Shilpa Shetty Kundra on her surrogacy journey: “I had honestly given up on the thought of another child”

In February 2020, Shilpa Shetty Kundra and husband Raj Kundra announced the birth of their daughter Samisha via an Instagram post, saying, "Our prayers have been answered with a miracle. With gratitude in our hearts, we are thrilled to announce the arrival of our little Angel."

Just a few months after breaking the big news, Shetty Kunda went on record this past weekend to talk about her motherhood journey, opening up about how she and Raj Kundra reached the decision to try surrogacy. "After Viaan, I did want to have another child for the longest time," she said. “But I suffered from an auto immune disease called APLA and that came into play every time I get pregnant. So I had a couple of miscarriages… it was a genuine issue.” APLA—or Antiphospholipid syndrome—is a disorder in which the mother's immune system attacks normal proteins in the blood, causing blood clots in the arteries, veins and organs.

Shetty Kundra, who shares a close bond with her younger sister Shamita Shetty, also spoke about wanting to give her son a sibling. “I didn't want Viaan to grow up as a single child, because I'm also one of two and I know how important it is to have a sibling,” she shared. But the road wasn't easy. “Coming from that thought, I did explore other ideas as well but that didn't pan out well. At a time when I wanted to adopt, I had put in my name and everything was underway.” But the timeline was pushed due to issues in the process. “I waited for nearly four years and then, I was so irritated and we decided to try the surrogacy route. We had Samisha after three attempts. I had honestly given up on the thought of another child.”

Since the whole process was a question mark, Shilpa Shetty Kundra also shared that it changed things for her professionally when the couple found out about the news. "We had been trying for a second child for five years. I had signed Nikamma and had committed my dates to Hungama when I got the news that in February, we were going to be parents again. We cleared our work schedules for the whole month," she said. "I was very clear I would be a hands-on mom with my first child. I wanted to be with Viaan for the first seven years. I intend to do that with Samisha too. That phase is the most important phase of a child's life." After a busy work schedule in the beginning of the year, the lockdown slowed down the family's life considerably. “So Samisha came with the destiny of having this time with me,” the actor said.

Shetty Kundra has always been open about her experiences with motherhood. Back in 2012, when her son Viaan was born, she also spoke out about having children at a later stage in life. “I never chose to be a mother at 37. I always wanted to be a mother at the right age, but I didn’t find Raj at the right time. There is a time for everything, and so also for motherhood," she shared. 

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