In the wardrobe at the Coatesville home Jaimee Lupton shares with her fiancé, Zuru co-founder Nick Mowbray, she keeps one of her most precious possessions: bronze casts of the tiny hands and feet of the baby girl they lost to stillbirth three years ago.
Every day, those keepsakes remind her not only of the daughter they lost, but also of how much she has to be grateful for. Their spirited two-year-old Noa has filled the house with energy and laughter, helping to mend her parents’ broken hearts.
And now, as the beauty entrepreneur welcomes the Woman’s Weekly into her and Nick’s sprawling property, she has more joyful news to share. After an eight-year fertility journey marked by IVF, miscarriage and unimaginable loss, the 34-year-old is pregnant again. This time, it’s a little boy.
“We feel incredibly lucky,” says Monday Haircare co-founder Jaimee, who launched fertility charity Gingernut’s Angels three years ago.
“I’ve always loved the idea of having a tribe and I know Noa will be the best big sister. She’ll be bossy, that’s for sure – she definitely knows her own mind – but she’ll love having a brother to play with.”
Finding calm after a difficult journey
More than halfway through, Jaimee is feeling well, with any morning sickness now behind her. But given everything she and Nick, 41, have been through to build their family, this pregnancy remains one
they are celebrating with cautious optimism.
“At the start, when you get the positive result, it’s sort of a ‘let’s wait and see’ situation, rather than jumping around the room saying, ‘Yay!’ We’ve been through enough to know you don’t assume everything will work out.”
This latest pregnancy came after yet another difficult chapter. Following Noa’s birth, one round of IVF resulted in no embryos at all. A subsequent cycle brought fresh hope, but the first embryo transfer ended in miscarriage. They tried again at the beginning of this year and Jaimee was relieved to fall pregnant.
While some anxiety understandably persists, with every reassuring scan and each passing week, her confidence has grown. They’ve set up an animal-themed nursery for their little boy and Jaimee has enjoyed choosing outfits for her son. Noa, meanwhile, can barely contain her excitement.
“She’s so cute,” shares Jaimee.
“She lifts up my top and whispers into my tummy, ‘I’ll play with you when you’re a little bit bigger.’ But she knows he needs to grow first.”
Life at home with a playful toddler
It’s a sunny winter morning when we visit and Noa is showing off her latest accomplishment – climbing along the back of the sofa and jumping off.
“She’s been working on that with Nick,” says her adoring mum.
“He’s been getting her into all the things he loves – tennis, golf. They play hide and seek every night.”
Fatherhood, says Jaimee, has been the making of Nick. If it were up to him, they would have five children, she laughs.
“I want a big family too but five would be crazy,” Jaimee says.
“Honestly, though, Nick just loves being a dad. He’s quite a full-on person – he’s such a big thinker and he has always got so much on the go, but this has changed him completely. “When she’s in front of him, he’s totally focused on her. At night, when we’ve both put Noa to bed, he’ll say, ‘I just love her so much.’ And then I always catch him on his phone once she is down, looking at videos of her. He’s the best dad.”
The path to parenthood has been anything but straightforward for Jaimee and Nick, who turned to IVF when Jaimee was in her mid-twenties. Three miscarriages followed. Then came the pregnancy that they hoped would change everything. The couple nicknamed their unborn daughter Gingernut – partly because Jaimee developed an obsession with gingernut biscuits during pregnancy to help with morning sickness, and partly because of Nick’s red hair, which they imagined their little girl might inherit.
But at 24 weeks pregnant, their world shattered when Jaimee’s waters broke and Gingernut was stillborn.
The grief that changed everything
The grief that followed was overwhelming.
“It was so traumatic,” recalls Jaimee.
“I’d wake up every morning feeling my stomach and thinking, ‘It can’t be real, it can’t be real.’ The pain was excruciating.”
But out of that heartbreak came a determination not only to continue with her quest to become a mum, but also to help others.
