Olympia Valance is pregnant: ‘My miracle baby’

EXCLUSIVE: After enduring miscarriages and rounds of IVF, Olympia Valance and her husband Thomas Bellchambers have confirmed they are expecting their first child.

In an exclusive interview with the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About, actor and model Olympia Valance reveals that after “so many years of bad news” – during which she experienced miscarriages and endured ongoing rounds of IVF – the 31-year-old and her husband Thomas Bellchambers are preparing to welcome their first child.

Stellar: You last spoke to Stellar late last year after going public about the experience that you and your husband, (former Essendon AFL player turned professional boxer) Thomas Bellchambers, were having in trying to start a family, detailing your multiple pregnancy losses and IVF journey. Ten months later, you’re here to share an update …

Olympia Valance: I did get pregnant the first couple of times that I did IVF, but I couldn’t hold them. I have a funny shaped uterus called a bicornuate uterus, but it was quite extreme. The next stage was to have surgery where they sew your uterus up and make it look like a normal uterus to give the baby more room to grow.

Then I accidentally got pregnant a week before that surgery. I went into a deep, deep hole and I was like, “Oh my God, I don’t know if I can do another miscarriage”, but I miscarried that baby as well. I was just exhausted.

‘It’s the miracle baby. I’m pregnant!’ Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Three weeks later … I woke up from the surgery and they told me that they couldn’t complete it. I’m like, “Well, that’s the end of this.” I was looking at life without a baby. I was trying to protect myself. I was saying to my husband, “Will this just be enough? You and I?” And he’s like, “Absolutely.” And I’m like, “Great, it’s enough for me, too.” We were really happy. I needed a bloody break. I wanted to live my life. It’s been four years of just thinking about babies. I completely lost myself. I didn’t know what I wanted in my career anymore. I wasn’t driven because all I was thinking about was this.

Listen to the full interview with Olympia Valance on the latest episode of Something To Talk About:

Thomas and I were being very careful, using protection. It was like we were just dating again and then one slipped past the goalie and it was very, very depressing. It wasn’t a happy moment. There were tears and I’m like, “I can’t believe it, we were being really careful.” I was a couple of weeks away from getting an IUD put in. Just our luck. And then eight weeks went by and nine weeks, 10 weeks, the 13-week scan went by, and it just kept growing and growing and growing. So it’s the miracle baby. I’m pregnant. I’m 25 weeks.

Stellar: Congratulations! I know you’re mindful of how such an announcement might impact some of your followers, so how do you feel about sharing your happy news?

Olympia: I haven’t posted a photo on Instagram for a couple of months because I obviously look pregnant. I got this sick feeling in my stomach about announcing because of what that feeling will do to other people. But also, I have to celebrate these little times; there have been so many years of bad news. It’s a hard place to navigate, even now that I’m pregnant. I have friends that are struggling to get pregnant and went through or are going through the same things we went through. I’m so sensitive with the things I say. They don’t want you to hide anything, but because I’ve experienced what I don’t want to experience from other people, it’s such a fine line.

Stellar: What about with your family?

Olympia: This whole thing has been really hard on our parents, on Thomas’s mum, my mum. They’re petrified to ask how anything is going because they feel the pain just as much as we do … It’s like no-one could be happy. No-one could be excited. But, God … Now Gaye – Thomas’ mum – is sending Thomas’ little clothes from when he was a baby. My mum … I can’t even begin to tell you the list of Greek baby names she’s sent me. Some of them are actually written in Greek. It’s going to be like Zeus Bellchambers. Hundreds, hundreds of names and they’re all Spiros [laughs] …

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Do you know the gender? Are you happy to share?

We’re having a boy!

I did think Zeus might be a clue, which is why I ask [laughs]. It’s the Logie Awards tonight. You were nominated in 2015 for Most Popular New Talent for your breakout role as Paige Smith on Neighbours (on which you were a series regular from 2014 to 2018, and returned for guest appearances and the 2022 “finale”). Any FOMO about not attending this year?

It would be fun to get a ball gown made for a pregnant stomach. I loved the Logies. I loved dressing up – doing something outrageous … a little bit crazy and out there. Sitting through the whole Logies was tough, but the red carpet is always fun. I’ve been a bit of a hermit for the past couple of months, and thank God you can’t see [me now] because I’m wearing

my husband’s tracksuit pants. Because my tracksuit pants don’t fit me at the moment.

Your older sister Holly Valance also starred on Neighbours (as Felicity “Flick” Scully from 1999 to 2002) and she, too, returned for the finale. Unlike some shows, former cast members of Neighbours don’t try to distance themselves from the series.

Holly came to my honeymoon – because she got Covid for my wedding – and while we were there, it was the final episode and then I get all these articles while she’s sitting in front of me saying, “Holly Valance returns to Neighbours” and I’m like “B*itch! You didn’t tell me. What are you talking about? You were there? I told so many publications that there is no way you’re returning to the show. Like, you didn’t even tell me.”

But yeah, it was a really nice touch that her and Natalie Imbruglia [who played Beth Brennan on the show from 1992 until 1994] returned. They filmed at [Holly’s] house.

Olympia Valance and Thomas Bellchambers on their wedding day. Picture: Magner Media

Holly, who lives in the UK now, has been in the news recently for her political views. Are you at all interested in politics?

There are things that I feel strongly about for sure, but politics is a scary environment at the moment. No matter what your beliefs are, someone will have something to say and come at you so hard, whether you’re left or right. Holly and I have very different political views, but she’s my sister, and I love her. Everyone has a right to say what they believe, whether you agree with it or not. But I just want to keep my peace.

Listen to the full interview with Olympia Valance on the latest episode of Something To Talk About:

Finally, if someone is struggling with fertility and they are where you were six or seven months ago, what would your advice be to them?

You’re not alone, and what you’re feeling at this very moment is valid. And I understand your struggle and it does get better, it does get easier. Whether that’s acceptance, which really changed me … it’s tough. It’s a really, really tough journey and I see you. I hear you. I wish it wasn’t happening to you. But just keep going. Everything happens for a reason. And what will be, will be.

For support or information on pregnancy loss, visit miscarriageaustralia.com.au. See the full shoot with Olympia Valance inside this Sunday’s Stellar. For more from Stellar, click here.

Originally published as Olympia Valance is pregnant: ‘My miracle baby’