NRL star Benji Marshall & wife Zoe

Pregnancy joy

On the surface, Benji and Zoe Marshall appeared to have an almost perfect life. In love and newly married, their respective careers in rugby league and the media were going from strength to strength. But in the four years since their wedding, there’s one thing that has eluded them – parenthood.

Zoe blames her long battle with severe stage-four endometriosis for their struggle to fall pregnant and admits that, in her darkest moments, she feared she would never have a child.

“We always knew we wanted a baby, so living with that uncertainty was tough. It was always in the back of my mind,” she says.

So in January, after years of trying to fall pregnant naturally, Zoe turned to Chinese medical practitioner Dr Shuquan Liu for help. She embarked on his extreme twoweek no-food detox and body recalibration – and firmly believes it was this program rather than anything else that helped her fall pregnant against all odds.

A DREAM COME TRUE

Six months later, on her 33rd birthday, Zoe received the news she and Benji had been hoping for – she is pregnant and they will welcome their first child in February!

“This is my dream come true,” Benji, 32,, tells Woman’s Day. “I’ve always believed that I was put on this earth to have a family. I have been waiting for a long time – I have wanted to be a dad forever.”

Zoe believes their pregnancy news is a sign from her beloved mother Jan, who died from breast cancer 11 years ago.o.

“I woke up on my birthday at 6am, I was half asleep and was searching for a sign from my mum – we were very close,” she explains. “Suddenly, I just felt this need to take a pregnancy test. When the second line started to show, I wasn’t prepared. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God!’

“I was so shocked I fell on the floor crying. Benji was still half asleep. He’s like, ‘Pregnant?!’

“I feel a mix of relief and happiness because I really didn’t know if this was going to happen for me. I can’t explain why I did that test that morning – the fact that it was my birthday was a sign for me.”

JUST THE BEGINNING

For Benji, who never met his biological father, the pregnancy is the realisation of a long-held desire to be a dad. He was raised in New Zealand as part of a large extended Maori family and says that upbringing drives his desire to have six children. For now, though, he’s happy to be welcoming his first.

“Not knowing my real dad makes me want to be there for my own children and be the dad I never had,” says Benji, who moved to Australia on a football scholarship aged 15.

But he’s quick to acknowledge he was lucky to have two surrogate dads to guide him through life – his uncle Ben and his foster father, the late Michael Doherty.

Benji says what his family lacked in money they y made up p for in love and affection, and the Marshalls plan to shower their baby with the same lashings of love.

Zoe jokes that if their dogs, Lucky and Mila, are any indication, she will be lucky to be allowed a cuddle with their newborn. “Having seen the way he is with our dogs, I can’t imagine how he’s going to be with a child,” she jokes.

EMOTIONAL JOURNEY

Once the shock of their pregnancy passed, Zoe wanted to share their happy news with the world, but Benji urged her to ‘stay mum’ until the 12-week scan.

“I was very cautious,” he says, admitting the past 15 weeks have been emotional. “I’ve been crying ng heaps. Everything has gotten more andd more real as we go on. At eight weeks we heard the heartbeat, we were in tears… … it was like at that moment it became real.”eal.”

For Zoe, the joy of pregnancy soon g gave wayy to “brutal” morningg sickness s– –

‘We’re going to raise a healthy, happy child... I’ll be the greatest dad of all time’

but Benji h has stepped up, even dutifully dashing t to the shops during the Woman’sWoman Day interview to buy bread, eggs andan scones to calm her cravings. “I thinkthi she’s going to be a great mum,” he says of the woman he calls his Arc Arctic Fox (a species that only has oneon life partner). “I think she’s going to be able to handle it with her eyes closed. I’m going to be the there to support her every step of theth way, and the main thing is, we’rewe’ going to raise a happy, healthy child. We will find our way. I’ll be the greatest dad of all time!” Zoe agrees.agree “He will be. He’ll be really hands-on. W We feel grateful that we were able to fall pregnantp naturally, especially knowing oth other people’s struggles and how emotionalemotio that can be. “We feel prettyp lucky. This journey has put things in perspective.”