"Katie Piper Reveals: I Confessed My Infertility to Richie on Our First Date—Turns Out, I Wasn't Just Sick in Tanzania, I Was Pregnant!"

KATIE Piper has revealed she thought she was infertile before having her two daughters – and told partner Richard Sutton on their first date.

The star, 42, who suffered a horrific acid attack in 2008, said medication left her unable to have , and when she did conceive it was a shock.

Katie Piper has revealed how she told partner Richie Sutton that she was ‘infertile’ on a first dateCredit: Instagram Following a trip to Tanzania, she was convinced she had dysentery, but doctors told her she was actually pregnantCredit: Getty Katie appeared on Fabulous’ No Parental Guidance podcast this week and said she hadn’t thought she was able to have kidsCredit: No Parental Guidance

Speaking on Fabulous’ No Parental Guidance podcast , Katie said pregnancy was so far from her mind, that when she experienced morning sickness on a trip to Tanzania, she thought she had dysentery.

The mum-of-two explained to hosts and : “I had a transplant, I had donor tissue from a deceived owner for my cornea, and one of the things you have to do is take rejection drugs.

“Like cyclosporine, it’s a really strong rejection drug, loads of side effects, and one of the side effects is infertility.

“I had to take it for a couple of years. When you have been in extreme trauma or you’ve been in coma, your menstrual cycle sometimes you lose it. I had problems with nutrition and stuff.”

Katie added that at the time in her 20s she didn’t worry about , and thought it was “more important” to have her transplant.

When she met carpenter and builder , she decided to be honest early on about not being able to have kids.

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She continued: “So I just never had periods for a long time, so when I met Richie, we were 27, and we were at Vue cinema together and I went ‘by the way, before we go in to see , I’m infertile.’

“I said ‘I don’t think I can have children as I don’t have periods or anything’ and he went ‘oh right babe yeah.’

“And like a typical bloke he was, he was like ‘nah not bothered’, and I just think he was thinking in that moment of like he doesn’t want one now while he’s going to see Borat.”

Katie, who tied the knot with Richie in 2015, said they “left it like that” but later moved in together – and it wasn’t until a trip to Tanzania that life took an unexpected turn for her.

Katie is now mum to Belle, 12, and Penelope, eightCredit: instagram/katiepiper_ Katie said she hadn’t been trying for a baby when she fell pregnant for the first timeCredit: Instagram / katiepiper_

The TV star shared: “I was volunteering with a burn unit that go out to Kilimanjaro, where you get people from rural villages with burn injuries.

“I was doing talks with people around taboo and stigma around what burns and disfigurement mean.

“Whilst I was out there I was drinking Tanzanian beer in the evenings, eating with locals and we were staying in a hostel kind of accommodation, bucket shower, everything.”

Katie shared how she suddenly became ill and had “never felt so unwell.”

She added: “When I came home, I just never got rid of that illness and I was like, I need to go to the because I think I’ve got dysentery [an inflammatory disease of the intestines that causes severe diarrhea] from Tanzania.

“And they were like, no, you’re really far gone pregnant.

“Like past the sixth week pee on the sticks thing, and I was like ok ‘so kind of like haven’t been trying for a baby and told Richie I couldn’t have children.’”

The mum-of-two explained to hosts Louise Boyce and Hannah East that she had been on medication after having a cornea transplant which had side effects such as infertilityCredit: No Parental Guidance Katie said Richie ‘wasn’t bothered’ when she first time him she couldn’t have kidsCredit: Instagram

gave birth to daughter Belle, who is now 12, in 2014, but says it took her four years to fall pregnant with her second, Penelope, who is eight and arrived in 2017.

Katie was 24 and an aspiring presenter starting out her career with promotional gigs and on digital TV, when she was .

The Loose Women presenter and activist was left with severe facial injuries.

Katie was lucky to have survived, but there was an agonising road to recovery ahead to rebuild her face and her life – her injuries have required more than 400 operations since that day.

However, she had since made a number of personal documentaries with Channel 4, wrote an autobiography, a series of self-development , as well as newspaper and magazine columns, plus took on public speaking engagements and set up the , which provides support for burns survivors.

In 2018, she took part in , which brought her to a wider audience, and started starring on in 2021.

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