For celebrity couple Erin Holland, a well-known model and television presenter, and Ben Cutting, an Australian professional cricketer, a years-long battle against infertility has ended in joy, as the pair have welcomed their first child, a baby girl. The happy news of their daughter’s arrival on August 18 was shared with fans and followers via the couple’s joint Instagram account, where Holland posted a series of soft black-and-white photographs capturing the intimate first moments of their new life as a family of three.
In her heartfelt caption accompanying the photos, Holland summed up the years of heartache and uncertainty that preceded her daughter’s birth, writing, “All of a sudden, it all makes sense. It was always you.” The announcement quickly flooded with messages of congratulations from across the Australian media and sports industries, including warm notes from Holland’s colleagues at Channel 7. Kylie Gillies, co-host of the network’s top-rated *The Morning Show*, called the birth “beautiful news,” while television personality and former veterinarian Dr Chris Brown added, “How special. Congrats you guys. The best news.”
What makes this birth particularly meaningful is the extraordinary path the couple walked to reach this moment. Since their 2021 wedding, Holland and Cutting have been open about their devastating fertility struggles, choosing to speak out to normalize experiences that many couples still hide. In total, the pair endured four devastating miscarriages, one life-threatening ectopic pregnancy, 20 rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, five egg collection procedures, and seven embryo transfer attempts. Five full years of ongoing treatment passed before they received the positive pregnancy news they had chased for so long.
In a podcast interview earlier this year in May, Holland opened up about the emotional toll of repeated disappointment, explaining how the simple joy many expecting parents take for granted is slowly stripped away after multiple losses. “I think the hard part about infertility and pregnancy loss is that beautiful naivety of just seeing a double line on a pregnancy test is robbed from you,” she explained. “Because the first time you do it, it’s elation, it’s so exciting. Then the second time you do it, you’re cautiously excited. By the third and the fourth time, you think it’s catfishing you.”
When Cutting announced the pregnancy three months before their daughter’s birth, he paid tribute to his wife’s resilience through years of physical and emotional strain. “Countless disappointments, hormones, surgeries … lead to this one,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “I don’t know how she pushed through.”
In a 2022 interview with Channel 7, Holland reflected on how the IVF process upended her expectations of what building a family would look like. “As someone who went in just wanting to freeze embryos until the time was ‘right’, I’ve grappled with the confusing feelings of the loss of any ‘normality’ of this process, feeling like the universe was telling me I’m not meant to be a mother,” she said. Despite years of setbacks, Holland never abandoned her hope of building a family with Cutting, a perseverance that has now rewarded her with the daughter she long dreamed of.