Hope Solo revealed that she suffered a miscarriage of twins in early 2018 after her doctors discovered her pregnancy was ectopic.
“The doctor said I was hours from dying,” the former Olympic soccer player, 37, told Elle in its July 2019 cover story. “They ended up having to remove my fallopian tube.”
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The miscarriage came after a long period of trying with husband Jerramy Stevens, a former NFL player, to get pregnant. Days after, she gave a speech at the United States Soccer Federation, where she was running for president of the organization.
“That speech took a lot,” Solo said. “Even before all that, it would have taken courage.”
Although she didn’t expect to win the election, the goalie ran on a platform that advocated change from the establishment. “A vote for [the establishment candidates] is a vote for the status quo: disunity, discord and more failure,” she said.
Since the miscarriage, she said she and Stevens began IVF. The couple lives in North Carolina at a sprawling compound with room for two houses, a pool, a vegetable garden, an octagonal dojo, all kinds of livestock and five Dobermans.
They tied the knot in 2012 — but only after a dramatic break-up in 2011 in which Solo said Stevens grabbed her hands over sushi in Los Angeles and told her loved her. “I didn’t know what to say,” Solo admitted. “So I said, ‘F— you,’ and we didn’t talk for a year.” By the next time they talked, “everything just fell to the side” and they decided to get married two months later.
On the eve of their wedding day, however, Stevens was arrested for domestic violence after an altercation that Solo blames “our two a—hole brothers” for. She said their brothers “basically get into this argument” at 4 a.m., prompting a police presence. Police saw Solo’s bloody elbow and arrested Stevens. He was released the next day without charges and married Solo hours later.
“It was the most triumphant day,” she said.
The incident changed the way the couple was perceived; two years later, Solo was arrested for domestic violence after a fight between Solo, her half sister and her 17-year-old nephew. Police reports indicate that the incident started as an argument that escalated into a physical altercation in which everyone involved considered themselves the victim. Solo pleaded not guilty, and charges were dropped in January 2015. A week later, Stevens bought her a Gucci dress and they went out to celebrate; on the way home, Stevens was charged with a DUI.
ESPN reported in 2015 that Stevens had gone into rehab; Solo told Elle that it was to challenge himself and help save her job as a goalie on the U.S. Olympic team, which was playing in the World Cup in Canada that summer. The team beat Germany to take home the title in a match that remains the United States’ most-viewed soccer match, male or female.
Photo credit: Instagram / @hopesolo
