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She’s hop-scotched the planet’s most exotic destinations chasing titles and the perfect waves. As a two-time runner-up world champion on the women’s surfing circuit, Serena Brooke has led a hectic, jetset life full of cut-throat competition, lucrative sponsorships and bikini-clad partying with surfing’s best.
Serena and I went to high school together. We all knew that when she didn’t show, the waves were up! She was always going to make surfing her life and I aspired to be a journalist. We made a deal that I’d interview her when we both ‘made it’. In our 20’s we made good on that with an interview on the local tv station I then worked at, and now, here I am interviewing her again on something neither of us probably envisaged way back then as 16 year olds contemplating our futures between bites of our vegemite sandwiches!
She’s retired these days, which seems weird for someone so young and fit. But, life remains hectic for a whole other reason. Make that 2 little reasons!
Meet her adorable twins Scarlett and Lovella. These two are her world now and she doesn’t regret a thing. We had a playdate recently (something else we probably never saw happening as teens in the schoolyard) and when I asked her if she missed her old life, she shrugged casually and said that you have to make sacrifices when you have kids and there is nothing she’d rather be doing than chasing her toddlers around her Noosa property with her partner Emma Sheldrake.
Emma is an artist. They met five years ago and had an instant connection in spite of the fact that Emma had never heard of Serena and her surfing prowess, and Serena’s exposure to art was limited to high school ceramics class. They knew it was the real deal, and they soon knew they wanted a family.
It can be hard to start a family in any relationship, but same sex couples obviously face their own challenges. Serena and Emma are open about how their gorgeous girls came into their world.
“We did IVF and it all happened so fast as the first try I was pregnant with twins. It took a while to even sink in at the start.”
TMR: How did you go about finding and choosing a sperm donor?
SB: It was through Queensland Fertility Group. There was so much information on the donor that we know more about his past medical history and relatives than we know about our own! We chose a donor who fit perfectly in every way for us and we could not have been happier with our choice.
TMR: Is he part of the girls’ lives? How does that work?
SB: No he was an open donor and is open to meeting the girls when they are 18 but that is all.
TMR: How did you decide who would carry the twins through pregnancy?
SB: We decided after getting both our egg counts done. Mine was lower and so I decided to go first and try for one then Em was going to go and try for the second one. As it turned out we got 2 on the first try!
TMR: Will you have more do you think?
SB: We are sticking with just two kids. We feel totally fulfilled and have our hands full enough as it is with the two :]
TMR: Have you taken them out on your board yet?!
SB: We have not taken the girls on the board yet, but they are in swimming lessons. Maybe when they turn 2!
T xo
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