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Jo Maidment, a mother who gave birth to a “miracle” daughter thanks to a donation for IVF treatment from George Michael has said she “cannot thank him enough” for his generosity.
Jo Maidment appeared on This Morning today to explain that she originally appeared on This Morning years ago to talk about IVF treatment and how she had been refused treatment has her partner had a child with a previous partner.
When George saw the original show, his PA anonymously called producers and offered to donate the money for the family to have treatment.
On Tuesday, spurred by the passing of the legendary musician and with the permission of George’s family, Jo headed back to This Morning program to reveal the British hitmakers incredible act of generosity.
“I didn’t believe it at first,” she said. “And it took me a good few days to respond because that wasn’t what I came on the show for. I wanted to help other people in my position. But then we agreed to it, because [Michael’s PA, named Michelle] said it was what this particular man wanted.”
“He wanted us to have a baby. That’s all we knew.”
Sadly, Jo’s first round of treatment resulted in a miscarriage but the remaining frozen eggs from that IVF cycle enabled her to be implanted once again, and in 2012 she gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Betsy.
Jo explained that it was only after the couple’s “miracle baby” entered the world that George decided to contact the family and reveal his identity.
“It was a couple of days after we came home with Betsy and we had loads of cards and flowers, and there was a massive bouquet of flowers that came and I read the card that said, ‘Congratulations to you both. Lots of love to Betsy. Love from Michelle and George Michael (AKA Anonymous) xx’. Me and my husband read it hundreds of times to believe it.”
“Betsy is now four-and-a-half. I was really upset when I found out [Michael had died] because I can never thank him personally and he never got to meet her. Betsy will know when she’s old enough.”
In a beautiful tribute to George’s life, Jo told the talk show’s presenters that she would be donating her appearance fee to the charity Childline – in honour of George.
She said, “It’s just my way of saying thank you to George. I never got to thank him personally.”
Agencies/Canadajournal
