Katie Maloney is sharing more insight into her fertility journey.
The Vanderpump Rules star, who has been candid over the years about trying to conceive with husband Tom Schwartz, opened up about getting an abortion nearly a decade ago on a recent episode of the Bravo TV series. In a new interview, Katie explained how her past decision and traumatic accident have affected her health and road to motherhood.
"It's something that I still am trying to unpack and understand," she said on Nov. 26 while speaking on the podcast, Reality Life With Kate Casey. "The brain is very complicated...it's very hard to understand how it works, and how trauma to the brain impacts...mood, personality, emotions. So it's something that I'm just still trying to understand and navigate."
She continued, "It's just been challenging...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 bit more on what I've like been through."
Katie explained that while she was relieved to share her story, she wasn't sure how her fans would react.
As she put it, "I was a little nervous, a little bit like, should I have done this? But I'm really glad I listened to my heart on this one."
The reality TV personality said that when she and Tom started discussing "our fertility," they had to be open about their journey from the very beginning.
"And the beginning," she shared, "it's not a happy story. But it was what we went through. And we have to be honest about it. I don't try to paint a perfect picture of my life, of my relationship. Obviously. I just want to paint it as honest as possible and hope that people appreciate that."
She added, "We all make mistakes, but we all do the best we can with what we're getting."
Katie explained that when they were faced with making the decision to get an abortion 10 years ago, they "choose what's best for ourselves."
"Tom and I, 10 years ago, when this came up, we were not in that position to become parents," she revealed. She added that her 2009 accident, in which she fell 25 feet through a skylight that caused her a broken jaw, a broken collar bone and a small brain injury, made her feel "f--ked up emotionally."
She said, "I was not ready, at that point, to become a mother, especially in a new relationship."
The Bravolebrity spoke about her skylight accident several years ago and this past October, she shared her abortion story for the first time on Vanderpump Rules, telling the cameras, "Tom and I'd been together for a year, and it was not pretty. Like, we fought all the time. 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."
She added, "Everyone, every woman, every person should be able to decide what's best for them."
On the podcast, Katie reiterated that same message.
"I think that's what a lot of people are missing in this whole discussion that we're talking about women's rights to their body," she said. "Their choice when it comes to abortion is that it's not always about a financial position...it's also about mental health as well. And people are not mentally capable and mentally stable enough to have children."
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