Perrie Edwards, the celebrated singer from the British pop group Little Mix, has opened up for the first time about a deeply personal and painful chapter in her life—her experience with multiple miscarriages, including a devastating late-term loss at 24 weeks. Speaking candidly on the “We Need to Talk” podcast with host Paul C. Brunson, Edwards, 32, recounted the heartbreak and trauma that followed her pregnancy losses, shedding light on a topic often shrouded in silence.
Edwards, who shares a three-year-old son named Axel with her fiancé, footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, described the birth of Axel in August 2021 as “one of the happiest times” of her life. “I just love carrying babies,” she reflected, calling her pregnancy with Axel “perfect” and “blissful.” She added, “When you birth something that’s just half of you and half of them, it’s like, this magical being, isn’t it? It’s the best feeling in the world.” According to E! Online, Axel is her “rainbow baby”—a term used for a child born after a miscarriage or pregnancy loss.
But joy was soon shadowed by grief. Edwards revealed that she suffered her first miscarriage before Axel’s birth. The experience, though deeply sad, was not as traumatizing for her because it happened so early. “It was so early, I remember finding out I was pregnant, obviously I started bleeding not long after,” she shared. “I went to the hospital, underwent a scan and was told, ‘There is no baby.’” She added, “I was like, ‘oh, I’ve made this up. Maybe I got a false positive or something.’” The confusion at the doctor’s office lingered, as she recalled asking, “Can you just explain to me? So, there was no baby?” The gynecologist gently confirmed, “No, no, no, my darling. You’ve had a miscarriage.”
After Axel’s arrival, Edwards and Oxlade-Chamberlain were overjoyed to discover they were expecting again. The news came during rehearsals for Little Mix’s farewell tour in early 2022, less than a year after Axel’s birth. “I found out when I was rehearsing for the Little Mix tour, the last Little Mix tour, I was at rehearsals and I thought, ‘oh, I don’t feel good,’” Edwards recounted. “Every symptom under the sun. I was like, ‘I think I’m pregnant.’” A test confirmed her suspicion, and the couple kept the pregnancy private, sharing the news only with close friends and family.
However, Edwards soon began experiencing alarming symptoms. “Every night before a show, I kept bleeding—heavily bleeding,” she recalled of the April to May 2022 tour. “I remember sitting [and] thinking, ‘This is it, I’ve lost the baby. It’s happening.’” Despite her fears, a scan the next day showed the baby was still there, with a blood clot around the sac. She described the moment as a “miracle.” Still, the bleeding continued, and Edwards felt compelled to keep performing. “I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t cancel the show. I have to go out. I have to put a brave face on. I have to keep my s--- together. Hopefully it’s just the blood clot.’”
As the pregnancy progressed, Edwards and her fiancé hoped for the best. At her 12-week scan, everything seemed fine. But the uncertainty lingered. “I want to get past the 12 weeks. I want to get past this. And when I get past every scan and that pregnancy was complete bliss, it was perfect,” she said, reflecting on her earlier pregnancy with Axel. This time, however, things took a tragic turn.
After returning from a vacation in Portugal, Edwards attended a routine doctor’s appointment for her 20-week scan, which turned out to be at 22 weeks. She immediately sensed something was wrong. “I just looked at Alex and I thought, ‘Something’s not right,’” she said. The doctor’s anxious demeanor during the ultrasound confirmed her fears. “And then I remember sitting down, and I remember [the doctor] just saying these things,” Edwards explained, describing the moment as an “out of body experience.” She added, “I don’t remember what he said. I’ve never experienced an out-of-body experience where everything goes in slow motion.”
The news was devastating. Edwards and Oxlade-Chamberlain had lost their baby at 24 weeks. “That was just the worst day of my life,” she said. “Like horrendous … I remember sobbing.” The pain was all-encompassing, leaving her in shock as they left the appointment. “He [Alex] was injured at the time and he couldn’t really drive. He was struggling to drive but I couldn’t see straight. I was just distraught.”
The loss was made even harder by the preparations the couple had made for their growing family. “I think when you’re fully carrying and you’re 24 weeks and you’ve planned out like their room and all these things, it’s really hard,” Edwards shared. The news was known only to a small circle of close friends and family. When friends would reach out to ask about the baby, she would tearfully respond, “There isn’t one.”
Edwards also spoke about the emotional toll the miscarriages took on both her and Oxlade-Chamberlain. She praised her fiancé’s empathy, recalling, “Through that whole situation, he was like, ‘It’s not about me. It’s about you.’ And I’m like, ‘No, but it’s about us. You have feelings in this too, it’s your baby too.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, but I’m not going through it the way you are. I don’t have to do all these things. I just hate not being able to help.’ And I’m like, ‘But you are helping, because you’re there and you’re here, and we’re navigating it together.’”
As Edwards bravely shared her story, she joined a growing number of public figures breaking the silence around miscarriage and pregnancy loss. She emphasized the vulnerability and privacy surrounding pregnancy, especially for women in the public eye. “It’s a very vulnerable thing for women,” she said. “It’s a very private thing for women. You don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors for women and pregnancy is scary. It’s worrying. There’s so many things that come with being pregnant and the stresses and the scans and the complications.”
By speaking out, Edwards hopes to offer comfort and solidarity to others who have suffered similar losses. Her willingness to discuss her pain so openly is a reminder that, behind the spotlight and the music, stars are not immune to heartbreak. Her words echo the experiences of countless women and families, giving voice to grief and resilience in equal measure.
