Katie Maloney opened up about her fertility journey during a recent podcast appearance.
As she and her husband Tom Schwartz continue to candidly discuss the challenges they’ve faced as they attempt to start a family, Katie looked back on her decision to share the news of her past abortion on Vanderpump Rules and revealed how she’s coping with her decisions and future.
“I think it was the right time to share it, because it’s something that I still am trying to unpack and understand,” Katie revealed on the November 26 episode of Reality Life With Kate Casey. “It’s very hard to understand.”
According to Katie, she’s still trying to “understand and navigate” through the trauma she’s experienced, including how it’s impacted her personality and her emotions, including her triggers.
“It’s just been challenging,” she admitted.
Although speaking of her abortion on Pump Rules wasn’t the easiest thing for Katie, she felt it was important to connect on a “deeper level” with viewers.
“It can feel less isolating,” she noted.
Katie also said she connected with viewers on her fertility journey.
“I did not know the kind of response I was gonna get. I was a little nervous, a little bit like, ‘Should I have done this? I don’t know.’ But I’m really glad I listened to my heart on this one,” she shared. “When it came to Tom and I… wanting to open up about our fertility, like we have to start at the beginning. And the beginning, it’s not a happy story. But it was, you know, what we went through. And we have to be honest about it.”
“We all make mistakes, but we all do the best we can with what we’re getting. And Tom and I, 10 years ago… when this came up, we were not in that position to become parents,” she continued.
While Katie was sure that she wanted to have kids eventually, her pregnancy occurred just months after she suffered a traumatic fall through a skylight.
“I was, in my head still f-cked up emotionally… I was trying to put my life back together,” she explained of her mentality at that time.
She was also new in her relationship with Tom, which she described as “very rocky.”
“I just think that, you know, I was not ready at that point to become a mother, especially in a new relationship. So I was very fortunate that, you know, I live in a place and that was in a position that I was able to go somewhere to, you know, have an abortion,” she said.
Looking back, Katie said she hasn’t felt “regret” or “a lot of shame.”
“Even now, when you know, we’ve tried to get pregnant, I haven’t wanted to, you know, shame myself or be like, ‘Is it because I did this 10 years ago?'” she stated. “You can’t do that you can’t be a victim of your circumstance.”
Also during her chat with Kate, Katie said that there are more reasons than financial that people should have access to abortions.
“We’re talking about women’s rights too,” she explained. “It’s not always about a financial position. It’s also about mental health… people are not mentally capable and mentally stable enough to have children.”
Vanderpump Rules season nine airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.