Bachelor alum Michelle Money revealed recently that she got pregnant at 15 and placed her son for adoption. The reality star looked back at her emotional experience in a new promotional video for the skincare brand PMD.
“I’ve been known for being very real and upfront, but there’s a big part of what makes me me that I’ve never shared before. When I was 15 years old I got pregnant,” Money, 35, says in the clip, which was released on July 22.
“You go through all of the options in your head of how to deal with this,” she continues. “The decision to place this baby for adoption was not an easy one, but it was the right one. The day came, my water broke. It was bittersweet. It was just very bittersweet. Just the process of labor and the process of delivering and feeling love that I’ve never felt before. It rocked me.”
In the video, the hairstylist shares footage of herself that was taken after she delivered the baby boy. The clip shows her holding the newborn in her arms while sitting on a hospital bed.
“When the moment came for me to say goodbye and hand him over to the social worker … it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Money adds.
The days and even years that followed were just as difficult. “I was really consumed with trying to prove myself to everyone and caring a lot about what people thought of me. I lost myself in that for a long time really trying to overcompensate from this mistake that I made,” she says. “It’s taken a lot for me to get here. It doesn’t happen overnight where you get to where you can feel so confident in the decisions you’ve made in life and the trials that you’ve gone through.”
The Utah native hopes that she can be an inspiration for other women who are going through a hardship in their lives. “My wish for every woman is for them to be able to look at themselves in the mirror and love every challenge, every trial, every heartache that they’ve experienced in their life and still feel beautiful,” she says. “That, to me, is true beauty.”
Money is best known for competing for Brad Womack‘s love on season 15 of The Bachelor in 2011. She has also appeared on Bachelor Pad (2011) and Bachelor in Paradise (2014). She’s currently starring on Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars.
Watch Money in the video above.
