Robyn explains why she underwent IVF as a lone parent
Robyn thought it was "risky" to have a child with her previous partners and found it less "scary" to go through IVF alone.
Robyn thought it was too "risky" to have a child in her previous relationships so opted to become a lone parent.
The 46-year-old singer - who was previously engaged to director Max Vitali - always knew she wanted to have children but was worried having a family would mean having to put up with a "not great" relationship, and the idea of doing so was more "scary" than undergoing IVF alone to have her son Tyko, now three.
She told The Guardian newspaper: "I thought it would happen much sooner/ But then I think motherhood in a conventional heterosexual relationship, in my life at least, has been really hard to reconcile with what I think I would have to do to make that work.“Definitely the split of labour, but also … I would have been able to accept things that weren’t great in a relationship without children. But, when kids exist, every single thing that the other person does is so important.
"The idea of having children in the relationships I was in felt like a very risky thing to do. I just felt [like] that was more scary than waiting.”
Robyn had already had her eggs frozen at 34 because she "wasn’t certain that I was in a relationship that would support my wish to become a mother” but had to go through the process again during the COVID-19 pandemic because she was in Sweden and her eggs were in the US.
She said: "I was older. I didn’t know if it was going to work. I did a few rounds. It was a fucking rollercoaster, but also it makes you think about things that you otherwise wouldn’t. What is my identity as someone with children, and what is it without? It’s extremely existential.”
The Dancing On My Own singer initially felt like a "failure" to be undergoing IVF without a partner.
She said: “I had seen myself having a kid in a stable relationship. I was sad to let go of that. It felt like a failure...
“I don’t think any human being can say, ‘I have a right to have a child.’ But if you want it, you can’t really question your desire to be a parent. You can question how you do it and who you do it with, but you can’t question the actual need.
“It’s like saying, ‘Why are we here?’”
Robyn's own parents split before she was 11 years old and she was worried about being a single mother.
She said: "It’s very, very taxing to be a single mum or dad. I grew up that way.
“My mother was tired and she was struggling, and I just didn’t want to repeat things that I’d been through as a kid.
“I don’t want to expose my mum. She’s a great mum, but, you know, just the lack of time, the lack of energy to be present, to not feel happy with your situation.”
