Martha Stewart has made a fortune by advising others to emulate her perfect lifestyle (never mind that she spent five months in federal prison for lying about a stock trade a few years ago). Like many people I have watched the domestic diva create seven-layer cakes from three ingredients and stood in awe as she fashioned a lampshade from a handful of pipe cleaners (I’m exaggerating, but if anyone can pull off those feats it’s Martha). It really begs the question: What CAN’T Martha do?
Her daughter Alexis has the answer. Sadly, the 41-year-old daughter of the lifestyle guru is struggling to have a baby… and there’s nothing her mother can do to help. Which is not to say the homemaking expert isn’t trying.
For all of you who don’t know, Alexis Stewart is Martha’s only daughter. She was divorced from her attorney husband a few years ago and is now struggling to have the baby she says she has wanted since her mother was sent behind bars.
Stewart recently opened up to PEOPLE magazine and shared her arduous emotional battle to conceive. She told the magazine that she wanted a baby when she was 37, but that was when her mother was on trial and Alexis says the timing was simply wrong. When she turned 40 Alexis says she made it her mission to have a child even though she was single again. However, she reveals that despite her wealth she has been unsuccessful.
“I am trying everything I can: fancy doctors, expensive drugs, high-tech procedures. Most people can’t afford what I am doing, I am really lucky,” Alexis said.
Lucky, to a point. The lifestyle maven’s daughter says everything she had seen on television, in movies — and even heard from her own gynecologist — had led her to believe it was easy to have kids after 40. Unfortunately, for Alexis that hasn’t been the case. She tells PEOPLE: “I thought it would just take a couple of months to get pregnant and then I’d be done. Woman don’t know that once you turn 40, a lot of fertility clinics won’t even talk to you. They’re like ‘Hmm, we can’t help you, you’re too old.’ The first place I went to cost $10,000 a month and came highly recommended. The drugs cost $6,000, the doctors and in vitro fertilization procedures about $20,000 – $27,000 a month.”
And still, nothing. Alexis says of the healthy embryos that have been implanted none have “stuck.” But, she’s not deterred. Alexis tells PEOPLE she is not planning to give up anytime soon. Not only does she want children but she also says her mother wants grandchildren more than anything.
“My mom is desperate. She has wanted grandchildren since forever. Forever! I’m not even close to stopping. I’m trying to build up a supply of healthy embryos because ideally, I’d love to have two kids. It doesn’t hurt my body to keep trying.”
In the end, Alexis says she is sharing her story to illustrate the difficulties that come with trying to conceive a child when you are over 40 (and single). Though, what I appreciated the most about Alexis’ frankness is the fact that she makes no bones about the fact that neither money nor fame guarantees successful fertility treatments.
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