Lisa Riley: ‘Do I want a baby? It’s my time!’
Lisa Riley has revealed something that may come as quite a surprise to her fans...
Loose Woman Lisa Riley, 41, raised some rather excited eyebrows on the show when she told the panel she’s thinking about having a family.
‘Maybe now is the time,’ she said with a smile, as talk turned to whether women over 35 should be entitled to IVF treatment. ‘People keep asking me what’s next – maybe it is time to have a child.’
Lisa, who has been dating her mystery man [she won’t talk about him publicly] for the last three years, admitted that it’s only with her current partner that the thought of motherhood even crossed her mind, having vowed in the past that becoming a mum was not for her.
The bubbly actress, clearly feeling broody, explained, ‘I’ve just never been with someone I could see doing all that with.
‘Now, I’m 41 and I’m lucky enough to have been with a man for three years who I would want to be the father of my children. So I would like to think the NHS would help me should I need it. I feel like I’ve met the right person and, should I want to try to have a baby, I should be able to.’
Lisa, currently filming BBC drama Age Before Beauty with Sue Johnston and Robson Green, said last year that she would ‘definitely consider adoption’. But there was a heartbreaking reason she didn’t want kids ‘naturally’– in case they ended up losing her.
Her beloved mum Cath died of cancer in 2012 at just 57, and the former Emmerdale actress has spoken about her fears that she, too, could develop the disease. ‘I don’t want to put a child through the pain I went through – seeing the last three years of my mum, I couldn’t do that to my child,’ she said last year.
‘So I’ve made the decision that I’m not going to have a child naturally. I’m not.’
But Lisa added she believes she shouldn’t be considered ‘too old’ should she want to try for a baby naturally.
‘I always wanted my career, I always wanted to not be thinking of having a child so early, whereas I think it was expected, where I lived, as all my friends had their kids so early in life.
‘But now, who knows – maybe it is my time.’
It’s lovely that Lisa has changed her tune about what the future may hold. We, for one, hope it includes the patter of tiny feet, and think she’d make a brilliant mum.
‘I feel like I’ve met the right person and, should I want to try to have a baby, I should be able to’