With the use of IVF, Angela Riello, then 45, gave birth to triplets, becoming a mother once more. While Mayara, Angela’s daughter, donated her uterus to the mother, the children were born after the donation, making Angela a grandma to them. According to her, it’s like a dream come true. The desire to have children again was clear to Angela Riello. Mayara and Gustavo, the two children of the single mother, had grown up by the time Angela was 40, but she was still involved in parenting and rearing toddlers. After giving birth to her son at the age of 18, she was already raising Mayara’s son, Noah, full-time to give her daughter a chance at a career. Angela made the decision to become pregnant once more when Noah started requesting a sibling.
But without a partner and at her age, it would prove easier said than done to be able to have children again. She spent over a hundred thousand pounds on IVF treatments to be able to get pregnant, but the times she succeeded, she sᴜꜰꜰᴇʀᴇᴅ a ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ just weeks later. During the ᴘᴀɴᴅᴇᴍɪᴄ, Angela’s plans were put on hold, but when she resumed trying in April 2021, she sᴜꜰꜰᴇʀᴇᴅ another ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ.
“I thought I would never be a mother again. I had told Noah I was trying to have a baby, and he was so excited. When I ʟᴏsᴛ the baby, I had to tell him, and he was devastated. I wanted it to work so badly, I desperately wanted to give him a sibling,” says Angela Riello to The Sun.
Finally, Angela’s rescue came in the form of her daughter, Mayara. It turned out that the rules in Brazil, where Mayara’s father lives, changed during this period, allowing ᴇɢɢ ᴅᴏɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴ between mother and daughter. Mayara was able to donate her ᴇɢɢs to her mother, who was then ꜰᴇʀᴛɪʟɪᴢᴇᴅ with the help of an anonymous sᴘᴇʀᴍ ᴅᴏɴᴏʀ. To Angela’s great happiness, not only did she become pregnant, but she also did not suffer a ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ.
When she later visited the doctor for a first ᴜʟᴛʀᴀsᴏᴜɴᴅ, however, the next sʜᴏᴄᴋ came – Angela didn’t just have one baby in her ʙᴇʟʟʏ, but three. “I couldn’t believe what I heard,” says Angela and continues, “I was pregnant and carrying my own biological grandchildren – and there were three!”
At the end of March, Angela gave birth to the three children – Liz, Mia and Vince. Although it is a complicated relationship – where Angela is both mother and grandmother, Noah has both siblings and aunts and an uncle, and where Mayara is both the children’s biological mother but also their siblings – the family only sees the joy in the new family members. “My family doesn’t care that Mayara was the ᴅᴏɴᴏʀ. They just see the babies as family,” says Angela.
For Mayara, it is clear that the babies are not her children, but her siblings. “They are just so cute. The babies feel like a part of me and they are very much like me, but I see them as my brothers and sisters.”