Veteran journalist Peter Overton broke down in tears while discussing a difficult moment in his 22-year marriage to Jessica Rowe.
In the latest episode of the Australian Women’s Weekly’s Love Stories podcast the couple opened up about their lasting relationship, when they opened up about their difficult path to parenthood.
“We had to go through IVF and that was particularly difficult and I think anyone who goes through it deserves a bravery medal because you do not expect every step of the way for there to be these stops and starts,” Rowe began.
“I had assumed – like I think a lot of women do – that it would just happen easily and naturally, and so there’s a real period of time where you’re thinking ‘what if we can’t be parents’ and we really wanted that.”
Overton revealed that the couple’s IVF journey was happening during a “terrible time” when Rowe was still the host of the Today Show and he had to constantly travel for 60 Minutes.
“Everyone has challenges but it was full on,” he said.
“IVF was really challenging and I think we had four attempts, and I remember on the third attempt we’d driven down to the south coast and we were in Huskisson and we pulled over in the car – I can still remember it next to the park and you could see the water – and we were waiting for the nurse to ring to say ‘it’s on, it’s taken’ or not.
“And we sat there and the phone rang and we had convinced ourselves it was third time lucky and it wasn’t third time lucky,” he recalled.
“And I know with the Today Show pressure and then what a woman goes through – what you were going through – with the rigours of IVF, it is hell on you.
“I remember turning to Jessica and saying, ‘you know I’m really cool if we don’t have children, because I don’t want to see you go through all of this – the pain, the challenge. I can just love you and we’ll be absolutely, wonderfully happy for the rest of our lives.”
Rowe wanted to give it another go, and they finally received good news when Overton was in Milan doing a story for 60 Minutes.
“I was in the Milan Hilton… and I’m lying there in my Qantas jammies, and I had my Nokia phone – iPhone’s weren’t invented – and it rang,” Overton recalled.
“‘All I heard was Jessica say, ‘you’re going to be a father’.
The Nine News star was overwhelmed with emotion as he shared the touching story, saying “It was the best”.
The couple now share daughters Allegra, 19 and Giselle, 16, together.
“It was so special wasn’t it,” a tearful Jessica responded. ‘And that was Allegra.”
“19 years on it still gets you,” her husband added. “It was an amazing time.”
Image: Australian Women’s Weekly/YouTube
