Yahoo Finance Katie Maloney-Schwartz Discusses Fertility Journey and How Traumatic Fall Impacted It
Ari Perilstein/Getty Katie Maloney-Schwartz
Katie Maloney-Schwartz is further opening up about her fertility journey.
The Vanderpump Rules star, 34, got candid about her journey to conceive with husband Tom Schwartz during an appearance on the Reality Life podcast with host Kate Casey, explaining how her traumatic accident that happened nearly a decade ago has impacted their road to conception.
"I wanted to share it, not to gain sympathy, but to just open up a part of my past that maybe would have people connect with me a little more on what I've been through, maybe other people have been through something like that," she said about her accident, in which she fell 25 feet through a skylight and suffered broken bones, a broken jaw, and a brain injury.
Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney-Schwartz
"When it came to Tom and I wanting to open up about our fertility, we had to start at the beginning," she then explained, referencing her admission that she had gotten an abortion early on in their relationship — about one year after her accident. "And even now, when we've tried to get pregnant, I haven't wanted to shame myself or be like, 'Is it because I did this ten years ago?' I don't want to punish myself."
"I think that's what a lot of people are missing in this whole discussion," Maloney-Schwartz responded when Casey asked the reality star if she would've been a "present parent" at the time she had gotten pregnant. "When it comes to abortion, it's not always about a financial position, it's also about mental health as well. People are not mentally capable and mentally stable enough to have children."
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This isn't the first time that Maloney-Schwartz has openly discussed her fertility journey. The former SUR server said that she had spoken with Lisa Vanderpump about trying to conceive with her husband of over two years after a handful of the show's stars, including Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, and former cast members Stassi Schroeder and Brittany Cartwright, got pregnant during quarantine last year.
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However, during an episode of her You're Gonna Love Me with Katie Maloney podcast, Maloney-Schwartz called the conversation with Vanderpump, 61, "invalidating" after the restaurateur asked her if she and Schwartz, 39, were "trying hard enough."
"When I sit down and I'm talking to Lisa and she's like, 'Well, why are you guys going to see a fertility doctor? Did you even try?' That question, I get where it was coming from. It was coming from a good place," she explained. "But it can feel very invalidating and invasive because it's like, yes I tried. Of course we tried."
During an episode of Vanderpump Rules that aired in October, the VPR star revealed for the first time that she had an abortion early on in her relationship with the TomTom bar owner. "Tom and I'd been together for a year, and it was not pretty. Like, we fought all the time," she said in a confessional. "I wanted it to work out, but I was just like if anything, he's going to leave and I'm going to be a single mom."
"Everyone, every woman, every person should be able to decide what's best for them," she added.