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Charlotte Dawson: I gave up my baby for my husband

Charlotte Dawson: I gave up my baby for my husband

Charlotte Dawson. Photography by Peter Brew-Bevan. Styling by Nell Simpson.

Charlotte Dawson has revealed she aborted her child with swimmer Scott Miller because he didn’t want any distractions in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics.

The TV presenter opened up about the termination of her pregnancy in her new book, Air Kiss And Tell, which is exclusively extracted in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

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Charlotte says she was thrilled when she realised she was pregnant, but her husband Scott was not so happy.

“I could sense some hesitation in Scott,” she says. “My due date would clash with the 2000 Olympic Games and this was very concerning.

“Everything Scott had done was leading up to this moment and nothing could stand in his way, so it was decided that we would terminate the child and try again later. Who needed a developing foetus when a gold medal was on offer, eh?”

On the day of the termination, Charlotte says she was in “total turmoil”. Her husband accompanied her to the clinic, but “couldn’t cope with the atmosphere” so left her alone.

After the procedure, Charlotte went home and tried to behave as though nothing had happened, but says something had changed forever.

“I felt a shift,” she says. “Maybe it was hormonal, but I felt the early tinges of what I can now identify as my first experience with depression.”

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The extract also recounts how Charlotte felt when she found out her husband had starred in an alleged sex tape, her battle with mental illness and internet trolls.

Read more of this story in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

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