MasterChef's Linda ‘MY PREGNANCY STRUGGLE'

Having a family hasn’t been easy for the cook and her husband

If there’s one thing MasterChef Australia’s Linda Dalrymple loves more than cooking, it’s being a mum.

But for the cook and husband Dave, the road to parenthood has been far from easy.

A week after the couple’s wedding, Linda collapsed at home, ending up in hospital. After a series of tests, doctors told her she had fibroids, or non-cancerous tumours, growing in her uterus, which would need to be surgically removed if she wanted to start a family.

“I had the operation and after I’d recovered, I did get pregnant,” Linda, 38, tells Woman’s Day. “But unfortunately, I had a miscarriage.”

With only a small window of opportunity to try for a child before the fibroids grew back, Linda and Dave were worried they’d miss their chance. Thankfully, the Chinese-Cambodian-Laotian cook soon became pregnant.

“There were complications through the whole thing,” she explains. “It was a high-risk pregnancy. I had a lot of pain and was in hospital constantly.”

Despite the ups and downs, when she gave birth to a healthy baby boy via C-section, her worries faded.