(LifeSiteNews) — Former “Cheetah Girls” star and “The Real” co-host Adrienne Bailon-Houghton disclosed recently that after undergoing six years of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments halting the treatments triggered early menopause.
In her quest to become pregnant, she and her gospel singer husband, Israel Houghton, spent over $1 million. In desperation, the couple decided to employ a surrogate.
“I only did eight cycles of IVF, but that doesn’t include the IUs and every other kind of imaginable treatment,” she explained during an appearance on the Angie Martinez IRL podcast, according to Complex.com. “It was a pretty tough six years of trying to have my son.”
The booming fertility industry exploits desperate women
In an 2023 interview with the Today Show, Bailon-Houghton shared how, faced with having “one embryo left” after having experienced failed cycle after failed cycle and miscarriage after miscarriage, she saw surrogacy as the only option left to her.
“I remember talking to my mom about it. She was like: ‘Why would you want someone else to carry your baby?’ That hit me,” she explained to the Today Show. “I was hysterical. I was like: ‘You don’t understand — this is my final option. If I implant this child into my body and I miscarried, that was my last chance.’”
In the end, she admitted that she felt “robbed” of the experience of being pregnant.
“When I pulled my son out of someone else’s vagina and I put that baby on me, I ugly cried,” the celebrity said. “I talked to him: ‘I love you baby. I love you baby boy. I have loved you.’”
At that moment, she snatched the boy from the only mother he had ever known. Her moment of joy was likely her son’s moment of supreme tragedy.
“Six years, eight rounds of IVF, multiple other fertility interventions, $1 million, and IVF induced hot flashes,” wrote children’s rights activist Katy Faust, founder of Them Before Us.
“And she still could not achieve/carry a pregnancy on her own,” Faust noted.
“Big fertility exploits desperate women,” Faust declared.
Six years, eight rounds of IVF, multiple other fertility interventions, $1 million, and IVF induced hot flashes.
And she still could not achieve/carry a pregnancy on her own.
Big fertility exploits desperate women. https://t.co/dwIfq2lea8
— Katy Faust (@Advo_Katy) August 10, 2025
