Adrienne Bailon Is Opening Up About Her Current Fertility Troubles

Everyone has a different experience when it comes to trying to get pregnant. But because fertility challenges are so rarely talked about, women experiencing trouble conceiving may feel alone. Recently, Adrienne Bailon opened up about struggling to get pregnant. Her openness helps fight the stigma that fertility issues need to be a secret, and her comments may provide comfort for women in similar situations.

Bailon, 34, married gospel singer Israel Houghton, 47, in 2016, according to Us Weekly. Bailon, who also goes by Adrienne Houghton, is best known for being a member of both The Cheetah Girls and 3LW, and she is currently a host on The Real. During Tuesday's episode of the talk show, her co-host Loni Love asked Bailon how her experience trying to start a family has been, People reported. “It isn’t what I thought it would be," Bailon admitted, adding that she wishes fans would be more sensitive to that, instead of speculating that she is pregnant due to her "chubby face."

"I think that as an audience we should be sensitive to the fact that everybody doesn’t get pregnant right away. And I think for myself I thought it would happen so easily for me and it just hasn’t happened that way," Bailon continued, as seen in a YouTube clip from the episode. "And I have had to come to peace with that, that it’ll happen when it’s God’s timing and I believe in that and I have faith in all of that. But it can be really discouraging and it can be really frustrating.”

Bailon has expressed her desire to become a mom on multiple occasions in the past. In December 2017, Bailon shared her hopes for 2018 on The Real, MadeMoire reported. “My wish for next year would be to start a family,” she said in a YouTube clip from the show. “That would be my biggest dream come true, I’ve always said I want to be a mom. So ... prayers up and we will see what happens.”

Houghton has four children, two boys and two girls, from his previous marriage to Meleasa Houghton. Bailon seems to have a good relationship with her stepchildren — and that's thanks to her and her husband's good cop, bad cop roles in the house. Houghton appeared on an episode of The Real in October 2016, where Bailon's co-hosts lovingly accosted the couple about their parenting styles, TooFab reported. When Tamera Mowry asked Houghton if she was going to discipline the children, Bailon emphatically replied: "No, I'm not doing that. We are going to be good cop, bad cop and I am the good one, okay!"

In a March 2018 interview, Hola! asked Bailon about her plans to start a family. She told the outlet:

I think timing is everything. I think for myself it wasn't an immediate rush, like "Oh we're starting today." For me, it was more so starting to plan. I think ideally getting pregnant sometime this summer would be ideal because then I would give birth during hiatus and then actually get to spend time at home with the newborn.

It's clear that Bailon is passionate about getting pregnant, but in the meantime, hopefully her public vulnerability provides comfort to others who are also facing challenges conceiving.