Entertainment
Steph McGovern on the realities of keeping early pregnancy secret at work: ‘I was projectile vomiting watermelon’
Steph McGovern has shared the all too honest realities of trying to keep early pregnancy a secret at work.
The Steph’s Packed Lunch host gave birth to her first daughter in November 2019 and has recalled her experience of being pregnant – including the time she ‘projectile vomited watermelon’ across the BBC Breakfast studio.
Opening up on Giovanna Fletcher’s Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, Steph explained that she had been suffering with bad morning sickness in the early stages of her pregnancy and was forced to tell her colleagues she was expecting before reaching the 12-week mark.
She remembers throwing up right before the 6am news broadcast and decided to come clean after being quizzed by her co-host and asked if she was ‘hungover’.
Steph explained: ‘I remember once – and I couldn’t tell anyone I was pregnant because we’re not meant to are we, because then we jinx it apparently – I was throwing up.
‘The only thing I could get into my body that morning was watermelon and I literally projectile vomited watermelon across the studio, moments before we were about to start the 6 o’clock news headlines.’
The TV host, who previously worked as a presenter on BBC Breakfast, continued: ‘You could see my co-host was looking at me going, “Are you hungover?” and I was just like, trying not to whisper, aware I was wearing a Mic connecting me to all the gang in the gallery.
‘Everyone thinks I’m hungover or I have a bug and if you think you’ve got a bug then everyone avoids you and says go home. So, I ended up saying [I was pregnant.’
On revealing her baby news early, Steph remembered the guilt that came with it, as it was before the three-month point when the risk of miscarrying considerably drops.
‘I suddenly felt guilty, l felt like I was going to miscarry,’ she admitted.
Steph shares her daughter with her girlfriend and announced the arrival of their new addition in November 2019 on social media.
‘Well hello world, just surfaced to let you know that we now have a daughter! Born on Monday morning just as @BBCBreakfast was wrapping up,’ she worte.
‘We’re all fine and dandy. Just getting used to the eau de sick/poo I am now regularly wearing. #babylife.’
During her podcast appearance, Steph revealed it was always her who was going to carry the couple’s baby and not her partner and she joked that her experience with morning sickness still haunts her even now.
‘I still can’t look at the Co-op logo because I once threw up in the vegetable aisle of the Co-op. I can’t even… it’s really awkward because a new Co-op opened on our street and I was like I can’t even look at that, I have to cross over,’ she revealed.
Steph, meanwhile, hasn’t revealed the identity of her girlfriend and is known for being notoriously private when it comes to her personal life.
In January, she touched on why she keeps her romance under wraps and explained: ‘I’ve never officially come out. I didn’t do this big thing of, “I am gay,” I just kind of go with the flow of things and I didn’t really overthink it.’
She told Suzi Ruffell’s Out podcast: ‘It’s not like I’m ashamed of anything in my life, it’s more a case of I’m trying to lead as normal a life as I can.’
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