Trigger warning: Pregnancy loss
Actress Liana Cornell has shared the devastating news that she lost her unborn child six months into her pregnancy.
The heartbreaking announcement from the daughter of the late Australian comedy legacy John “Strop” Cornell and actress Delvene Delaney, comes after she was previously told she would never be able to carry a child.
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Cornell, 34, shared her story on social media after doctors detected serious “deformities” and forced her to terminate the pregnancy.
Across two Instagram posts on Sunday, the Aussie star wrote that 18 months on “it still hurts”.
“Over a year-and-a-half ago I was six months pregnant. Single and pregnant — two things I never really imagined myself to be,” she wrote.
“My dad died, my fiance and I broke up a week before our wedding, I was diagnosed with a degenerative illness (which I am now curing).
“A close friend of mine committed suicide, my hometown had the worst floods on record, family members almost died from random occurrences.
“I couldn’t travel home due to everything happening in the world at the time, Britannia has not been renewed,” she said of the British TV series in which she appeared from 2018 to 2021.
“It was like a movie, these tests, like someone was writing it just to see how far they could push me.”
Looking back at the previous two years, Cornell wrote that after a year of celibacy, she had met someone.
“I fell pregnant the first time we made love after being told a month before that I couldn’t have children. What a trip huh?”
She named her unborn child Nymphaea, calling the baby “my impossible gift”.
Initially, the father was happy with the pregnancy news but then “suddenly he left”.
Cornell was advised to return to her home in Australia, where her mother and family were based.
Her father John Cornell, an Australian actor, director, producer and writer, died aged 80 in 2021 due to complications related to Parkinson’s disease.
“I loved that little baby so much. Yet she only moved once. One time in all that six months, I should have known,” Liana Cornell reflected.
“It wasn’t until I was back on home soil and went for an ultrasound that my world shattered once more. The baby had deformities.”
Doctors discovered that the baby’s head was too large, heart too small and stomach engorged.
“I didn’t tell anyone else … I was tired of pity,” she said, adding that she processed the news for two weeks.
“I didn’t want to let her go and yet, I had to.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was my first true test as a mother.”
After two days in the hospital, she was told it would be two years before she could fall pregnant again.
“I wasn’t built to birth,” she said, adding that doctors advised her to prepare her body in the meantime for a future pregnancy.
Along with her mother and niece, the family laid the unborn child to rest, choosing to bury the baby near her late father.
“I like to picture them both together, getting to know one another. My dad guarding over her sweetness and light.”
Cornell said it had taken a lot of healing to be able to share her story so publicly.
“Three years of hard knocks really know how to blow the breath out of you.”
She ended the lengthy posts by adding that she was “healed” and “ready”.
‘While I didn’t get to birth Nymphaea, I did get to birth myself. I am new, Fresh. Powerful in my truth.”
If you or someone you know has suffered pregnancy or infant loss, you can contact Pink Elephants Support Network or Red Nose Australia.
If you need help in a crisis, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
For further information about depression contact beyondblue on 1300 224 636 or talk to your GP, local health professional or someone you trust.