It must go on, no matter what happens next.

These are the words that carried musician Amy Sheppard, 35, through three years of infertility and IVF.

Because the show had to go on in the hope that one day there would be a happy ending.

At last, that day has come for Sheppard.

Now, the show continues with the joy of knowing she will meet the child she has longed for. “This pregnancy feels like the sweetest miracle after all the heartbreak, waiting and battles it took to get here,” says Sheppard, who is 19 weeks’ pregnant at the time of this interview, her first since announcing her news.

“My growing bump is a reminder that this tiny life is already so deeply loved, cherished, and longed for. It’s a precious gift that means more than words could ever capture.”

The journey to motherhood has been long for Sheppard, who spent years trying to start a family with husband Lachlan Stuart, 34.

It all began in 2022, full of hope and excitement. They were one year into their marriage and eight years into their relationship.

Life was busy and satisfying for Sheppard, the frontwoman of family pop band Sheppard, which she founded in 2009 with sibling George. They were later joined by sister Emma, and had a breakout hit with Geronimo in 2014.

After years of hits, the thought of a baby felt like the perfect addition to the couple’s lives.

But when the months turned into a year and they were no closer to having a family, Sheppard felt the shift.

“It goes from exciting to routine, and then it becomes monotonous and heartbreaking. It’s devastating,” Sheppard says.

“There’s a lot of shame and embarrassment. You think, so many of your friends are falling pregnant around you. You blame yourself, you’re thinking, ‘Maybe I’ve left it too long, maybe I’m too busy or I’m eating the wrong things’.

“It plays on your mind every month and you think, ‘Could this be the month?’.

“You’re watching what you’re eating and drinking and when that goes on for years, it starts to weigh really heavily on your life.”

On stage she was the sparkling performer belting out the joyous pop vocals the world has come to know. But off stage, Sheppard was suffering.

For a long time, she carried the burden of infertility in silence.

“I did keep it secret for a while,” she says.

“I was very reluctant to share such a personal journey just because of the stigma that comes with it.

“There’s a lot of shame that surrounds fertility and also there’s just some things you don’t want everybody to know.

“As a woman, you do take on a lot of the responsibility and the expectation that it’s what a woman’s supposed to do.

“That’s one thing a woman can do, have a baby, and when that doesn’t happen, you don’t want to deal with that reality.”

For Sheppard, that reality was also filled with isolation, anger, frustration and a consuming sadness. Emotions that only intensified when doctors diagnosed her with “unexplained infertility”.

“Whatever that means,” she shrugs.

“Before you jump into IVF you have all the tests, scans and blood tests and yet they’ve never found any underlying cause.

“It’s very frustrating because there’s nothing to ‘fix’.

“I’m a bit of a hustler and I was thinking ‘I’m going to beat infertility’, so I’m going to cut gluten, I’m going to take all of these vitamins, to the point where I was rattling and none of that did anything.

“Infertility is not something that you can fix – or maybe it is for some people. For us it wasn’t something I could just out-hustle.”

Sheppard pauses.

“It gets to a point where you need the support.”

The couple began IVF last year, a decisionthat proved to be an emotional turning point for Sheppard.

“That was the moment it became real,” she says. “I just didn’t want that to be our reality. No one wants to have to go through that; everyone wants that surprise of falling pregnant and I guess infertility robs you of that.”

It also took her sense of freedom, leaving the singer to question nearly every part of her life.

“When you’re going through IVF and embryo transfers, you will try anything,” Sheppard says.

“No gluten, sugar, tonnes of vitamins, naturopaths, acupuncture, natural skincare and cleaning products. I didn’t wear perfumes and I stopped scalp bleaching my hair.”

At the same time, the band was also facing a huge change of its own.

At the end of 2023, the siblings had packed up their lives in Brisbane to move to Nashville and chase their music career.

It was one of their biggest adventures yet; writing songs with hatmakers, touring the US with American singer-songwriter Andy Grammer and building the band’s name on international stages.

Yet, behind the scenes, Amy Sheppard faced the challenges of trying to start a family while navigating a life on the road, miles from home: fertility appointments via Zoom, hormone injections on ice in a cooler bag sitting among the guitar cases, and brief windows of opportunity to make anything possible.

Just as she was busy travelling, so was husband Stuart, a men’s high performance coach, who was in the midst of achieving his impressive feat of 58 marathons across 58 states in the US and Australia in 58 days.

But of all the lows and setbacks, there was one moment that hit Sheppard the hardest.

In March last year, the couple were due to be in the same US city at the same time, and planned to find out the results of their first embryo transfer, using their one and only embryo from their first round of IVF.

In a hotel room in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sheppard did a pregnancy test.

“It was negative,” she says. “It was just a pretty tough situation.

“It’s just devastating and squashed hope.

“There’s not much you can say. We just gave each other a big hug and obviously there were tears, but you have to try again.”

Sheppard shared her heartache at the time to her 91,000 Instagram followers.

