Hollyoaks’ Adam Rickitt reveals it was ‘nerve-wracking’ telling wife Katy he was infertile

Hollyoaks‘ Adam Rickitt has revealed it was ‘nerve-wracking’ telling his wife Katy Fawcett he was infertile due to autoimmune disorder. 

The actor, 43, suffers with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), which can cause decreased fertility, and said he worried he would be ‘denying’ Good Morning Britain reporter Katy, 37, the chance to have children.

Speaking on Wednesday’s Loose Women about male infertility, he discussed the couple’s difficult journey and how they have made the most of their life without kids.   

The chronic spine condition is a long-term condition in which the spine and other areas of the body become inflamed.  

The star said: ‘I always thought I was going to have fertility problems. I never pictured myself with children. I could never explain to you why. 

‘At the age of 22, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. It can affect male fertility. Katy comes from North Yorkshire, a big family orientated family, so I did say to her very really on, ‘I’m not sure what my fertility is going to be like.’

He added: ‘When it got to the point of us getting engaged, I said, ‘I’m going to get tested and see what the game plan is moving forward.’ The doctor said, ‘You usually have one hundred million sperm in your ejaculation, you have three.’

‘I had zero fertility which was scary because to say to someone, ‘I’m not sure we’ll be able to have children’ was really nerve-wracking…. I was worried I’d be denying her something.’

Katy turned to Adam and said, ‘You’re not… I didn’t bat an eyelid, I meant that from the bottom of my heart. I married Adam and anything that came after that is a bonus… I love him and what happens thereafter, happens thereafter.’

Adam then revealed they haven’t let not being able to have children impact their life.

He said: ‘There are parts of life we’ll miss out on, but we’re not naive. We tried to experience things other people couldn’t… careers, I love acting, Katy loves presenting and journalism, we have a business together, we have the dogs, so we don’t feel like we’re lacking in giving our love to something else.’

On deciding not to go down the IVF route, Katy said: ‘We could have tried the IVF route and it made us sit down, we knew it would be a difficult and unlikely process because of the position we were in, so we decided to make use of the other things we can do.’

On their relationship being love at first sight, Adam said, ‘It was for me. I was doing some charity work for the RSPCA. It was a big launch for a campaign. Katy came to interview me, what should have been a 30-minute interview turned into five and a half hours and I literally rang my mum that day and said, ‘I’m going to marry her.’

Katy then said: ‘The reason he said it was for me, not for her is because he told me straight away pretty much, ‘I love you’ and then introduced himself to his mum in a week without telling me about it. I was slightly panicked and thought, ‘Is he just saying this? Is this what he’s like?’

She added: ‘Within three weeks, it became pretty apparent to me he really meant everything he said. The first time we met, I remember thinking, ‘We’ve been here an hour’ and it was five hours. It just felt like the whole world stopped.’ 

Speaking to OK! magazine about the condition for the first time last June, the star revealed he was diagnosed in 2011, just after meeting Katy, when he was told by a doctor that he had a sperm count of just two, when it is expected to have a count of three million. 

The couple married just before Christmas in 2014, following a two-year engagement.