Jesy Nelson says she could not ‘enjoy’ her pregnancy due to health complications

By Lauren Del Fabbro, PA Entertainment Reporter

Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson has said she could not “enjoy” her pregnancy due to a string of health complications.

The 34-year-old singer gave birth birth to twins Ocean Jade and Story Monroe in May, after documenting pregnancy complications on her social media including twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS).

According to the NHS, TTTS affects 10% to 15% of identical twins who share a placenta and “can have serious consequences”.

 

Speaking on ITV’s This Morning, Nelson said: “I couldn’t believe the percentages and what could potentially happen to them.

“I almost felt like, from that point, I couldn’t really enjoy my pregnancy because I was just constantly worried that something was going to happen.

“I actually had a threatened miscarriage quite early on as well and from then I was like, I don’t even want to announce it (the pregnancy).

“When I think back to it now it makes me feel so sad because its like, when you’re pregnant, that should be like the happiest time of your life.”

TTTS is caused by abnormal connecting blood vessels in the placenta which leads to an imbalanced blood flow from one twin to the other, leaving one with a greater blood volume than the other.

 

One treatment involves using a laser to burn away the blood vessels in the placenta that are causing the unequal flow.

Nelson said she was scanned weekly and monitored closely, but within a matter of days her symptoms had changed drastically and she had to undergo the emergency procedure.

She said: “There were symptoms to look out for, it was like, if your belly gets really tight, like a drum, if you’re struggling with your breathing.

“And two days after my scan, we’d gone to the park, and I couldn’t even walk because I was just so out of breath. But it’s so hard when you’re pregnant with twins as well, because what is normal and what’s not?

“I was just like, well, I’ve got twins, of course I’m going to be out of breath and of course my belly is going to be really tough, I am growing two humans.

“And then it was thanks to Zion, actually, that I said to him, ‘Can you feel my belly? Because I’ve actually got so used to feeling like this, I don’t know what’s normal any more’.”

The twins’ father, musician Zion Foster, said: “It felt like overnight we literally went from pre-stage to like, you have to have the procedure now. And that procedure is not even guaranteed to work. And I think that was another thing that was terrifying.”

After spending more than 10 weeks in hospital after the procedure, Nelson gave birth to the twins 31 weeks and five days early on May 15.

The singer is best known as a former member of pop group Little Mix, rising to fame after winning The X Factor in 2011.

The group, which included Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall, were behind chart-topping singles including Cannonball, Shout Out To My Ex and Wings.

Nelson left the band in December 2020 and has since released two songs as a solo artist – Boyz, which featured US rapper Nicki Minaj, in 2021 and the Bad Thing in 2023.

She will feature in a new Prime Video docuseries, Jesy Nelson: Life After Little Mix, which will follow her through her pregnancy and take a closer look at her decision to leave the girl group.