It’s easy to assume Carrie Bickmore lives the perfect life with her family of five, but things aren’t as easy as they appear on Instagram.
WATCH: Carrie Bickmore and her daughters dancing for Chris’ birthday
The proud mum-of-three shares two children with partner Chris Walker, but her eldest son Oliver, is from her first marriage to her late husband, Greg Lange.
While they’re a beautiful blended group today, finding new love after Greg’s death and getting Oliver on board with two new siblings wasn’t always easy.
In fact, she was apprehensive about having more kids before her daughters arrived.
“I think I thought I would be OK if I didn’t have any more kids,” she told Anh Do on the ABC show Anh’s Brush With Fame.
“I just felt so blessed with Ollie and with Evie, it was a really different experience. It wasn’t fun but it wasn’t traumatic. I’m so glad I had her!”
But these days, Carrie has an incredibly relatable approach to parenting with Chris, despite the tragedy in her past.
She met her first husband Greg while working in media back in the early 2000s
They fell in love and tied the knot in 2005, welcoming son Oliver – lovingly nicknamed Ollie – two years later in 2007 when Carrie was just 25.
“One of the things we chose to do was have our son, Ollie,” she told Anh Do of her son with Greg.
“It’s probably the greatest thing we ever did together. He’s a gorgeous boy and he’s so much like [Lange] in so many ways.”
But Greg had been diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2001, before they wed, and tragically died in 2010 after a decade-long battle with cancer.
His death was something Carrie had long accepted she would have to deal with but that didn’t make it easier for the young mum.
“I’m doing my best to draw comfort knowing that Greg is now resting peacefully,” she told Herald Sun after he passed.
“He fought so courageously for so long. I feel so blessed to have little Ollie in my life.”
After his death she started the charity ‘Beanies 4 Brain Cancer’ to raise money in his memory and continued to work in TV on The Project.
WATCH: Carrie Bickmore opens up about her late husband’s brain surgery
It was there that she was first introduced to Chris Walker, who was a producer on the show at the time.
They bonded on the set of the show and Carrie found that Chris understood her tragic loss, having suffered losses of his own before.
Soon enough they were in love and it was on The Project that Carrie chose to share the first of their huge milestones with the world.
READ NEXT: Carrie Bickmore and Chris Walker’s love story in pictures
“Speaking of babies, I have some news for you, I am having a baby. My boyfriend Chris and I are expecting a baby next year,” she announced live on air in 2014.
The following year she and Chris welcomed their first child together, a daughter called Evie, and in 2018 they had another, a girl named Adelaide – or Addie for short.
“I had Ollie in my 20s and it’s a different experience having a bub in my late 30s,” she said of the different pregnancies.
So are there more kids on the way? Probably not, Carrie confessed to WHO, though Chris would be up for it.
“He’d have six kids if he had his way! He loves kids and loves watching them playing together,” she revealed.
As for how Ollie has adapted to life as part of a blended family, Carrie has made it clear just how much he adores his little sisters.
“I see Ollie and her [Evie] together and it literally makes my heart sing,” she said on Anh’s Brush With Fame.
“Because he’s so much older than her, he’s just so protective. She’s going to have that for life, that big brother.”
Meanwhile Chris serves as a dedicated father figure to the youngster, who turned 14 in September 2021.
READ NEXT: The sad truth about Carrie Bickmore’s family escape
But Carrie also works hard to keep Greg’s memory alive for her son, who she says resembles her late husband so much it’s hard to believe.
These days the family of five make the most of every moment together, even spending three months living abroad on a sun-kissed European sabbatical.
But she’s still honest about the realities of being a mum-of-three, confessing in July 2022: “It didn’t all go to plan, and there were lots of times when it was really, really hard.”
WATCH: Carrie Bickmore’s son Ollie having breakfast with Addie
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