At the age of 45, Angela Riello became a mother again when she gave birth to triplets, with the help of I.V.F. Angela, on the other hand, is a grandmother to her children because they were born after her daughter Mayara donated her ᴇɢɢs to the mother. “It’s like a dream come true,” she tells The Sun.
Angela Riello knew she wanted to be a mother again. When she turned 40, the single mother’s two children, Mayara and Gustavo, had grown up, but Angela was not done with toddler life and raising children. She was already raising Mayara’s son Noah full-time, to give her daughter a chance at a career after giving birth to her son at the age of 18. When Noah started asking for a sibling, Angela decided to get pregnant again.
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 I.V.F ᴛʀᴇᴀᴛᴍᴇɴᴛs 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.”