Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss wears a lot of different hats. Undoubtedly her most important is that of mom. The mother of three has experienced the joy of achieving motherhood in four different ways, and knows a lot about the hurdles of becoming a mother. She recently sat down with People Magazine’s “Me Becoming Mom” podcast to discuss these obstacles. Kandi’s firstborn is daughter Riley Burruss. Riley was conceived naturally. Her second, Ace Wells Tucker, was conceived through IVF. Her third child, Blaze, was conceived through surrogacy, and her fourth was through marriage as a stepmother to Todd’s daughter.
“Me Becoming Mom” is a podcast hosted by PEOPLE editor Zoë Ruderman and focuses on celebrities and the various different ways in which they try to have children and the other struggles that come with them. Kandi’s experience with both IVF and surrogacy made her an ideal candidate for the podcast. At the top of the episode, Kandi and Zoe got right into the process that eventually brought Ace into the world. Zoë has also had experience with IVF and was able to ask some really great questions and offer insight during their conversation.
Kandi explains that when she realized she would need some help getting pregnant the second time around, she “didn’t get too upset because it’s just a part of life.” She explains that she is a “solutions person” and just wanted to do whatever was necessary so that she could grow her family. “Basically, they gave me the option to remove the scarred tissue, and we can try again,” she told Ruderman. “Or we could remove the scarred tissue and go through the IVF process.” She explains that they gave her hormones to produce more eggs, then they do an “egg retrieval.”
In order to produce more eggs, she had to take multiple hormone shots a day, with a “trigger shot” administered after about two weeks or so that would help in egg development. Kandi explained how she tried to do the shot process with her husband Todd Tucker, but ended up doing the bulk of them alone after he was not available to help her with one. Ruderman joked that she went through the same with her husband but felt “empowered” by being able to administer the shots herself.
Kandi claims that while the process is not perfect and there are no guarantees, there was never a doubt in her mind that it was going to work for her. “In my heart, I just knew.” The hardest part for her was following the egg retrieval and seeing the number of healthy eggs drop “almost daily.” While she was able to produce 12 healthy eggs, eventually, she was only left with 4, two boys and two girls. “When the number kept going down every other day, I was getting nervous. I was really really panicking.”She also reveals that she was supposed to have twin boys but lost one of the embryos. “We put the two boys in first, but only one took. We kind of really wanted twins. I guess it works out how it should happen, I guess.” Although disappointed, Kandi and Todd found joy in the opportunity to have their first son, Ace. The reality star later revealed in the podcast that her daughter Blaze came from the same batch of eggs.
