Emmerdale star Lisa Riley blasts sick AI post about pregnancy amid fertility struggles
Emmerdale star Lisa Riley, who has been open and honest about her struggles with fertility, was left feeling "really hurt" after an AI post claimed she was pregnant
Lisa Riley fell victim to an AI post(Image: ITV)
Lisa Riley was left feeling “really hurt” after an AI post claimed she was pregnant. The actress, 49, who has been in a relationship with her partner Al since 2014, has been open and honest about her fertility struggles in the past so was horrified to discover a recent post, which had been generated using artificial intelligence, claiming that she was expecting.
The star, who is best known for playing Mandy Dingle on Emmerdale, but has also appeared on Waterloo Road, Fat Friends and Three Girls amongst a host of other dramas during her lengthy TV career, revealed that even her family had started to believe that she was pregnant.
She said: “Someone had made a photograph with AI, bearing in mind all my struggles, me and Al, to make something say I was pregnant. Family members believed it and what upsets me the most is that I spoke so openly about the fact that I couldn’t get pregnant and then I woke up to all that. “
The Ennerdale star appeared on Friday’s Loose Women where she spoke candidly about the ordeal(Image: ITV)
During an appearance on Friday’s Loose Women alongside Kaye Adams, GK Barry and Denise Welch, the soap legend also explained that she has “no control” over what AI can do and it was a “horrible” thing to go through.
She said: “It’s insanity and it really, really hurts. People were saying it didn’t matter that I was 49, but it’s my life and I’ve got no control. People were saying congratulations but I can’t get pregnant and it’s horrible.”
Earlier this year, the former I’m A Celebrity contestant admitted that she would’ve done anything to become a mother but eventually came to the heartbreaking conclusion that it just “wasn’t meant to be” amid her fertility struggles.
She said: “I’ve spoken a lot about the fact that, me personally, being a Catholic, it was drummed into us that you don’t use contraception and you don’t have sex before marriage and everything, and that was in my head a lot.
“Then later in life, I did choose my career and [fertility tracking] apps weren’t available then to look at your cycle, and I waited and waited and found the right person in Al, and when it came to the time of trying, I couldn’t fall pregnant.
Lisa, who competed on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! in 2025, has been in a relationship with Al since 2014(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
“I look now at your happiness with your husband and the baby, and you have got that career, it’s amazing, and I wasn’t that lucky and tried everything until the point where Al turned to me and said, ‘You have to stop the IVF treatment, because it’s diminishing you and taking your personality away, you’re trying too hard’.
“Sometimes in life, it’s not meant to be. And I have to sit with you girls here today knowing that, however, I’m very lucky because of my family unit.”
She continued by saying that her nephews and niece have become “part of my jigsaw”, adding: “When I couldn’t get pregnant, and feeling so rubbish in myself, and I’ve said this a lot, I felt like a jigsaw with a missing piece.
