A prospective Big Brother contestant, who said she would abort her 19-week-old baby in order to appear on the show, has changed her mind after she felt the child kick for the first time.
Josie Cunningham, who already has two young sons, came under fire for saying an abortion would “further” her career and that she didn’t want to ruin her chances of becoming famous.
But she now says she is “sorry” and told the Sunday Mirror about her decision not to go through with the abortion on the way to the clinic – 24 hours after she felt her baby kick.
Feeling
“I’d forgotten what the feeling was like. It was magical. It was like the baby was telling me not to go through with it.
“I was in the taxi driving to the clinic and felt physically sick. I was shaking. When the driver told me we were a minute away I burst into tears. I wanted to throw myself out of the moving car to get away. I had my hands on my bump and I had the strongest feeling I couldn’t let anyone take my baby away.”
She said she “never imagined how hard it would be” to go through with an abortion after feeling her child kick.
Happy
“As soon as I realised I was going to keep the baby, I felt happy – like a weight lifted”, she added.
Hundreds took to Twitter last week to criticise Cunningham for considering an abortion in order to be famous, and some told her to look at pictures of babies in the womb who were 18 or 19 weeks old.
It was doing this, she said, which also helped to change her mind.
Horrified
“What I saw horrified me. They looked like fully formed babies”, she commented.
“I lay in bed and sobbed”, she continued.
Channel 5’s Big Brother confirmed that Cunningham will not be on the show this summer, but she says she still hopes to go on the show in the future “for me and all three of my children”.
Cunningham is expected to give birth in October.