'I know the truth': The Red Wiggle is changing what a family looks like

Red Wiggle Caterina Mete has opened up about becoming pregnant with twins via IVF and addresses speculation about the paternity of her babies.

Eleanor Katelaris

4 min read

April 15, 2024 - 10:17AM

Lifestyle

Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News.

Having famously donned the red skivvy for the past few years, Caterina Mete, a.k.a The Red Wiggle, has opened up about her most personal role yet, a soon-to-be-mum.

In a candid interview with Stellar on the Something To Talk About podcast, the children’s entertainer discussed becoming pregnant with twins via IVF at the age of 42, navigating motherhood on her own terms and embracing being the first-ever pregnant Wiggle.

She also touched on the setbacks she faced along the way and the rumours regarding the identity of her childrens’ father.

Want to join the family? Sign up to our Kidspot newsletter for more stories like this.

Image: Instagram

"It was tough"

“When I was about 37, I decided to start egg freezing. It was actually a friend of mine at the time who was like, ‘Have you ever thought of that?’ I hadn’t, really, and it’s only because she brought it up that I started to look into it,” said Caterina.

“It’s quite an expensive process, but I thought, I’m just going to do it. The first egg retrieval, they managed to retrieve seven eggs, and I did it the next year and they only got one, and then I did it the following year and they got two. It was amazing to see how diminished my egg supply went in just two years. I say to people now: if I could go back, I would have started it earlier.

“Then, during COVID, as hard as it was for everybody, it was a time to reassess your life and see what you wanted to do. I was like, I think I’m ready to have children.”

Caterina, who announced in February that she is pregnant with identical twin girls (via an anonymous donor from a fertility clinic), revealed the emotions behind her decision to undergo IVF.

“It was tough,” she admitted. “You [have] moments when you cry. You’re like, I don’t have a partner, it’s just me, how am I going to do it? And then you just go, Stop. Just do it. What are you waiting for? I’m older. I can’t be waiting any longer because that’s just unfortunately how the body is.”

“I was fortunate to get two embryos, which is pretty good because I only had nine eggs; the more eggs you have, the more chances of creating embryos,” she continued.

“I had my first embryo transfer, and before I went into it, in my head I was like, this isn’t going to work. I just had this feeling. Then you wait 10 days, and the doctor rings and is like, ‘Congratulations.’ I was in shock; it worked. So you deal with that and you’re happy and you go through all of that emotion… and then at eight, nine weeks, I miscarried.”

Caterina described the feeling as a “shock to the system”, saying it’s something you hear about happening but “don’t think it’ll happen to you.”

“That was hard to deal with, but it’s amazing how many women go through it and obviously they don’t like to talk about it because it’s so hard and horrible,” she said.

“I was like, I’ve only got one embryo left. Before I even had the transfer, I kept thinking, what happens if that doesn’t work? I started looking at other options because I was scared. But thankfully, it worked.

“When I had the ultrasound and the doctor scanned one side then went over to the other side, I just went, ‘Oh my goodness, I think that’s a second one,’ and he’s like, ‘Congratulations.’ It was a real miracle to have two with my last embryo.”

Introducing our new podcast: Mum Club! Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode.

"I know the truth"

When Caterina told her Italian family, who aren’t used to the idea of a donor, about her pregnancy, she said she didn’t expect their response.

“Not one person said, ‘Who’s the father?’ Not one, and that really shocked me. As soon as I said, ‘I’m pregnant,’ they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s great.’ They didn’t ask anything, and I thought that was so interesting because they’re in their 70s, 80s. I thought, well, they’re understanding the different times now.”

However, when she announced the news online, the rumour mill was in full swing, speculating about who the father was.

But Caterina said it didn’t bother her.

“Look, I just ignore that because I know the truth. I quite happily will say this is the journey I went on and it involved a donor from my fertility clinic. That’s the honest truth. People like to speculate but there’s nothing to speculate about, because that’s what happened.”

On a more positive note, Caterina says she is excited and ready to embrace her life and work as the first pregnant Wiggle.

“It’s quite beautiful what The Wiggles bring to children, and it’s nice to be a part of that journey,” she shared.

“I’m the first pregnant Wiggle, essentially. Obviously, the boys have had babies, but it’s their wife or partner who’s been pregnant. [At] shows it’s announced at the start that I’m pregnant in case people didn’t know, and it’s nice that families can talk to their children and say, ‘Oh, she’s having a baby, like how Mummy was.’ It’s nice teaching children about that, too.”