You truly never know what is going on in another person’s life, which is why certain topics need to be approached with due care and compassion.
This is a point which was driven home by The One Show presenter Alex Jones this week, as she spoke at the Fertility Health Summit.
During a candid speech, the 39-year-old revealed that she fears she may have left it too late to start a family and has been feeling mounting pressure ever since tying the knot with husband Charlie Thomson on New Year’s Eve.
Alex revealed that her mother told her, after her wedding, that she went through menopause when she was 43 – a piece of information that came as quite a bombshell to Alex, particularly as she never thought her age would affect her fertility.
“I have a five-year window potentially to get this done,” she said, admitting that she and her husband have not yet begun trying to conceive.
She added: “For me the penny didn't drop. I thought, I've just met this boy, I've got this lovely job, that I absolutely, to this day, adore, although it's not more important than a family - I'd like to be really clear about that.”
Given the sensitivity of this issue, it has not helped that Alex has been plagued with queries as to when she is going to start a family – something which, she admitted, she is uncertain may ever happen for her.
“We got married on New Year’s Eve and, literally, two days later, the first person said, ‘So, when are you going to have a baby?’ And I was like, ‘Shut up’. I just think that women should support women, and we all know that it can be tough and it’s a really dangerous question to ask anybody over the age of 30,” she said.
We greatly admire Alex’s honesty on the subject – more people need to be speaking as openly as her on the issue.
