Michelle Obama and Serena Williams candidly discuss their personal journeys with miscarriage and IVF, breaking the silence around these taboo topics.
Sharing stories helps women feel less alone in their fertility challenges, as the pressure and biological clock add emotional weight to the experience.
Proactive steps like egg freezing can alleviate the pressure, allowing women to focus on their careers before making family decisions.
The conversation around Black motherhood is shifting, and two of the world’s most influential women are speaking on topics that can be considered taboo. On a recent episode of her podcast, IMO with Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson, our forever First Lady sat down with tennis legend and businesswoman Serena Williams for a transparent conversation about fertility struggles, the realities of IVF, and the heavy emotional toll of trying to conceive.
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For both women, motherhood was a path they always knew they wanted to walk, but the road to getting there presented some swerves and curves.
The main topic of discussion centered around the immense emotional burden women face when their bodies do not respond to conception the way they expect. Reflecting on her own journey before welcoming daughters Malia in 1998 and Sasha in 2001, Michelle Obama got candid about the grief that came before the welcoming of her two daughters.
“I got pregnant once and miscarried, which was devastating,” Michelle shared during the episode. “And then we tried and tried, and we had to do IVF for both girls.”
Michelle Obama’s miscarriage was first revealed in her 2018 memoir, Becoming, noting how a positive pregnancy test left her and Barack jumping with excitement, only for her to miscarry within the next few weeks. On the podcast, she admitted that the lack of public discussion around the topic made the experience feel deeply isolating at the time.
“I don’t know about all of you, but I know that when I struggled to conceive, I took that on, like a personal failure,” Michelle admitted.
Williams immediately validated the sentiment, agreeing that society simply does not talk about the realities of loss and reproductive hurdles enough.
“I don’t think that we have that conversation enough about how many times that either you conceive and you have a miscarriage, or whether you conceive, and it doesn’t work,” the tennis player noted.
Michelle Obama’s Miscarriage Made Her Feel Isolated
Michelle also pointed out a harsh truth that many women are left to figure out on their own.
“What was never told was that the biological clock was real.” For her, that pressure was both a physical and emotional weight, as the window for a natural pregnancy began to narrow while she was trying to build her career and life.
This prompted Serena to share the proactive steps she took to control her own narrative. While she was still dominant on the professional tennis court, Williams made the decision to freeze her eggs in her late twenties. Today, she shares two daughters, Olympia and Adira, with her husband Alexis Ohanian.
Serena explained that taking control of her fertility at a young age changed everything for her mentally. Once she froze her eggs, she said, “All this pressure came off my shoulders.”
The decision gave her the freedom to continue competing at the highest level of her sport without feeling forced into making major family decisions before she was truly ready. Now, she passes that wisdom along to the women in her circle.
“I tell all my friends of age, freeze your eggs,” she told Michelle.
Both Michelle and Serena emphasized that sharing stories is the best weapon against the isolation of infertility. As the episode concluded, the takeaway was clear: the more women speak up about IVF, egg freezing, and miscarriage, the less alone the next generation of mothers will feel.
