Remarkable story behind Tania Zaetta’s miracle pregnancy

The former Who Dares Wins host’s life changed forever when she gave birth to twins following a miracle pregnancy — in her late 40s.

Last year, at aged 48, Tania Zaetta’s life changed forever after she became a mum for the first time to twins Alby and Kenzie.

Nine months later, and like any new mother, Zaetta doesn’t want to leave their side.

It’s a remarkable story, as television presenter Zaetta used an anonymous egg donor she sourced from the Genesis Hospital in Athens, after seeing renowned Melbourne IVF doctor Nick Lolatgis.

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Tania Zaetta pregnant with twins, Alby and Kenzie. Picture: Instagram

At 41, Zaetta was told she would never be able to conceive children naturally and didn’t have enough quality eggs.

Seven year’s ago she met her partner Chris Rogers, and the pair never gave up the hope of having children.

Aged 48, Zaetta and Rogers went to the Genesis Hospital in Greece — which is known as a speciality baby making hospital — with thousands of anonymous egg donors available from women from around the world.

She got pregnant on the first try with an anonymous egg from an Italian woman.

It was a miracle.

Tania and her partner Chris with their twins. Picture: Instagram

The option of getting an anonymous egg donor in Australia is difficult, unlike the more regulated hospitals in Greece, which are phenomenally successful.

The former co-host of Who Dares Wins says she is now happy to speak out and inspire other women, who may be in a similar position to her.

Becoming a mum at the late age of 48 has been all positive for Zaetta, and she is glowing.

“I don’t feel like I’ve had any judging at all because I was always very open about saying I wanted children, but I just didn’t meet the right person,” she said.

“Then I waited, and I waited for the right person to come along and that was Chris, and we started to try for a family and it wasn’t going to happen.

“Then there was this process and we went for it. The minute you’re pregnant you forget everything else in the world. The minute you have the baby, you forget. You are just in this baby bubble, and that’s the truth.”

Zaetta isn’t afraid of telling people how the system works, as many Australians have no idea about what it means to go to a baby making hospital like she did in Greece.

“They have egg donors on file from around the world,” she told news.com.au.

“People go to me, ‘Oh you’ve had a Greek baby,’ but I didn’t at all. They are very good at what they do.

“You fill out your paper work, your height, your eye colour, your skin colour, your background. Obviously for me it’s Italian, so the egg donor is of Italian origin, from Northern Italy.

“They match you with the right egg donor they have from anywhere around the world. You go over there and it’s anonymous, they just implant the egg with Chris’ sperm, a normal IVF process.”

Every morning Zaetta looks at her twins, a boy and a girl, and can’t believe how lucky she and Chris are.

“Every day or several times a day, I pick up my little twins and in the back of my head I think how lucky we are it worked the first time,” she said.

“Look at these miracles, they just knock my heart out every day.”

The fact she had the babies at 48 isn’t an issue for Zaetta, as she wanted children so much.

“I always knew that I was going to have children,” she said.

“Yes, I’ve got to be honest, there was a slight little doubt in my mind it may not happen by the time I got to 48, but everything has worked out wonderfully.”

Zaetta lives on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, a little over an hour from the hustle and bustle of the City of Melbourne.

She is a qualified natural health and beauty therapist.

Zaetta also runs a very successful online natural health product and essential oils business.

Her partner Chris works as the day manager at the famous tourist attraction the Peninsula Hot Springs.

Zaetta says wouldn’t have it any other way, a change from the glamorous red carpets she is used to.

“I feel like I’m in a great place,” she says. “I don’t have to run off anywhere around the world, I feel like I’ve done more than I ever thought I would achieve.

“Having the babies now, you tend to be more rock solid perhaps than if I had been younger. It’s all worked out perfectly for me.”

Rewind to 1996 and Zaetta became a household name not only in Australia but also around the world thanks to her adventures alongside former Aussie cricketer Mike Whitney on Who Dares Wins.

Tania Zaetta used to host Who Dares Wins

Not long before that she got her first role that gave her a national profile on the Ian Turpie game show Supermarket Sweep, but it was as co-host of Who Dares Wins that she really made a name for herself.

Looking back at Who Dares Wins, Zaetta describes it as a dream job.

“It was immensely popular,” she said. “I don’t think we ever came up for air to realise how popular it was, because Channel 7 couldn’t get enough of the show and we pretty much spent three years straight on the road.

“It was such an amazing, overwhelming time because we just kept working and working.”

She says she was lucky to work with Mike, who she adored.

“He is a fantastic guy, and to this day, I think it’s been 23 years since the show finished, we are still the best of friends.

“We SMS all the time and we catch up once or twice a year.”

Tania Zaetta and Mike Whitney from TV show ‘Who Dares Wins’.

The success of Who Dares Wins across the world, most notably in India, led to a career Zaetta never dreamt of in a million years — as a Bollywood actress.

She filmed four Bollywood movies including opposite Indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan in a film called Bunty Our Babli.

She was thrown into the deep end in an industry that is incredibly popular in India.

“At our hotel there were tanks everywhere, they were protecting Amitabh as he was one of their biggest stars, it was incredible,” she said.

Her second film Salaam Namaste, which was shot in Melbourne, was one of the biggest films at the box office in India in 2005.

She is also a Bollywood star.

Living in London at the time, Zaetta decided to try her luck and move to India, much to the concern of some of her high profile Australian friends.

“I went home to London and I packed up everything, and my great friend Dannii Minogue thought I was nuts because it was all going well in London, and India is so full on,” she said.

“We were well travelled girls but India just blows everything out of the water.

“I ended going for a few months and doing a couple more movies. It was hard living there.

“As a young girl at the time, you couldn’t rent an apartment because girls didn’t rent anything at that point, you were supposed to marry a man and move into the family compound.”

At that amazing time in her career Zaetta had another big break — starring in Baywatch Down Under in 1999 opposite David ‘The Hoff’ Hasselhoff.

Tania Zaetta (l) with Nick Hudson and Tanya Koebert at Coogee Beach as part of the cast of ‘Baywatch’ which was filmed in Sydney in 1998.

That experience is another fond memory for her.

“I have only the nicest things to say about The Hoff,” she said.

“He included all of us in everything he did. I think there were six Australians on that show and he took us everywhere with him. He treated us like equals and he was a lovely man.”

Tania Zaetta starred along side David Hasselhoff in the Australian spin-off of the hit show.

It was at that point filming Baywatch that Zaetta couldn’t believe how lucky she was in her career, considering where she came from.

“Baywatch at the time was the biggest show on the planet,” she said.

“Here I was, this little country kid who rode her horse to school in a small country town called Merbein near Mildura, and now I’m on Baywatch.”

Television life may have quietened down for Zaetta, but with the twins and her growing health and fitness business, she is still very busy.

The twins are now her number one priority.

“I feel very lucky and am blessed,” she said.

Luke Dennehy is a freelance journalist. Continue the conversation @LukeDennehy