Laura Kenny opens up about her miscarriage and ectopic being pregnant

Ex Team GB cyclist Dame Laura Kenny has said she sought advice early after experiencing ectopic pregnancy symptoms – but fears other women might not, as she campaigns for better awareness on the devastating pregnancy complication that can prove fatal.

In a new interview with Stylist, the Cheshire-based Olympian, 32, candidly spoke of her own ectopic pregnancy, which came just a year after a miscarriage, and how ‘the lack of control’ over her own body was ‘the hardest thing to deal with’ following the two traumatic pregnancy experiences.

The mother-of-two, 32, who announced her retirement from the sport in March, told the publication that she was left in one of the worst mental places after her ectopic pregnancy.

She said after a 13-year tenure on the track, which saw her win four gold medals, Laura was used to relying on her body to do what it commanded – but was left blindsided after a heartbreaking miscarriage and terrifying ectopic pregnancy. 

After pushing her body to its limits with gruelling training schedules, not having the ability to control what happened to her was agonising for Laura, who remains one of the most successful female British athletes in history.

She told the publication: ‘The lack of control is the hardest thing to deal with. As an athlete, I’m used to training to get the outcome I want: I rely on my body, and I understand how to look after it and how to fuel it; it’s always been my machine. But suddenly, I couldn’t control it.’

Laura suffered a miscarriage back in 2021, followed by surgery for an ectopic pregnancy a year later.

An ectopic pregnancy occurs when the embryo attaches to a different site than the lining of the uterus, where it should normally implant.

One of the most common places for ectopics is the fallopian tube. As the pregnancy grows, it stretches the tube leading to pain and, if untreated, they can rupture through the tube with the potential for life-threatening internal bleeding.

The former Olympic champion recalled how devastating the horrors had been, particularly after an easy pregnancy and birth with her first child, Albie, seven, in 2017.

After the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, Laura and her husband, fellow former cyclist Jason Kenny, 36, began trying for a baby but were left heartbroken after Laura miscarried nine weeks into the pregnancy.

She remembered an emotional phone call with her mother where she revealed she had lost the baby – only to find out her mother had lost a baby of her own but had never told Laura.

One in eight pregnancies end in miscarriage in the UK, according to the NHS. 

Despite the agony of her miscarriage, shortly after, the former cyclist was keen to begin trying again for a second child. 

On New Years Day in 2022 – though she didn’t know at the time she was pregnant – Laura began suffering with excruciating pain that could only be relieved by being in the bath.

After being dismissed during a GP appointment, Laura ended up asking advice from her midwife friend, who immediately urged her to go to A&E.

At the hospital, Laura was told that she had an ectopic pregnancy and was swiftly sent to have emergency keyhole surgery.

The pain Laura had endured had been the result of her fallopian tube splitting on account of the ectopic pregnancy –  a complication that meant surgeons had to remove one of her fallopian tubes.

The Olympic cyclist recalled the incredible ‘loneliness’ she felt following the ectopic pregnancy.

Laura confessed that she even stopped talking after her ectopic pregnancy. 

‘I don’t throw around the word depression a lot, but it was absolutely the lowest I’ve ever felt in my life. Jason struggled too; we both retreated into ourselves,’ she told Stylist.

And the relationship between Laura and her husband Jason became distant, with the two rarely speaking other than to argue.

Then one day, the two fell into each other’s arms crying, realising their relationship had fallen apart. After one of the most difficult conversations they’d ever had, the couple agreed to plant a rose bush in honour of their lost babies.

After turning 30, the former cyclist decided to share her experience with the world, taking to Instagram to explain what had happened to her.

She admitted that she believed having been an athlete was one of the main reasons she was able to tell something was wrong and get treated in time.

In August earlier this year – on the Ectopic Awareness Day – Dame Laura was announced as one of the new ambassadors at The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust.

Speaking of her new role, the Olympian said: ‘I am proud to be supporting The EPT, because they provide vital support and information for women and their families during one of the most difficult life experiences there is.’ 

According to the NHS, around one in 90 pregnancies are ectopic. They can easily become fatal if the symptoms are not recognised quickly enough.

Later in the year, Laura competed in and won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. 

However, in an interview with Women’s Health earlier this year, the cyclist admitted she didn’t find happiness in the win. 

She told the publication: ‘I was like, why will [my body] do that and it won’t do the one thing that I just want the most…

‘I felt like I was living in this yin and yang world where you could only have one of them.

‘And when you’re an athlete who has had so much control over their body for so long, it literally just felt like the carpet had been ripped out from underneath me because all of a sudden I wasn’t in control of it, and there was nothing that I could do.’

While she added that she doesn’t want to label her sadness at the time as depression, she confessed: ‘I’d hate to put a label on myself, but that was the lowest I’ve been – 100%. It was mentally the toughest period of my life.’

After competing in the Commonwealth Games, Laura fell pregnant again, giving birth to a healthy baby boy, Monty, in July 2023. 

Back in March Laura explained she had made the decision to hang up her bike after struggling to spend time away from her children and the sacrifice of leaving her family at home.

She told Stylist that as the Paris Olympics approached, she began to ask herself why she was still training when she really wanted to be with her family.

The Olympian admitted she was jealous of her mother who was at home taking care of the boys.

Speaking about the struggle of balancing both elite sport and motherhood she admitted that it is doable but it comes with sacrifice, and she wasn’t at her best for the Tokyo Olympics.

‘It it comes with sacrifice. And you’ve got to be prepared for a non-perfect build-up… do I think I went into Tokyo absolutely 100% at my best? No, of course I don’t.

‘Because rest days weren’t rest days and any time I was at home, I wasn’t sat on the sofa like Jase and I used to be. I was out on the trampoline, I was playing in the sandpit…So do I think it was harder? Yes. [But] it doesn’t need to be incompatible.’

The birth of her second child, Monty, was a blessing that changed the cyclist for good. 

She said: ‘I felt so privileged to be able to have been pregnant again and then bring him into the world [that] I was just struggling to leave him.

‘I couldn’t leave him for training sessions because, why would I? All I wanted was him.’