Olympic figure skater Tara Lipinski, 41, recalls the gut-wrenching moment she learned her unborn baby didn’t have a heartbeat amid brutal five-year battle with infertility that saw her suffering FOUR miscarriages

Figure skater Tara Lipinski recalls the devastating moment when she discovered her baby had no heartbeat.

The 41-year-old Olympian talked about her fertility journey and the struggles she and her 39-year-old husband, Todd Kapostasy, faced.

In the third episode of her podcast, Tara Lipinski: Unexpectedwhich she hosts with partner Todd, she discussed how she found out their baby had lost their heartbeat after a grueling five-year journey of trying to have a child.

The athlete revealed that she had multiple failed rounds of IVF, four miscarriages and surgeries before she was able to conceive a baby naturally – only to then discover that the baby had no heartbeat.

The athlete noted that she was “praying” for a heartbeat but “just knew” from the look on the doctor’s face that something was wrong, adding that in the weeks leading up to the scan, she felt ” concerned’.

She started by retelling the story of when she found out she was pregnant after getting pregnant naturally.

“I didn’t have any hope that this would work, but somehow, and I don’t know how or why, I was pregnant,” Tara said.

“And I remember when you looked at me and said, ‘See? We worried for nothing,’ she told her husband.

Todd also revealed that when they discovered they could conceive naturally, he was frustrated that the couple even used IVF.

Looking back, however, he found himself realizing that he sounded like an “asshole” at the time.

The couple then transitioned the moment Tara found out there was no heartbeat, adding that she was “criticizing her body for letting her down.”

“So after five and a half weeks you have what’s called a pregnancy scan,” Todd said.

Tara added, “Right. Then we had to wait, we went to the pregnancy check with Dr. Beck.’

‘So what is that and what did our results show?’ Todd asked.

Tara explained that she wasn’t sure what to expect at the scan, but thought, “Maybe it will be all right.”

“So we get to see almost every part of the pregnancy progression because we were working with an IVF clinic,” she said.

“And so we went to the scan and I didn’t know what to expect. I thought, you know, maybe these numbers are good enough. Maybe it’ll be all right.’

The Olympic skater noted that her doctor was hopeful at first.

And then dr. Beck, with a smile on her face: ‘There it is! I see.’ And you see this little black package with your cute little embryo in the middle. So we saw a gestational sac and inside of it is the yolk sac and hopefully a fetal pole,” she said.

That was the next big jump and she said, ‘Yeah. He’s here and looking good.’

‘They also check whether you are aware of exactly where you are in your pregnancy. I looked good, I think I was a day ahead. And I thought, ‘Okay, now there’s a little more hope.’

Then the skater said she knew her husband was very hopeful and tried to persuade her to “stop worrying.”

After the scan, the couple would attend another appointment where they would do a heartbeat scan.

Tara added that this was a “crazy scan” for her overall and she was still worried.

She commented that she was “a little hopeful” and “prayed” for a heartbeat to appear on the screen.

The athlete added, “You know, I was kind of hopeful and just praying for a heartbeat, and it’s crazy that this little thing has a flicker that you see on a screen. It’s a big milestone to reach.

“And I walked in and sat down and I just knew.

“Looking at her, that awkward silence, that searching, I knew she just wanted to find this heartbeat.

“And just the look on her face when she said, ‘I’m sorry, there’s no fetal heartbeat.’

Tara explained that prior to her fertility journey, she never thought she would have trouble getting pregnant.

But she noted that she now knew she just wasn’t “developed” and wished she’d thought about it more.

“I’m not educated, there’s never been a moment when anyone brought this up to me to even think about it, or to plant a seed in my brain to think about a fertility timeline and a biological clock” said Tara.

“You sort of heard, ‘Oh, your biological clock is ticking,’ and that’s the only thing I’ve ever heard that could remotely make me think there was a timeline.”

The figure skater explained that she thought everything would be fine with her because she trained and led a healthy lifestyle.

“I also felt like I was working out, working my muscles, hydrating, I was an elite athlete at one point in my life. I eat healthy, and I just thought, “Oh, maybe these things are connected,” and they’re not necessarily true,” she said.

Tara was only 15 years old when she won the figure skating gold medal at the 1998 Olympic Games in Japan. The year before, she was crowned world champion at the age of 14.