“We found out, I said goodbye to Lachie, cried in bathroom stall, then walked onto a stage in front of a thousand people, giving them the most unforgettable night of their lives while experiencing an unforgettable heartbreak of my own,” she wrote.

Now, looking back on that moment as she opens up on her fertility journey for the first time in depth, Sheppard knows the stage was where she needed to be.

“The show must go on and it does make you feel better and it’s a good distraction being on stage, but in the back of your mind, your heart is breaking,” she says.

“I think two things can be true: You can be heartbroken and grieving and also be happy and joyous at the same time. It’s a weird situation to be in.”

Weird. Difficult. Harrowing.

“There’s so much waiting. That is the hardest part about fertility, I think,” Sheppard says.

“The hormones and surgeries is one thing, but it is the waiting and there’s no baby guaranteed at the end of it.

“Of course you hope and you wish for that but quite often that hope can get squashed the next week.”

It took a toll on Sheppard, who stepped awayfrom band commitments for a couple of months to prioritise herself and the next round of IVF.

The decision, she says, “was the best thing we ever did”. It led to the little life growing inside of her.

“It was amazing to hear the heartbeat; it was such a relief,” says Sheppard of finding out she was pregnant.

“I was like, ‘OK, this is really happening’.

“I’m excited. It does feel like the sun has come out. It just feels like that cloud of heaviness has lifted.

“For so long you carry this weight around. Even in happy moments it’s always in the
back of your head; it’s just a sad feeling that follows you around. I think grief is what it is.”

While Sheppard is thrilled about her happy ending, she’s painfully aware of the impact infertility can have.

She hopes to change conversations, so others feel less alone and more supported.

“People walking through infertility aren’t looking to be ‘fixed’,” she says.

“What they need most is to be heard, seen, and met with compassion in some of the darkest moments of their lives.

“Unless you’ve personally lived this journey, offering tips, tricks or health advice doesn’t help; it adds to the weight.

“Chances are, anything you suggest has already been researched, tried, or considered hundred times over. What truly helps is listening without judgment and simply standing alongside them in empathy.”

The experience inspired Sheppard to write the deeply personal song Blue and Pink Confetti, which speaks to her infertility struggles.

“It’s hard to describe the heaviness of infertility, and when words fail, music speaks and that is the best way that I could explain to people how I was feeling,” she says.

“Hopefully people who are going through that can hear that song and maybe share it with others to shed some more insight about what they’re feeling.”

The song features on Sheppard’s debut solo album, Born to Be Country, which will be released on October 10 under the band’s independent label, Empire of Song.

It marks a new beginning for the singer, who is branching out from the pop sound that made the band famous to explore her solo career in country music.

It’s a labour of love Sheppard has been working on for the past six years.

“It’s a collection of songs I’ve been working on for a long time,” she says.

“It took me a while to figure out who I was as a country artist, and finding that fine line between pop and country, because I’m very much in both worlds.

“I’m very, very proud of these 12 songs, one being Blue and Pink Confetti, and I’m excited to have it out.”

Sheppard grew up listening to country musicand says it’s how she learned to write songs. The dream was always to be a country artist before Sheppard the band was born.

“I went to TAFE before university and I wrote an EP,” she says.

“Then George was in town and he had all these ideas, and that’s really when Sheppard started, so it sort of went down a different direction and has been evolving ever since.

“But it was always in the back of my mind; I still had that love for country.”

Over the past few years, though, particularly while living in Nashville, she built the confidence to go for it. At the same time, she says, the band’s year-long American stint proved just as transformative.

“We just had a calling to try something new,” says Sheppard of living in Nashville, the home of country music. “It was the best experience. I’m so glad we went,”

“We met so many great people, did a couple of tours, a bunch of song writing. We’re getting close to finishing album number five of Sheppard as well, so it was a very productive time.”

Just as it was a creative reset for her solo career, it sparked a fresh era for Sheppard the band. “We were able to discover what sound was next for Sheppard in Nashville,” she says.

“It’s definitely a more mature sound. We don’t want to shy away too much from our anthemic group vocals, and everything that people love about Sheppard is still there, but we’re definitely exploring … it’s more lush, I think.”

The band have put their Nashville time on pause for now, with the family settling back in Brisbane. Sheppard will focus on her pregnancy, surrounded by family and, of course, her siblings will be by her side. “Kudos to Emma and George, (they) have obviously sacrificed as well so that we could do this,” she says. “I’m very, very lucky to have their support.”

What’s next is a whirlwind: a debut solo album and tour, new Sheppard music on the horizon and a baby due early next year.

But Sheppard beams at the thought of it all. Of holding their little one for the first time, hearing them laugh – and bringing the baby on tour to join their musical family.

And so as the show goes on – with tours, music and life unfolding around her – the phrase carries new meaning. One of hope, joy and happy endings.

“I’ve done a lot of things in my life and got a lot of achievements, but nothing will be as important as becoming a mother,” she says.

Sheppard’s Born to Be Country album is out on October 10, with a tour to follow from October 12, and a Brisbane performance at the Old Museum, Bowen Hills, on November 21