Peta Murgatroyd Says She Suffered a Miscarriage While Husband Maks Chmerkovskiy Was in Ukraine

Peta Murgatroyd is opening up about the three devastating miscarriages she and husband Maksim Chmerkovskiy have experienced over the past two years. The Dancing With the Stars pros spoke candidly with PEOPLE about their losses, including one that happened while Chmerkovskiy was in Ukraine, in a new interview.

Murgatroyd contracted COVID visiting her husband in Ukraine in an attempt to conceive while he was working overseas, and grew so sick she could hardly care for their 5-year-old son Shai. "It got so bad that my breath was starting to be affected. It was really dramatic," she recalled. Upon being rushed to the hospital, Murgatroyd called Chmerkovskiy so he could hear more from the doctor, who told the couple that the pro dancer had unknowingly been pregnant and lost the baby. 

"I ultimately had no idea [I was pregnant], which in hindsight was better for my recovery because I didn't have that super joyous moment of, 'I'm pregnant again!' " Murgatroyd said. "I just had the moment of, 'You lost it.'" Chmerkovskiy said he felt "helpless" to be away from home as his wife recovered from COVID and a miscarriage.

Murgatroyd previously suffered two previous miscarriages, the first of which happened in 2020 when she was five weeks pregnant. The Peta Jane Beauty founder began to miscarry while at Whole Foods, making her way to the bathroom stall after feeling something was not right. "It was so shocking and so out of the blue. I had walked [into the store] and it just all started happening," she said. "I was petrified. I was trying to tell myself, 'It's going to be OK.' Of course, deep down, I knew."

"I was sitting in the bathroom sobbing. I'm surprised nobody walked in because I was crying so heavily and wailing, one of those deep cries," Murgatroyd continued. "That was something that will probably live with me for the rest of my life, being on that toilet by myself, knowing what was happening and not being able to stop it." Chmerkovskiy recalled of his reaction to the news, "I think the darkest part is when the person you are in love with calls you and she says that she had a miscarriage in the bathroom, that's as dark as it can get."

Less than a year later, Murgatroyd had another miscarriage just one day before she planned to tell Chmerkovskiy she was pregnant. "This was the first time that I heard him get really upset, which was hard to hear because I know how it affects him too," she said. Chmerkovskiy added, "I try to do my best in supporting Peta. I'm a changed man because of this experience. I think that if you look around, you will find that most of your friends have had issues [trying to conceive]. I realized that this is more common and this is not being talked about."

Murgatroyd has since been diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and is working with a team of specialists on the couple's journey to hopefully have a second child. "For the first time in nearly two years, I feel excited," she said. "I'm in a much happier place. I got answers."