Sanya Richards-Ross.

Sanya Richards Ross Tearfully Details ‘Traumatic’ Miscarriage: ‘I Thought I Was Going to Die’

Sanya Richards-Rossshared some raw moments from her heartbreaking pregnancy loss on this week’s episode ofThe Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Explaining that she planned adilation and curettage (D&C)after a weekend in New York, she explained that she ended up having “the most traumatic miscarriage.”

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Aaron Ross and Sanya Richards-Ross attend Kandi’s Peach Social

Richards-Ross and her husband, former NFL starAaron Ross. are parents to sonAaron Jermainea.k.a. “Deuce,” 6, with the reality star explaining to her mom that telling her son was the hardest part.

“And so Ross and I were like, ‘We’re not gonna tell Deuce.’ Like, ‘We’re just gonna try right away, and he doesn’t understand the timeline and all that stuff,’ right? And so the first night I came back and he said the prayer, I just, it broke my heart because I felt like I was being so disingenuous to, like — Deuce is like the love of my life, and I love him so much. I don’t want to lie to him, you know?” she continued.

“He was like, ‘What? How?’ He just started bawling. He said, ‘Are you OK?'” she sobbed.

Richards-Ross opened up to PEOPLEabout the miscarriagelast month, calling the experience “very traumatic.”

“I was in New York and had a really bad miscarriage. I had to go to the hospital. I had to have a blood transfusion. It was very, very, very scary.”

“You already opened your heart to becoming a mom, so it was awful,” she adds. “Even just talking about it… it really was a difficult time.”

The painful loss provided Richards-Ross with a turning point, though. AsRHOAviewers have seen, she’d beenreluctant to have another child, after finally finding stability in the wake of a few years of significant changes in her life.

“I think a lot of women can relate to this too, but when you become a mom, you can sometimes question, ‘What’s my identity now going to be outside of the home?’ " Richards-Ross said. “I had been an athlete, competing across the world while representing Team USA. Then, after retiring from sports and having a son, all these life changes hit Ross and I simultaneously. It was like a tornado hit our relationship for that 14 years prior to having our son was like a honeymoon at the time. And It was really overwhelming.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Aaron and I,we loved being parents,” Richards-Ross added. “But all these years in, we had just gotten into a good rhythm where we finally figured out how we wanted to parent. We had that balance where we were communicating well again, I was finally working again… And so I was skeptical about having another child.”

The miscarriage “put everything in perspective for Richards-Ross,” she told PEOPLE. “I didn’t realize until then how much I really wanted to become a mom again and how much of a blessing it is to be a mom. And I was like, ‘You know what? It’s family first, and all the other things that I love — which is work and all that stuff, it’s second. I know if I do this, if I focus on my family, all those things will come.'”

Richards-Ross was lucky enough to get pregnant again about a month later. “At my age, it’s considered a geriatric pregnancy, so I was nervous that the window has started to close. And after the miscarriage, I wasn’t ready to go through something like that again — that physical, mental, and emotional pain. But my doctor assured me that everything looks good, and sure enough, it worked.”

She’s now four months pregnant and due on December 25, 2023. “It’s going to be the best Christmas gift ever,” she laughs. “But I just couldn’t be happier and more clear about. I know I can do this. I’ve done it before. I have the support. I know what to expect. I’m so ready to meet this little one.”

The Real Housewives of Atlantaairs Sundays (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo.

source: people.com