Savannah Guthrie revealed in a new interview that she and her husband Michael Feldman turned to IVF to get pregnant with their second child, Charley, at the age of 45.
Savannah, 47, became a mom for the first time a bit later in life, and she admits that she didn’t expect to get pregnant naturally a second time.
‘I knew it was the winning lottery ticket to have one child — I was 42 when I had [Vale]. So I never dreamed that I would have two. But with Charley, I did do IVF,’ she told Health in an interview for the magazine’s May cover.
Cover star: Savannah Guthrie fronts the latest issue of Health magazine, in which she discusses pregnancy and IVF
Sharing her story: Savannah Guthrie revealed in a new interview that she underwent IVF to get pregnant with her second child
Worth it: She said she underwent ‘a few’ rounds of IVF before getting pregnant with two-year-old Charley
Flashback: Savannah is pictured in 2016 while pregnant with Charley
Now, she and Michael, 50, are proud parents two five-year-old Vale and two-year-old Charley.
‘So I would say Vale was a miracle, and Charley was a medical miracle,’ Savannah added.
She said that she and her husband talked about IVF ‘a lot’ before going through with it.
‘I didn’t want to start a process where we spent all of our present searching after some future … when our present was so lovely and beautiful and enough,’ she said.
‘But I also knew I would love for Vale to have a sibling — especially because we are older, it was important to me for her to have a sibling, somebody to do life with.’
She ended up going through ‘a few’ rounds of IVF’ before they got ‘lucky’ and found out they were expecting again.
‘I always say, Charley was, like, the last egg out. He really was,’ she said. And we’re so blessed. Going through what we did, it makes you realize that everything has to go just right to have a healthy baby.
Big decision: She said that she and her husband Mike Feldman talked about IVF ‘a lot’ before going through with it
Lucky: Savannah said a ‘great thing about being an older mom is that you are at a different place in your career where … you have a little more say over your schedule’
Family of four! Savannah and Mike welcomed Charley into the world on December 8, 2016
‘I really feel for so many women who are struggling and wishing and wondering, “When’s it gonna be my turn?” I know. And I understand.’
But being an older mom, she went on, has its advantages.
‘I think one great thing about being an older mom is that you are at a different place in your career where, in many cases, you have a little more say over your schedule and the choices you make,’ she said.
‘In your 40s, and now my mid-to-late 40s, you have the difference in attitude where you can figure out what matters and what doesn’t.
‘And guess what? What matters is your family. Full stop.’
She admitted that sometimes she feels tired, but insists it’s not because of her age — it’s because she has to wake up in the middle of the night to go to work on her morning show, and she is also juggling two young children.
Busy: She admitted that sometimes she feels tired, but says it’s because she has to wake up in the middle of the night to go to work and is also juggling two young children
What life delivers: ‘Having kids later in life wasn’t so much a choice — it was just the way life happened for me,’ she said
‘Having kids later in life wasn’t so much a choice — it was just the way life happened for me — but when I think about being in my 30s and what I was doing and trying to build a career, it would have been incredibly difficult for me to have kids back then,’ she said.
Savannah has also said before that she was ‘superstitious’ about being pregnant with Charley in her mid-40s.,
Speaking to People magazine in 2017, she said she didn’t go shopping for baby stuff ahead of time ‘because I didn’t want to jinx it.’
‘I’m 45 years old, so I was just hoping that everything would turn out okay,’ she explained at the time.
She gave birth on December 8, 2016, and returned to work on the Today show three months later.
She added: ‘I can’t get over how profoundly lucky I am that I get to have these two little ones. I’m very thankful.’
Hard stuff: Savannah’s Today cohost Hoda Kotb has also spoken out about her fertility struggles
She was left unable to conceive after battling cancer over a decade ago
Dreams come true: The 54-year-old did become a mom, adopting two-year-old daughter Haley Joy in February 2017
Savannah’s Today cohost, Hoda Kotb, has also spoken out about her fertility struggles.
Over a decade ago, the news anchor battled breast cancer, and the treatment for the disease left her unable to conceive.
‘One of the things in my life I’ve always wanted was to be a mom,’ she told People in 2017. ‘Sometimes in your life, things just don’t work out for whatever reason, so you say, “Well, I wasn’t meant to have that.” But it was really hard to come to terms with it.’
But the 54-year-old did become a mom, adopting two-year-old daughter Haley Joy with her partner Joel Schiffman in February 2017.