Embrace The Power Of Having A Plan B!

Lisa Faulkner tells H&F how you can turn the negatives of life into positives

- Joanna Ebsworth

Actress-turned-author Lisa Faulkner is one happy lady. After seven years of dating the MasterChef judge and restauranteur John Torode, who she first met when appearing on (and winning) Celebrity MasterChef in 2010, the pair – who also present ITV cooking show John and Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen together – are now excitedly planning their approaching nuptials, with Lisa’s teenage daughter Billie taking the role as her best woman. But it’s a very different future to the one Lisa had mapped out 14 years ago. Then married to actor Chris Coghill and aged just 33, Lisa had already endured three-and-a-half grueling rounds of IVF at a top Harley Street fertility clinic when she was told by her doctor that she had unexplainable infertility and was released from treatment. In her quest for motherhood, Lisa’s plan B to adopt soon became her plan A, and she and Chris went on to adopt the then 15-month-old Billie, although the strains of the IVF and adoption processes ultimately cost the pair their marriage shortly afterward. It’s a raw and inspiring journey that Lisa describes with brutal honestly in her latest book, Meant to Be – My Journey to Motherhood (Ebury Press, £16.99) – which got us thinking: how do you cope when the rollercoaster of life takes you through extreme highs and crushing lows? We caught up with Lisa to find out.

Q WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO WRITE YOUR BOOK?