Louise Thompson broke down in tears over fears her son Leo was lonely without siblings after she, despite wanting to grow her family, vowed ‘never to carry another child’.
The former Made In Chelsea star, 35, nearly died while giving birth to her son and spent a month in intensive care with ‘serious complications’ followed by years in and out of hospital, before going on to suffer a devastating miscarriage.
Speaking on her He Said She Said podcast with fiancé Ryan Libbey, Louise cried after after seeing Leo, three, speaking to what she assumed was an imaginary friend.
Tearfully recalling the moment she said: ‘Leo was on his bike perched up against a wall, and he was talking to himself as if he had an imaginary friend, and it made me fall in love with him so much,’
‘But equally and probably one of the reasons why it’s jerking tears is because, I guess a second I thought “oh god is this because he doesn’t have any siblings?”.
As Ryan attempted to reassure an emotional Louise, she revealed fearing as a first time mum worrying that Leo’s behaviour was ‘abnormal’ before a fan got in touch to tell her a child having an imaginary friend was a ‘sign of intelligence’.
Louise Thompson, 35, broke down in tears over fears her son Leo was lonely without siblings after she, despite wanting to grow her family, vowed ‘never to carry another child’
The former Made In Chelsea star, nearly died while giving birth to her son and spent a month in intensive care with ‘serious complications’, before suffering a devastating miscarriage
Sharing a clip of Leo speaking to himself on TikTok she wrote: ‘One of my followers messages me to say that having an imaginary friend at a young age is a sign of intelligence;.
‘That was really kind of her because an an anxious first time mum navigating this whole world as each milestone passes I worried that it was because we haven’t been able to give Leo a sibling yet’.
Fans rushed to the comments to show their support and said: ‘Bless though wonderful mommy tears. I feel your . That raw protective emotion we feel is unmatched to an other. Xoxo’: ‘All the only children I know are so smart, great with people of all ages and very capable and independent thinkers’.
‘I had an imaginary friend called Katie… and I also have an older sister who I love dearly… I love pretend friend Katie ALOT though’: ‘Hi , I have a daughter only child and I still worry and she’s 33 ! She is the kindest most grounded girl and I’m so proud of her ….. your doing an amazing job’.
With plans to extend her family in the future, Louise has spoken of the difficulties and admitted she will ‘never carry another child’.
She told Grazia: ‘For a long time I was so triggered by babies – I couldn’t look at people’s babies and pregnancy announcements and those sorts of things.
‘The tricky thing for us is that this just isn’t really possible in the conventional way because I’m not going to carry another child. I really wanted to freeze my eggs and some embryos last year, but I was overcoming by stoma surgery for a good chunk and then that was then when I started to feel really well.
‘And I feel like I slightly missed the boat but I can’t put the blame on myself because there wasn’t really an appropriate time before I started taking a bit of a dip again.’
Speaking on her He Said She Said podcast with fiancé Ryan Libbey, Louise cried after after seeing Leo, three, speaking to what she assumed was an imaginary friend
Tearfully recalling the moment she said: ‘Leo was on his bike perched up against a wall, and he was talking to himself as if he had an imaginary friend,’
As Ryan attempted to reassure her, she revealed a fan got in touch to tell her a child having an imaginary friend was a ‘sign of intelligence’
Fans rushed to the comments to show their support
Louise endured an agonising labour that culminated in an emergency caesarean.
Medics took three hours to staunch a haemorrhage, during which she lost three-and-a-half litres of blood, more than three quarters of her body’s volume. She later found out it was because her womb had torn.
After five days, mother and son were discharged, only for Louise to haemorrhage at home two days later.
This time it took four hours to stop the bleeding and she lost five litres of blood, requiring several transfusions.
In the aftermath she suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder that left her struggling even to look at Leo, let alone engage with him. She begged her fiancé Ryan Libbey at the time for ‘a pill to end it all’.
In April Louise revealed she suffered a devastating miscarriage last year as well as opening up about the loss in her new book Lucky: Learning to live again, as well as her Daily Mail column.
She shared a photo of a positive pregnancy test, and wrote: ‘Tw: lots of stuff. This is not now, this was last January. The night before I got on a flight. As if things needed to get more complicated.
‘I only told a handful of people, but I wrote a bit about it in the book and now that it is out there in the big bad world I thought it was easier to share on here than to have anyone question it behind my back.
‘I often find it easier to write this sort of stuff down than to speak about it out loud. And hopefully this will help me process it. Sharing can feel quite liberating.
Louise endured an agonising labour that culminated in an emergency caesarean. Medics took three hours to staunch a haemorrhage, during which she lost three-and-a-half litres of blood
She has also been fitted with a stoma (pictured) after years of battling with ulcerative colitis.
In April Louise revealed she suffered a devastating miscarriage last year
‘So much has happened in the past 3 years as we all know and v v quickly. It feels like such a dense time in my life.
‘As my life coach often says I’ve signed up to the “speedy learning course”. Riding in the fast lane. My time here on this planet has been anything but boring.’
Reflecting on the last tough few years, she continued: ‘Sometimes (actually, all the time) I stop myself from having the time or the space to think about all the hard things that my body has been through. I love working with my coach because she teaches me to look forward. We talk about fun projects, work, relationships and all the menial bits and bobs that make up this rollercoaster we call life too.
‘I haven’t worked with my psychotherapist for well over a year because I thought I was done with all of that.
‘That means I haven’t been forced to look back. But then I had to have more surgery 6 months ago and actually over the last week being back in the hospital to discuss potential plans for future surgeries and stuff has brought everything rushing back.
‘It’s landed on me like a tonne of bricks. I’ve noticed some weird avoidance behaviours, some silly distractions seeping in, and also have found it really hard to focus on things properly.
‘I’ve felt a little confused between the then and now and I’ve also had some rather bizarre memories pop in and I’ve cried a little bit most days which feels alien (even though I used to be called tears Thompson) because I’ve been so happy.
‘I’ll be honest I think there is a need for more processing. I haven’t spoken to a therapist since the stoma surgery.
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