Holding on. Gretchen Rossi and Slade Smiley have not given up on their baby plans.
“We’re focused on having a baby,” Rossi told Us Weekly exclusively at the grand opening of the Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center on Thursday, June 14. “That’s our summer plans.”
The process has not been easy for the couple, though. “It’s hard. It’s a very arduous, hard thing to go through,” the Real Housewives of Orange County alum, 39, explained. “I’m so thankful I have an amazing partner to go through it with. We are pushing through it, and hopefully we will have an announcement that we are pregnant.”
Smiley, 44, applauded his fiancée — the Marriage Boot Camp stars got engaged in 2013 — for her strength throughout the pair’s in vitro fertilization attempts. “I have to give Gretchen huge props, because it is such a hard, difficult process,” he said. “A lot of the burden falls on the woman going through the IVF process, and not only has she embraced that challenge but she’s using that to be an advocate for other women who are struggling with IVF and can’t get pregnant. I’m so impressed how she jumped right in [and] became a voice for every woman. I’m very proud of her.”
Rossi emphasized that they rely on a broad support system to keep them going: “Truthfully it’s a partnership. We have an amazing doctor, and that makes a difference. It’s a very confusing, hard, difficult process. It takes a lot of good people around you.”
In the meantime, the couple hope to relax and get some travel in. They already have trips to Santorini, Greece, and Texas planned for this summer.
The reality star has been open about her IVF journey. She shared an Instagram photo of herself lying in a hospital bed in May with the caption: “Yesterday was surgery for egg retrieval #2…..Thank you @drmarksurrey and @scrcivf for making every step of this arduous process so much easier. The surgery centers staff was incredible as well, and I am grateful for everyone taking such good care of me. Thank you guys for all your sweet messages yesterday…..today I am home resting & Slade is a good nurse.”
Rossi previously got real about the ordeal while speaking with Us in February. “I had done IVF three years ago and I had shared a little bit of my story about that publicly, but it literally took me three years to get back to a place emotionally and physically and mentally to do IVF again,” she said at the time. “It was a very, very difficult process for me. A lot of harder than I had anticipated.”
