial, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and received treatment. She continued on with her career as an NFL analyst and, after two surgeries, she was pronounced cancer-free.

Related: Stars Who Struggled to Conceive Children Share Their Fertility Issues

It has been a difficult road to parenthood for many celebrity parents, including Chrissy Teigen and John Legend. After in vitro fertilization didn’t work on the first try, Teigen wondered if she had done something wrong. “You just look for anything to blame, especially yourself,” Teigen explained to New York Magazine’s The Cut in April […]

“After the trial everyone kept telling me, ‘You’re so strong, for going through all of this, for holding down a job in football, for being the only woman on the crew,’” Andrews told Sports Illustrated in 2017. “Finally I got to the point where I believed it too. ‘Hey, I have cancer, but dammit, I am strong, and I can do this.’”

Andrews is keeping the same mentality when it comes pushing through pregnancy loss.

“We’ll be good. I was saying to Jarret today .. .this is like the hardest part,” Andrews admitted on her podcast. “But I just didn’t want to be back here in the loss column.”