While filming Neighbours in 2020, Sharon Johal suffered a tragic miscarriage.
The actress, 34, said that she’s freezing her eggs in a preview for Sunday’s Body+Soul magazine, which was published in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday after she and husband Ankur Dogra went ‘into a dark hole’ following the painful loss.
Sharon told Body+Soul that the ruling has provided them with a “security blanket.”
‘We basically plummeted into a black hole after the miscarriage,’ she admitted openly.
‘Both my husband and I feel like we’ve been robbed of the past two years of our lives, both professionally and emotionally, so we want to make sure we’re in the best mental health shape possible before we have a child.’
‘It seems like we have a security blanket wrapped around us,’ Sharon said, expressing her gratitude for regaining control of her fertility.
Sharon has already spoken out about the anguish of having a late miscarriage while working on the set of Neighbours.
Sharon controversially stated in an open editorial for Mamamia in August of last year that the stress of her profession may have contributed to her devastating loss.
‘I was getting up for work at 4.30am every day, finishing late, and new restrictions had been placed in our workplace to disallow leaving the premises for any given reason, even to go home and rest on a six hour break,’ she wrote.
‘Because my job required me to be in front of the camera, I was unable to ‘work from home,’ and I felt I couldn’t take a sick day because we were already dealing with other cast and crew members who were unable to attend due to safety concerns regarding COVID-19, which was causing us to fall further behind schedule.
‘Taking any time off in a culture where it wasn’t encouraged as a major imposition on the production.’
Sharon was 13 weeks pregnant and had been on set since 6 a.m. when she experienced a sharp cramping sensation in her stomach and back mid-scene.
‘Once our director called ”cut” I ran into the set kitchen at the back of the set and checked my underwear. There was blood,’ she continued.
‘I changed out of my disguise and hastily packed my belongings to returning home. I didn’t call my spouse as often as I normally would since I didn’t want to worry him if it was nothing.’
She went to the hospital and was given the all-clear, only to have a horrible miscarriage at home later.
Despite being obviously heartbroken by the death, Sharon said she returned to work on Monday after leaving the set the previous Friday.
‘I hid in toilets around the building so I could cry in silence without anyone noticing. I persevered in silence and kept to myself. I was alone…’ she recounted.
She added: ‘Watching that scene brings me straight back to the pain I was going through, I can’t do it.’
Sharon said she’s convinced her miscarriage had been brought on by ‘stress’, despite doctors telling her otherwise, describing her work as ‘problematic’.
At the time, the Daily Mail Australia contacted Sharon and Network 10 for comment.
Discussion about this post