Jae Frew
Renee Wright has always loved surprises, but if you’d told her a few years ago that a fourth baby might be in her future, she simply wouldn’t have believed you.
“This is definitely an unexpected twist!” she laughs as she welcomes us into the stunning beachside home she shares with her husband Charlie Waide and their children, Leonardo, 10, Giselle, eight, and Arabella, who’s nearly six. “I really thought we were done at three, but obviously the universe had other ideas.”
After keeping the news under wraps for almost five months, the TVNZ star is finally ready to share her joy over expecting her fourth child, due in June, with the nation.
‘This little person has decided they need to join our family and I’m just so happy’
“I still can’t quite believe we’ll have another little baby soon,” she says, cradling her blossoming bump. “I have to pinch myself because even though it’s a surprise, it also feels really right. From the moment you know there’s a baby in your tummy, you start thinking about them, imagining their little personalities, dreaming of them and loving them… It’s pretty lovely.”
While Renee never thought she’d end up with such a big family, life can work in funny ways, and it was a devastating miscarriage that led to the realisation that she and construction company owner Charlie, 42, had room in their hearts – and their busy lives – for one last baby.
It was early last year when Renee discovered she was pregnant. With Leo, Gigi and Belles now all at school, the couple were enjoying the freedom that comes with older children – they’d given away their baby gear to friends and family, and the days of nappies and sleepless nights felt long behind them.
Renee says big brother Leo is already protective of his sisters Giselle (left) and Arabella. “He’s my little helper too.”
But they took the baby surprise in their stride and started excitedly imagining their lives as a family of six. Sadly, though, at 11 weeks, Renee started bleeding. The miscarriage was a traumatic experience for the 1 News weather presenter, who has bravely decided to share her experience in the hope it might help others feel less alone.
“I do think it’s important to talk about this because it happens to so many women, yet it’s often kept a secret, which can feel so lonely and isolating,” she explains. “I found the experience really awful, physically and emotionally. There was lots of pain and lots of blood, and I ended up in hospital.
“Afterwards, I was incredibly sad because I already loved that baby and then suddenly it was gone. I just wanted to crawl into a ball and be left alone, and the sadness didn’t really go away. It made me think, ‘Maybe we do want another one,’ and Charlie felt very much the same.”
At 41, Renee didn’t expect to fall pregnant again easily, so she was blown away when she discovered she was expecting again just a few months later.
Renee and Charlie know the sex of the baby but are keeping it quiet from the kids. “They’re like the town criers!”
“We hadn’t been consciously trying for another baby – we’d just taken a ‘what will be will be’ approach and because of my age, I wasn’t holding out much hope. So when I did the test and it said positive, it was surreal. I spent the rest of the day in a daze. I was so happy.”
After breaking the news to Charlie, the couple agreed to keep it to themselves – partly as self-protection, she admits. “Charlie and I were both scared after what we’d been through with the miscarriage. We didn’t want to get too excited in case it didn’t work out.”
But aside from the usual nausea and tiredness, the pregnancy has been problem-free, and all of Renee’s scans and prenatal tests have been given the all-clear. After telling their children and sharing the news with loved ones, she’s delighted it’s now out in the open.
“It was getting harder and harder to keep it a secret because as soon as we told the kids, they were like the town criers,” she laughs. “They were going up to people at school and on the street, saying, ‘There’s a baby in Mummy’s tummy!'”
‘I’m older, we’ve been through the miscarriage and I feel like I need to be prepared’
Renee says she’ll never forget the night she and Charlie told their children they were getting a new brother or sister.
“They all started crying, but they said they were happy tears,” smiles Renee. “It was such a surprise for them. They were incredibly overwhelmed.”
She later found out Leo had recently watched Taika Waititi’s film Boy, where a mother dies during childbirth.
“He’d been freaking out, asking, ‘Mummy, are you going to be OK?’ so we had a lot of conversations where I reassured him that I would be looked after in the hospital and I’ll be absolutely fine.”
Now, with just a few months before baby number four joins the wha-nau, the kids can barely contain their excitement. They love talking to the baby through their mum’s tummy and are avidly offering up suggestions for names.
After baby arrives, Renee hopes she’ll be back on screen with TVNZ buddies Indira Stewart (centre) and Melissa Stokes.
While Renee and Charlie, who’ve been married since 2010, didn’t learn the sex of their first three children before they arrived, this time, they’ve decided to do things differently.
“I’m older, we’ve been through the miscarriage and I feel like I need to be prepared because I already have three little wild things running around,” she shares. “We’re thrilled about what we’re getting, but we’ve decided to keep that bit of news just for ourselves.”
Renee is considered a “geriatric” mother in medical terms. “It’s a lovely term, isn’t it?” she laughs, admitting that carrying a baby in her forties feels a lot different to her first pregnancy at 29. “The tiredness is a whole new ballgame. By the time I’ve got the kids in bed, I’m just shattered. I can barely keep my eyes open.”
She is excited, though, about the bigger age gap between the children and looks forward to the special time she’ll have with the new arrival when the older kids are at school. “I feel like I’ll have lots of time to really enjoy this baby. The others came so quickly – I had three under five and it’s almost a blur now.”
And having been through it three times before, Renee is confident she’ll take a relaxed approach to the newborn life. She also knows she’ll be relying on the support of others to help in those first few sleep-deprived weeks.
Fortunately, her mum Marian and dad Warren live nearby on Auckland’s North Shore, and are a constant presence in the family’s lives.
“We see my parents most days and they have the most beautiful relationship with the kids. I feel incredibly grateful for that.”
Renee says Leo, in particular, is incredibly helpful and she knows he’ll be keen to lend a hand. “He takes his role as big brother very seriously. He’s an amazing brother to the girls and he’s my little helper too. He helps me cook dinner and is just a lovely, responsible, kind boy. The girls will be great too – they just can’t wait to meet the baby.”
As someone who experiences “silent labours”, with her babies born less than an hour after the first twinge, Renee knows this little one is likely to come in just as much of a hurry as the others. She’s understandably nervous about making it to the hospital in time, but she’s doing her best to take a calm approach.
“I don’t want to give birth in the car on the side of the road!” she says firmly. “But I just have to trust my body and have things all ready to go, so I can get to the hospital the moment I know it’s happening. No one looks forward to labour, but at least I know what to expect and that it’s always over pretty quickly.”
While she hopes to return to the TV job she loves, Renee is realistic that the new addition might make the juggle a little harder to manage. She says, “I love my work because it’s something that’s just for me and I find it’s a real expression of self.
“I get to write scripts, talk to adults and have something really meaningful that’s away from the family, which can be all-consuming. Perhaps I’m being naive about what the reality of four children will be like, but I do dearly hope I can keep working.”
However, most of all, she’s just counting down the days till she meets her newest little love.
“I can’t wait to see this baby,” she beams. “I know I always said our family was complete, but this little person has decided they need to join our family and I’m just so happy for that. It feels like the best possible surprise. As you get older, you realise what life is about. For me, it’s about having a table full of family and a whole lot of love surrounding me. I feel so lucky.”
