UN goodwill ambassador and former CNN international news anchor Isha Sesay has announced she’s pregnant at the age of 46.

The British-Sierra Leonean broadcaster who for the first time, shared details about her private life, revealed the exciting news in a pregnancy journal published on NBC’s Today Show on October 27.

“If you’d told the 16-year-old me that at 46, I’d be divorced, single and having a baby on my own — by choice! — I’d have shuddered and firmly said ‘no!’”, Ms Sesay wrote.

She also mentioned without going into extra detail, her divorce from award winning journalist and executive editor on CNN’s 2013 Freedom Project Leif Coorlim. The couple met in 2008 while working on a series in Atlanta and began dating in 2011, before tying the knot on August 17, 2013. Although, it’s not specified when the pair divorced.

“A brief marriage to a kind man didn’t result in children …a few months ago I found myself in a subpar relationship with a man who took about 12 hours to reply to all my texts, among other red flags. It was then, in the aftermath of our inevitable breakup, that it hit me: Not having a child would be the greatest regret of my life. And with my biological clock ticking down, if I was waiting for the right man to come along before I did it, well, I might just find myself out of time.”

Ms Sesay also talked about her decision to take control of her life, after much deliberation, by getting artificially inseminated. Talking through the process of getting a sperm donor and getting pregnant through IVF procedures.

“So, I decided to take control of my life and settle on the bravest and scariest decision I have ever made: to have a baby on my own. I had many long conversations with myself and tried to get to grips with questions about what it would mean to not have the support of a partner, both emotionally and financially. How would I handle society’s questions? What would being a single parent mean for my child?

“The process hasn’t been easy. The endless array of meetings with various doctors has also required a battery of blood tests, pelvic exams, bruising injections, nausea-inducing medication and an unexpected fibroid surgery.”

Going further to share as how the decision has forced her to ask tough questions about herself and her values, Ms Sesay wrote: 

“But perhaps most challenging of all has been the emotional dimension of this journey, especially surrounding my choice of a sperm donor. The decision asked of me to confront questions surrounding the importance of the race, ethnicity, religion and educational background of my child’s father. Essentially, it forced me to re-examine my own upbringing, values and worldview. But harder still was the task of trying to tease clues from the questionnaires that would tell me whether a donor was a good man? Did he have a moral compass? Was he truly kind, empathetic, open-minded? Ultimately, I made a decision — entirely on my own — and I have no regrets.”

The broadcaster, who is undoubtedly excited about her pregnancy, is hoping to use her story to provide the nudge and spark someone needs to begin their own pregnancy journey.

“Even though many weeks have gone by since then and my belly is growing larger by the day, whenever I say the words, “I am pregnant,” it is with no small measure of amazement. I am elated, emotional, terrified, but above all thankful.”