Gemma Collins says ‘I’ll be pregnant next year at 40’ after losing almost 3st in lockdown to combat fertility problems
GEMMA Collins turns 40 next year and she has just one birthday wish – to have a baby.
The reality favourite has shed nearly 3st on the advice of doctors to help her get pregnant and she is already dreaming of life as a yummy mummy.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Gemma, who calls herself “The GC”, says: “I would love to have a child.
“It would be great for me and such a positive message for all the girls out there who don’t want to rush their life or their life has taken different a direction, like me who’s put their career first.
“But in my forties I’d love everybody to see The GC walking around with a pram.”
Gemma has no concerns about hitting the big 4-O. In fact, she is looking forward to it and keenly points out some of the female stars enjoying hugely successful careers way beyond their forties.
The former Towie star says: “I’m going to be up there with them all — Mariah Carey, Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Jennifer Aniston.
“Kylie’s not married yet or got children. Jennifer hasn’t got kids either.
“Don’t write us off yet. We’re just beginning.”
Gemma is in a relationship with long-term on/off boyfriend James “Arg” Argent, 32, who is recovering from cocaine addiction, as revealed in The Sun last month.
He later thanked Gemma publicly for giving him “tough love” at the height of his drug habit and not hiding it from his family.
Over the past year she has had regular consultations with her doctor about the prospect of getting pregnant, having suffered a number of miscarriages in her thirties.
Gemma has been reassured she can have children but losing weight will increase her chances of conceiving and having a healthier pregnancy.
And now Gemma’s career is firmly established as one of the UK’s most in-demand reality stars — with appearances on Celebrity Big Brother, I’m A Celeb, Dancing On Ice, Celebs Go Dating and more recently her own ITVBe show, Diva On Lockdown — she has time to focus on her new goal.
She explains: “I’ve got a fabulous doctor. I can definitely have a child, he just told me it would be easier when I’m not carrying as much weight.
“He gave me the confidence not to panic about it. He told me to lose a few stone and it will help me.
“I am in a much better head space. It is easy to yo-yo when your life is all over the place.
“Things are a lot calmer now — I’m cooking my own meals at home, riding my bike in the countryside and enjoying long walks. I am established. My career has gone above and beyond.”
Another complication in Gemma’s pregnancy journey is that she has Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which triggers irregular periods, excess male hormones and enlarged ovaries.
Gemma was 28 when she was diagnosed with the condition after becoming alarmed by sudden weight gain. She says: “I was always very slim. But I really started piling on the weight and I’ll never forget it.
“I said to my mum, ‘Have you shrunk my clothes?’. She said, ‘I hate to break this to you, but you’re putting on weight’.”
According to the NHS, one in five women in the UK has PCOS. It is said to be hereditary and in severe cases sufferers can be left with excessive hair growth and acne.
In later life it can lead to Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. At its worst, Gemma’s PCOS gave her “really bad stomach pains” and periods that were “all up the wall”.
Reflecting on the impact the condition has had on her life, and particularly her weight, she says: “I get so fed up of it. I get told I have such a lovely face, but what about my body, hunny?
“I just think it’s so sad that in society you’re programmed to think that thin is beautiful.
“I don’t know how it has happened. ‘You’ve got to have the perfect body to be beautiful’, it’s not about that. It’s about health. For me, I know my health is a whole lot better.”
Gemma credits Skinny Jab weight-loss injections for helping her to drop from a size 24 to size 20 last year. But it led to taunts from online trolls who argued she should have used a personal trainer or eaten less to shift weight rather than inject herself with a drug.
Gemma says: “For all those w****rs, please don’t get on to me about personal training.
“Unless you’ve had PCOS or a weight problem I’m not interested in what you have to say.
“Walk a day in my shoes and then come talk to me.
“No one will ever understand how cruel it is to say, ‘She’s overweight because she eats a lot’. That’s b*****ks.”
She says: “Why should fat people be the joke?
“I don’t think anyone should be pulled apart for how they look. It absolutely stinks.
“I’ve come up against it, it’s almost if you’re fat you’re not acceptable. Why is fat such an issue?
‘Friends can eat cake and stay a size six’
“Fat people should not be categorised. If you’re indoors all day eating Big Macs, you might have underlying issues like depression.”
Gemma has also struggled with the pressure of being friends with slim women who can eat what they want and retain their figures. She says: “People that don’t have a weight problem or have never suffered with their weight don’t know how it feels.
“You’ve not been in the position where your friends can eat bread and cakes and still be a size six but you can’t.
“It is something I’ve battled with all my life.”
Gemma admits she was when she first heard about them in Los Angeles two years ago, but was quickly put at ease by her doctor.
She explains: “When I was in America I kept seeing these adverts on the TV for this drug. It’s everywhere in America. Anyone can get them.
“When I came back I was approached by Skinny Jab and thought, ‘Hang on, what is it and what is in it?’ I went to my doctor before I started using it. I’m not stupid, I’m not going to promote or use something that can kill you.
“My brillant doctor told me, ‘Gemma, it’s amazing. I highly recommend it to people struggling with weight loss’.”
The injections contain the medicine Saxenda, which curbs your appetite and is available on the NHS. Gemma injects her stomach every Tuesday and says it is painless, like “popping a paracetamol”.
She is keen to lose another 2st but isn’t putting pressure on herself to do it quickly.
Gemma says: “If it takes me from now until Christmas, I’m still going to inject Skinny Jab every week.
“I’m going to go for it. I have nothing to lose.”
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Nicole Kidman was 41 when she had daughter Sunday Rose in 2008 with musician Keith Urban.
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Glenn Close
101 Dalmatians actress Glenn Close was 41 when she gave birth to her only child in 1988.
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Hitch star Eva Mendes had her second child, Amada, with Hollywood hunk Ryan Gosling in 2016, when she was 42. They had first daughter Esmeralda two years earlier.
Eva had managed to hide her first pregnancy for seven months.
Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz was 47 when she announced the birth of her daughter Raddix, with musician Benji Madden, in December.
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Emma Thompson
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