Former England star Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain opens up on heart-breaking miscarriage as he and Little Mix star fiancée Perrie Edwards plan to welcome second youngster

Former England star Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has opened up on the impact of miscarriages, as he supports his fiancée Perrie Edwards as they prepare to welcome their second child.

Edwards had recently spoken publicly about experiencing two miscarriages, with the Little Mix star revealing the losses in an interview for Paul C Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast. 

The Little Mix star shared that she first miscarried early into her first pregnancy, and discovered the devastating loss when she started bleeding and headed to the doctors.

She then went onto reveal that a year after giving birth to her ‘rainbow baby’ Axel, she discovered she was pregnant again, but tragically lost her baby at 24 weeks.

Edwards had reflected that Oxlade-Chamberlain had appeared ‘traumatised’, but suggested that he ‘wanted to try to be strong for me’. 

Speaking to the Athletic, Oxlade-Chamberlain admitted the experience had been ‘difficult’ for the couple.

Oxlade-Chamberlain admitted to feeling discomfort after a fellow player had asked about how their baby was doing, around six months after the loss.

He admitted that while he is currently without a club after leaving Turkish side Besiktas, it has meant he has been able to be at home and support Perrie as they prepare to welcome their second child. 

‘When you start a family, that’s when you start to learn it’s not easy to have a child, that things can go wrong,’ he said.

‘It’s so difficult — especially for women when they are literally growing another human being inside them, the connection they feel to that, and then can things go wrong and they can lose the baby. 

‘It’s so difficult, especially losing the baby so late into the pregnancy.

‘It definitely helped that we had Axel to focus on, but it was obviously difficult. 

‘It took a while for us to get to the place where we felt, ‘OK, should we try this again?’ 

‘It’s been nice to be at home with Perrie for the past few months and to have this time with Axel as well. He’s excited [about his new brother or sister]. We all are.’

Edwards, who gave birth to their couple’s first child Axel in 2021, had spoken openly in August about suffering two miscarriages.

‘I had a miscarriage very early on with my first ever pregnancy, and it was so early. I remember finding out I was pregnant,’ Edwards said.

‘Obviously, I started bleeding not long after, and I went to the hospital and I had the scan and they were like, ‘There’s no baby.”

‘And I was like, ‘oh, I’ve made this up. Maybe I got a false positive or something.’ And I remember being on my own at the appointments because nobody was there.’

Perrie added that due to her miscarriage, she was ‘on edge’ while she expecting her son Axel, admitting she ‘just wanted to get past’ the 12-week scan.

‘And then when I had Axel, when I was pregnant with him, like, I loved being pregnant, it was one of the happiest times of my life. Like, I just love carrying babies,’ she said.

‘And it was lovely. But I was a bit on edge thinking, oh, gosh, like, I want to get past the 12 weeks. I want to get past this. And when I get past every scan and that pregnancy was complete bliss, it was perfect.’

Perrie then revealed the heart-breaking moment she learned she’d miscarried again following her 20-week scan, having learned she was pregnant again while rehearsing for Little Mix’s final tour in 2022.

She continued: ‘And then we fell pregnant again after. So maybe a year and probably not even. Actually, yeah. Not even a year, because Axel wasn’t even walking yet and we were pregnant.

‘And I remember thinking, right, I found out when I was rehearsing for the Little Mix tour, the last Little Mix tour, I was at rehearsals and I thought, oh, I don’t feel good. Every, every symptom under the sun. I was like, I think I’m pregnant.’

‘And then we went for what was a 20-week scan, but we were actually 22 weeks, and that was just the worst day of my life. Like horrendous.

‘And I just knew something was wrong in the scan, and he just kept going over the same thing, over the same thing… I’ve never experienced an out-of-body experience where everything goes in slow motion.’

Recalling the moment she and Alex returned home from the hospital after learning the devastating news, she said: ‘So then I remember sobbing. He [Alex] was injured at the time and he couldn’t really drive.

‘He was struggling to drive, but I couldn’t see straight. I was just distraught. And yeah, we basically lost the baby at like 24 weeks.’

‘It’s weird because the first time it happened, I think because it was so early, I was like, oh, that’s hard. But I think when you’re fully, like carrying in your 24 weeks and you’ve planned out like that room and all these things, it’s really hard.’

‘And nobody knows other than, like, immediate friends and family. And I remember, like, shortly after, like, friends would message and be like, “how’s the bump?” And I’ll be like, “there is no bump.”‘

The Little Mix star and Oxlade-Chamberlain started dating in 2016 and they got engaged in 2022.

Perrie shot to fame on the eighth series of The X Factor in 2011.

She won the competition with her Little Mix band mates Jade Thirlwall, Jesy Nelson and Leigh-Anne Pinnock.