Erin Andrews shares how Kristen Welker helped inspire her during her infertility battle

Sportscaster Erin Andrews says that when she turned to surrogacy to have a baby, one source of inspiration was someone she had never met: NBC’s Kristen Welker.

Both Andrews and Welker know what it’s like to balance the stress of IVF treatments with the demands of an on-air job.

“I would have to jump off my headset in the middle of a game, and be like, ‘You guys, I have to go to the bathroom because it’s time for me to take my meds,” NFL sideline reporter Andrews, 45, told TODAY.com ahead of her TODAY Show appearance on July 14.

Welker had a similar experience as NBC News chief White House correspondent and Weekend TODAY co-host.

“I was going into the doctor in between live shots at work and just feeling like … a failure, frankly,” she shared on TODAY in 2021.

After a 10-year IVF journey, Andrews and her husband, former NHL player Jarret Stoll, 41, welcomed son Mack with the help of a surrogate on June 28. Welker and her husband, John Hughes, also grew their family through surrogacy. The couple’s daughter Margot celebrated her 2nd birthday last month.

“There are so many things about Kristen’s story that really resonated with me. Her always having to be ‘on,’ and meanwhile, she’s getting bad news about another unsuccessful try,” Andrews said while speaking with TODAY.com.

Andrews recalled how she “bawled” when Welker announced her pregnancy on TODAY in 2021, and noted that she watched the clip again the morning after Mack was born.

“I’ve never met (Kristen), but I DM’d her the day the story came out,” Andrews said.

Andrews said that Welker inspired her to be a “voice” for others going through infertility, IVF and surrogacy.

“It’s so crazy, for so long I just wanted to be quiet about it. ‘Please don’t say my name loud in the waiting room,’” Andrews told Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb on July 14. “But then you look around, and these places are packed. You’re not the only one going through this.”

Welker previously shared that she wanted to be open about her struggles to have a child because it helped her when other people, including TODAY’s Dylan Dreyer, spoke out about infertility.

“You gave me so much strength by talking about publicly the struggles that you had trying to have a second child,” Welker told Dylan in 2021 “Every time someone opened up about their struggles with fertility, it gave us a little bit more strength.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com