Model and actress Brigitte Nielsen has opened up about giving birth at at 54 after getting pregnant via IVF.
“I was always like, ‘I want to do it until there are no more embryos left,'” she told The Guardian about her in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. “Somebody has to win the lottery.”
And win she did. Despite doctors telling her she only had a 2.5 percent chance of succeeding, Nielsen gave birth to her daughter, Frida, in June 2018.
However, she said IVF is not a process everyone could cope with, and she spoke about previous failed IVF attempts with her husband Mattia Dessi.
“You’re on a lot of medication. It is very expensive. Hormones will do different things to different women,” she said. “You always think you’re going to get pregnant, but most of the time, the phone call comes in and it’s, ‘I’m sorry.’ It is devastating.”
Nielsen added, “You have to stay realistic and, if you’re older, the odds are against you.”
What is IVF?
According to the American Pregnancy Association, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is “the process of fertilization by extracting eggs, retrieving a sperm sample, and then manually combining an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish. The embryo(s) is then transferred to the uterus.”
Five weeks into the pregnancy, the couple first saw Frida’s heartbeat. They went for checkups every week as there was still risk of the IVF failing.
“My doctor said: ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t tell anyone until you’re 27 weeks pregnant,” Nielsen said.
At that point, chances of success were still not guaranteed. The doctor told her, “They have a 98% chance of survival, though they will have to stay in the hospital.” And so, up until she was 27 weeks pregnant, Nielsen did indeed keep it a secret from everyone, including her mother, reported the Guardian.
Nielsen only revealed she was pregnant to the public two weeks before she gave birth to her 5 pound 9 ounce baby girl.
“We are overjoyed to welcome our beautiful daughter into our lives,” she told Daily Mail. “It’s been a long road, and so worth it. We’ve never been more in love.”
View this post on Instagram♡ 4 months ♡ can’t think of any happier time in my life #proudmom #happyness
At 6’1″ the statuesque Nielsen rose to fame starring in “Rocky VI” and “Cobra” alongside Sylvester Stallone, whom she married in 1985, reported CNN. Nielsen played the role of Ludmilla Drago, the Russian wife of Dolph Lundgren’s character Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.
While her beauty in the film was self-evident, she shined in a scene where Ludmilla defends her husband when he accidentally kills Apollo Creed.
Two years later, in 1987, the two divorced.
In 2018, when the makers of Creed II asked Nielsen to again play the role of Ludmilla Drago, she agreed. At the time, Nielsen was eight months pregnant with Frida, and they had to shoot around her belly, reported The Guardian.
On set, Nielsen said, “Sylvester and I kind of buried the hatchet. He was in his American corner, I was in my Russian corner. We were very professional, and it worked out just fine.”
Nielsen’s focus for now is solely on Frida.
“I’m going to really have to protect her,” she told The Guardian, mentioning her fears around social media. “You see a lot of solitude and loneliness,” she said.
“I want to empower her. I want her to travel, and have responsibilities; a little bit of the upbringing I had.”
Nielsen also has four adult sons from previous marriages.