26 S MAGAZINE ★ 28 JULY 2019
closer together, with each acting as the
other’s surrogate mother.
“We mother each other and we have
a very tight bond. She was there for me
every step of the way and I don’t know
where I’d be without her,” says Lisa.
“Victoria has since told me she felt
helpless when I was going through this
because she couldn’t make it right for me.
She always had this blinding faith that
I would conceive, that I would be a mum
like her [Victoria has two little girls]. And
of course I was, in the end, but in a very
different way.”
The final few chapters of the book focus
on adoption and how Lisa’s life changed
when she found Billie. But she remains
open about the fact that this wasn’t
something she originally thought she
could do. Both she and Chris initially felt
the challenges of adopting might be too
difficult for them to deal with and it was
only after several meetings and workshops
with an adoption agency that they changed
their minds.
“We all find family in a different way.
I believed, underneath it all, that it would
come because my choice was to be a
mother any way that I could,” says Lisa.
“If I couldn’t conceive, I still wanted to
be a mother and that’s a big decision for
people to make. Some people go, ‘Do you
know what? If I can’t conceive, I don’t want
to be a mother.’ Or maybe they want to be
a mother in a different way. Once I started
down the adoption route, there was no
other choice for me.”
It’s a decision Lisa has never regretted,
either. Although there have been highs and
lows, her daughter is the best thing that
ever happened to her, she says, and her
arrival marked a new chapter in her life.
She is happy that she can now share her
book with Billie, too.
“It was important to me that Billie
was old enough to be able to read it and
understand it,” she says. “She’s very
strong and much better at handling her
emotions than I am. She holds my hand,
going, ‘Don’t cry, Mum.’”
The other person Lisa wanted to share
the book with is her fiancé, the chef and
MasterChef judge John Torode, to whom
she got engaged at Christmas after six
and a half years of dating. She says he was
the one who initially encouraged her to sit
down and write the book.
“When I told him about my idea, he
said, ‘You’ve got to do this.’ He’s been so
supportive, because of course I’ve been
sitting there in the kitchen tapping away on
my computer and things have been coming
John and Lisa
are planning an
autumn wedding
Lisa with her
dad and younger
sister Victoria
With Nicola Stephenson
and Angela Griffin
With her daughter, Billie
PHOTOGRAPHS: CHRIS TERRY / SHUTTERSTOCK / INSTAGRAM @LISAFAULKNERCOOKS
