“We were very fortunate, but we sort of had that brush with not having a straightforward route,” said Tana, who now shares six children with Gordon
Gordon Ramsay and Tana Ramsay with baby Jesse. Photo: Tana Ramsay/Instagram
Gordon Ramsay and Tana Ramsay’s path to a big family wasn’t a simple journey.
“We got engaged in the August, married in December and then we knew straight away we wanted to try for a baby, and it didn’t happen,” Tana, 50, said on the Aug. 27 episode of Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast. “You spend your whole youth trying not to get pregnant and then…you don’t think that they’ll be any issues especially being so young.”
The couple was married nearly 28 years ago and today share six children — Megan, 26, twins Jack and Holly, 24, Matilda “Tilly,” 22, Oscar, 5, and Jesse, 9 months.
But before their first child, Tana says she felt like a “failure” when she couldn’t immediately get pregnant. She went to “investigate” any issues at the doctor, and found out that she had polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). “The first thing [I] asked was, ‘Does that mean I’ll never be a mother?’”
Tana said she had PCOS very mildly, but it was still a wake up call that “life doesn’t go immediately as you plan.”
Gordon Ramsay with Megan, Tilly, Jack, Holly and wife Tana (in 2016). Karwai Tang/WireImage
Gordon, now 57, presented with fertility challenges, too.
“Gordon was also told he had a slightly low sperm count, so I think it helped that we both had a slight issue, which together caused the problem, but it didn’t mean the focus was on just one of us,” Tana revealed.
Gordon and Tana used in vitro fertilization (IVF) for all of their kids except Tilly. After their first round of IVF, Tana got pregnant with Megan.
“We were very fortunate, but we sort of had that brush with not having a straightforward route,” she said. “It was very quickly solved and we had Meg.”
Also during the Happy Mum Happy Baby episode, Tana revealed that her Michelin-starred chef husband wasn’t in the delivery room when their four eldest were born. She told host Giovanna Fletcher that she’s “happy” with their choice.
Gordon Ramsay and his Oscar and Jesse. Tana Ramsay/instagram
“It just felt right” to have Gordon outside, she said, adding, “He would’ve gotten all squeamish and probably fainted and all the attention would’ve been on him, and this is my moment.”
“It didn’t ever really bother me and I actually felt quite happy when we talked about it,” Tana said.
She recalled their conversation about the decision: “I said, ‘Look, if you don’t want to be in there then don’t.”
Her mom was in the room while she was in labor instead.
While he excused himself from the first four births, Gordon was there when they had their two youngest children, Oscar and Jesse.
“I don’t know what changed; it’s just he wanted to be there. I felt it would be nice,” Tana said.