As Jaimee connected with women who’d experienced baby loss and fertility struggles, it became apparent just how many people were unable to access treatment because of financial barriers. In New Zealand, people can apply for publicly funded IVF, but strict eligibility criteria apply and wait times can be long. Even for those fortunate enough to afford treatment itself, additional costs, such as genetic testing, can prove prohibitive. For couples paying privately, one IVF cycle can stretch to $20,000 or beyond.
Jaimee – whose affordable luxury beauty products are stocked in 47 countries – knows just how lucky she is that money hasn’t been a factor in her fertility journey.
She estimates she and Nick, who established his global toy empire alongside his siblings Anna and Matt two decades ago, have spent about $500,000 so far, and she doesn’t take her privilege for granted.
“Every time a bill would come in, it would be for huge sums – and Nick and I would say to each other, ‘How are people affording this?’ We know people are mortgaging their homes just for the chance to have a baby.”
A story that sparked a movement
The stories that touch Jaimee the deepest are those where couples have lost babies, only to be unable to afford further IVF to try again. In fact, it was one such story – from Kiwi woman Louise Peel, who reached out after Jaimee lost Gingernut – that inspired Jaimee to set up Gingernut’s Angels to provide grants to individuals and couples facing the often-overwhelming costs of fertility treatment and which has raised more than $3.5 million to date.
“I still remember when I read Louise’s message,” says Jaimee.
“I was in a hotel in LA, I was meant to be celebrating my 30th birthday but I was in such a bad way. Louise’s message said, ‘It will get easier, I promise.’ She had lost her baby Ruby at 24 weeks. And I just burst into tears because back then, I was wondering if I would ever feel okay again and this was proof that I might. She gave me hope.”
Turning compassion into action
The pair stayed in touch, and Jaimee was devastated to hear that Louise couldn’t continue with IVF due to cost. She and Nick resolved to pay for Louise’s treatment and, importantly, to set up a charity to help others, too. Three years on, Gingernut’s Angels has supported hundreds of people, with 80 babies born so far with the foundation’s help.
Jaimee enthuses, “There’s no better medicine than real-life babies in the world. And having a small part in that – especially with babies who might not have been born – feels very special.”
Jaimee and Nick, who have pledged $20 million to the cause, are determined to help more people each year, with the Zuru director dreaming of opening their own not-for-profit IVF clinic one day.
“That’s his North Star,” says Jaimee.
“He really envisions Gingernut’s as being a lifelong thing and we’re both determined to see it get bigger every year. We want to help as many people as we can.”
And judging by the hundreds of applications pouring in for this year’s intake, the need for assistance is greater than ever. More than a quarter of Kiwi couples experience difficulties getting pregnant at some point in their lives, while around one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage.
“The emotional toll is something you can’t understand unless you’ve lived it,” says Jaimee, who says sharing this latest chapter publicly was never really a question.
“It’s important to know you’re not alone.”
Giving back to future families
The generous pair has also given $240,000 to Starship’s Cryopreservation programme, which involves removing the ovarian or testicular tissue from children with cancer and preserving it for when they may choose to start a family later in life.
While she still thinks of her first baby every day – “she would be starting school next year” – alongside the sadness, there is immense gratitude. Noa, who was born in March 2024, is bright, determined and endlessly entertaining.
She takes after her dad in looks, but her personality is all her mum, says Jaimee.
“She’s very independent and very stubborn. She wants to do everything by herself.”
Jaimee shares a theory given to her by a friend, Australia-based psychic “David The Medium”, who told her Noa was “one and a half of a child” because she carried her big sister with her.
“I love that idea that Gingernut is with Noa,” shares Jaimee.
“And I know all mothers say this, but she’s very advanced. She’s only two, but she talks like she’s four.”
And they’re just thrilled to be giving Noa a baby brother. Now five months’ along, Jaimee and Nick simply can’t wait till spring, when they’ll meet their little boy.
Jaimee adds, “Because of what we’ve been through, this feels like the most precious gift. We’re very lucky.”
