- READ MORE: Eve, 45, reveals she had an ectopic pregnancy in 2006
Rap star Eve has revealed religion made her reluctant to turn to IVF when she was struggling to conceive due to fertility issues.
The 45-year-old Grammy-winning music artist — who welcomed son Wolfe in 2022 — explained that growing up with religious beliefs and the pressure she put on herself as a woman made her shy away from the process.
Speaking on Monday's Good Morning American, the hitmaker recalled: 'I come from a family, we are not religious, but we believed in god, there's a whole element of that.
'And being a woman, we put so much pressure on ourselves, thinking as a woman, it's just supposed to happen.'
The Who's That Girl rapper — who recently revealed she suffered an ectopic pregnancy in 2006 — continued: 'And I think there was a level of me having to talk to myself and say, "No, you need help, and that's okay".'
Eve has revealed the reason why she was reluctant to turn to IVF when struggling to conceive due to fertility issues
The rapper, 45, is mother to son Wilde Wolfe, two, whom she shares with her husband Maximillion Cooper
The star then choked back tears as she added: 'Because I would not have my baby, I would not have Wilde. So I am grateful.'
Eve explained that her struggles to conceive were down to fertility issues that hadn't been noticed earlier in her life.
It took until 2006, after she experienced her ectopic pregnancy, that the star was diagnosed with endometriosis, and fibroids.
Endometriosis is an agonizing condition which occurs when tissue similar to the womb's lining grows in other places, including the ovaries and fallopian tubes. It affects up to one in 10 American women.
Fibroids are noncancerous growths in the uterus that can cause heavy menstrual bleeding, pain, pressure on the bladder or bowel, and even infertility.
Reflecting on the diagnosis, Eve explained to GMA's Michael Strahan: 'Back then it's something nobody really talked about. Doctors barely talked about it.
'I always had painful periods, but that's also something that they tell women, so I never thought anything of it.'
She continued: 'I also never thought I would need to hurry up and have kids I thought I would fall in love and have kids. It just didn't happen like that.
The Grammy-winner explained that growing up with religious beliefs and the pressure she put on herself as a woman made her shy away from In vitro fertilization
She told GMA: 'And being a woman, we put so much pressure on ourselves, thinking as a woman, it's just supposed to happen'
'I had to go to a specialist and she said you have 14 fibroids and you have to have surgery to get rid of this.'
Eve's latest admission comes a month after she revealed she had suffer an ectopic pregnancy in 2006, which she chose to hide from her friends and co-workers.
'I told them all it was appendicitis,' she wrote in her new book titled Who's That Girl per People.
'I found out that I was pregnant. It was called a tubal pregnancy, where the embryonic sac ruptured in my one fallopian tube,' she explained, adding that she took two weeks off from the show hoping it was enough to heal physically and emotionally.
'In the end, it was barely enough healing time for me physically, before I was right back to work on set,' the rapper explained.
She continued: I don’t know why I lied to everyone on set and said that my appendix had ruptured, really. Maybe because I was lying to myself. If I faced losing my baby, then I didn’t know if two weeks would be enough emotional healing time. In the end, it was barely enough healing time for me physically, before I was right back to work on set.'
The Barbershop star went on to write that she looks back on photos from that time and notices that she was too skinny.
Eve explained that her struggles to conceive were down to fertility issues that hadn't been noticed earlier in her life (pictured in 2001)
Eve is also stepmother to her husband's children: Lotus, 22, Jagger, 20, Cash 18 and Mini, 15
'I had lost so much weight after the surgery, and my body was so frail. I still had to walk red carpets during that time, and when I look back at pictures, I can see how skinny I was. Too skinny.
'And too much in denial. But it's like I've said before, sometimes I did whatever it took to show up and get the job done... even if it was to my own detriment.'
She also reflected on the fact that she was in denial and she didn't let herself fully grieve the child she lost.
'For years, I never grieved losing my first baby,' she wrote. 'I didn't know how to, but I eventually learned. I had to speak to that baby and acknowledge their existence.'
Eve eventually learned that endometriosis and fibroids were a contributing factor in the ectopic pregnancy and underwent several rounds of IVF before becoming pregnant in 2021.
'In 2006, my doctor never told me that one of my fallopian tubes was narrowed — the one that caused the rupture — and that it was covered in endometriosis,' she writes.
Eve is opening up about her life in new memoir, Who's That Girl, which hits bookstores on September 17
'I could have had a procedure called a tubal ligation that would have fixed it, but none of that was ever told to me. Back then, even discussing things like endometriosis was completely taboo. People barely knew what it even was,' she explained.
'I know now that I also had fibroids, which so many people do — but I had a lot of them.'
'I had to forgive myself and know that what had happened wasn't my fault, that I didn’t deserved to be a mother, and that I was ready to bring a baby into this world down here.'
That child is her son Wilde Wolfe, two, whom she shares with her husband Maximillion Cooper.
The couple started dating in 2010 and married in Spain in 2014, making Eve a stepmother to Cooper's four children with his first wife, Julie Brangstrup.
Who's That Girl hits bookstores on September 17
