Strictly Come Dancing’s Emma Weymouth talks about surrogacy after nearly dying in childbirth

‘So many people struggle to have children’

(Getty Images)

Emma Weymouth has opened up about turning to surrogacy for her second child following a near-death experience while giving birth to her first son, John.

Speaking to the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine, the Strictly Come Dancing contestant revealed she was diagnosed with hypophysitis, which refers to an inflammation of the pituitary gland, and suffered a bleed in her brain during childbirth in 2014.

When Weymouth became pregnant again with her second child, she was advised against giving birth herself because it might be too dangerous. Her son, Henry, was born via surrogate in 2016.

"It's a hard topic to talk about,” Weymouth told the publication. “I'll cry my make-up off. But the more honest you are, the more people open up in return.”

Weymouth, who married Viscount Ceawlin Thynn in 2013, continued: “So many people struggle to have children and it's not unusual to go down a slightly different path if you need to.

"I am so grateful for my boys. They’re my entire life."

Weymouth and Thynn famously live together at Longleat safari park in Somerset alongside Thynn’s father, the Marquess of Bath, who owns the estate and is estranged from his son.

“It’s quite surreal,” Weymouth said of her unique home, which she described as a “magical kingdom” and “all-singing, all-dancing attraction”.

Following her marriage to Thynn, Weymouth became the first black Marchioness in the UK.