After years of heartbreak, hope and extraordinary perseverance, Erin Holland and Ben Cutting have finally welcomed the little person they have been waiting so long to meet.
The Channel 7 presenter and former Miss World Australia, 37, and her cricketer husband, 39, have announced the arrival of their first child, a baby girl born safely on August 18.
Sharing a series of intimate black-and-white photographs of their new family of three, Holland summed up the emotional moment in just a few words.
“All of the sudden, it all makes sense. It was always you,” she wrote.
It is a particularly joyous ending to what has been an incredibly difficult road to parenthood for the couple.
Holland and Cutting married in February 2021 and soon discovered IVF was their “only real option” to have a child.
What followed was a five-year fertility journey involving 20 rounds of IVF, five egg collections, seven embryo transfers, four miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy.
Holland has spoken candidly about the emotional and physical toll of the process, as well as the staggering financial cost.
Earlier this year, she revealed the couple had spent around $150,000 trying to become parents – an amount she likened to a house deposit.
“It’s worth every penny if it works out, but so often it doesn’t,” she said.
The repeated losses also changed the way Holland experienced pregnancy itself.
Speaking on the Something To Talk About podcast in May, she explained that infertility and pregnancy loss could rob prospective parents of the carefree excitement that might otherwise accompany a positive pregnancy test.
The first time brought elation, she said, while subsequent positives were increasingly accompanied by caution and fear.
Holland had previously been equally open about some of the darkest moments of the couple’s IVF journey.
After an early round of treatment produced nothing viable, she admitted struggling with feelings that perhaps she was “not meant to be a mother”. In another update last year, she described the uncertainty surrounding infertility as “soul-destroying”.
So when Holland finally announced earlier this year that she was pregnant, the happiness understandably came with some nerves.
As the weeks passed, however, she gradually became more comfortable sharing milestones from her pregnancy, including photographs of her growing baby bump.
And now, at last, those bump photos have been replaced by something infinitely more special.
The couple’s announcement was quickly flooded with messages of congratulations, including plenty from Holland’s Channel 7 colleagues.
Sunrise reporter Katie Brown described it as “beautiful news”, while The Morning Show co-host Kylie Gillies echoed the sentiment.
Dr Chris Brown perhaps summed up the mood best: “How special. Congrats you guys. The best news.”
After everything it took to get here, few would argue with that.
Images: Instagram
