Tara Lipinski is set to become a mom! The Olympic ice skater is anticipating her first child through surrogacy after grappling with fertility challenges for years.
Lipinski, 41, joyfully revealed the news on Tuesday, October 3. She delved into the journey further with her husband and cohost, Todd Kapostasy, on the Thursday, October 5, episode of their “Unexpecting” podcast.
“Episode 12 we made some pretty big moves. After our immune testing results we decided to take one of our own biological, genetic embryos 🧬 and give it to a surrogate,” Lipinski wrote via Instagram on Tuesday. “We matched with a heaven sent surrogate Mikayla and we received a positive pregnancy test.”
The day after, the athlete, who tied the knot with Kapostasy in 2017, provided her Instagram followers with a deeper look into her connection with the couple’s surrogate. She shared heartwarming text message exchanges discussing the process.
“A little on how it felt meeting Mikayla and starting the process of surrogacy. There was an immediate connection and bond between us, one I just didn’t expect to feel so strongly,” Lipinski captioned the screenshots, which she shared on Wednesday, October 4. “Two peas in a pod type of feeling … teammates on the deepest level.”
In the podcast episode on Thursday, Lipinski and Kapostasy reminisced about the pivotal moment when their doctor conveyed the joyful news of the baby’s heartbeat through a FaceTime call.
“It was just so surreal. It couldn’t have been happening to us like we don’t get this news, this doesn’t happen to us. I almost didn’t believe it,” Lipinski shared. “I was just sobbing. But like, that ugly sobbing of just, like, years of all of this trauma … pouring out of my eyes.”
Kapostasy, for his part, remembered that while his wife was “bawling [her] eyes out,” he was “doing laps around our kitchen island” out of happiness. “It was like a touchdown celebration, going nuts,” he said.
It was truly a moment of joy for Lipinski and Kapostasy, who initiated their “Unexpecting” podcast with the aim of supporting other couples grappling with infertility.
Lipinski openly shared the poignant details of her and Kapostasy’s fertility challenges in the podcast trailer, released last month.
“Over the last five years, I have been under anesthesia 24 times. I’ve had four miscarriages, six failed IVF transfers, eight retrievals and a diagnosis of endometriosis that led to two major surgeries,” the gold medalist said in a voiceover, as emotional clips of home videos throughout the process flashed across the screen.
“I would’ve never guessed the amount of failures we would’ve had, the amount of loss, all the obstacles. It almost felt like a cruel joke,” she recalled. “I really hope that through telling our story, we make other couples feel less alone if they’re on a similar journey.”