Now What? with Brooke ShieldsSportscaster, podcast host and new mom Erin Andrews joins Brooke for the last episode of the season! The Fox Sports mega star talks about her most embarrassing sideline gig, and why she feels she has to work harder than her male counterparts. Plus, Erin opens up about her decade-long fertility struggles and gives a candid perspective of the surrogacy process.
What do you do when life doesn't go according to plan? That moment you lose a job, or a loved one, or even a piece of yourself. I'm Brookshields and this is now What, a podcast about pivotal moments as told by people who lived them. Each week, I sit down with a guest to talk about the times they were knocked off course and what they did to move forward. Some stories are funny, others are gut wrenching, but all are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and every setback is accompanied by a choice, and that choice answers one question. Now what, there's a there's total total sisterhood. And then Nanny Connie for sure, I.
Know, teach me, please God, teach me.
Oh she's the best. So she made you let's see potato chip cookies.
Yet I know, and I'm pissed off.
Tell her to get get on that.
I don't know about you.
I absolutely suck at anything domestic in my life. I basically feel like I'm back at college. I'm learning everything. And you know, when she asked me, do you have this, prime example, do you have a bunt cake pan? My husband then looks for her and goes a bum cake, No idiot, no a bunt. I don't have one, girl, Go to your neighbor and go get one.
We got.
I mean, I am learning, burping the baby, changing the baby. What I'm missing in my kitchen. It's been a real tutorial over here.
My guest today is veterans sportscaster and new mom Aaron Andrews. Aaron has been in the game for decades, as a fixture at Fox Sports and a familiar face to millions who watched the NFL e tweek. Outside of football, she's covered in a number of other pro sports, host a TV shows, has a successful clothing line, and co hosts the podcast Calm Down with fellow sportscaster Carissa Thompson. Aaron is down right impressive. She's one of those people who seems to meet every challenge head on. I am grateful for her time and vulnerability, and I hope that you enjoy our conversation as much as I did. Here is Erin Andrews. First of all, congratulations, Oh thank you, and nice to meet too. Nice to meet you too, baby Mac. How old is see?
So he is going to be I guess he was. He's gonna be six weeks this week? Yeah, hey, can I just ask as a mother? My husband and I are having a really hard time when you like see a couple or you see a mother and you're like, oh, how old your baby and they're like seventeen months? And he's like, are we going to be those people? Because I don't know if I am, maybe I will be. A lot of stuff is already surprising me. I feel like I'll be like, well, he's a little over a year, But what is with the calculation?
I can't do math that fast.
That's such a funny question, you know. I think it's that your life changes so drastically that you're just and the days feel so long. Then the years go by really quickly. So I think that it's just this documentation of like, and that was another day I survived. Oh wait, we got through a week, you know. So I do think that that it's this like it's like a badge of honor to be like seventeen months and four.
Days exactly in fifteen minutes.
It's like a life sentence, except you're you're checking off the days. Yeah, because your life will never be the same. However, you won't trade it for anything, but by the same token. They they're total strangers. Yeah, and they live off of you, like in your house, and it's it's bizarre, Like it's very strange. You guys have to get to know each.
Other exactly well, and even more so for me because there's no connection in terms of me carrying him, you know, I almost feel like it's so interesting the guy in the relationship. They always talk about, you know, the person that didn't carry the baby, and how you know whoever that is didn't really connect with the baby and it takes a minute.
And so that's.
Something with Nanny Connie that when I normally live in La and we have a place out here in Montana, and she said, after you have this baby, let's go to Montana because we're here, and I don't you know, a lot of my friends didn't come out this summer, which is good because I'm in it with him.
Trying to learn him.
So I don't know if that's something I've kind of created in my head, but I feel like, even more so, my connection is something I'm trying to create with him.
So for people that don't know who Nanny Connie is, she's a legend, an angel, she's an angel iventioned a baby whisper. She is, and she is a baby nurse amed nanny. You know, I worked with her from my with my second daughter, and a lot of it is I had to learn how to do certain things too. But she takes away the fear because we're not giving a book. There's no rule book. There's also a lot of guilt, like I had a tremendous amount of guilt with my first daughter because I had really bad postpartum depression. But I'm sure she tells you, I mean, you are that baby's only mama.
Oh yeah.
I like study his face and she will constantly say in the background, that's your baby, that's your baby. And it's like, oh, you know, because it took me like nine ten years to get him with all my trials with IVF and so forth, and failed pregnancies and failed circuses and so forth. So yeah, all the things. She's an angel. She's a nurse, she's a nanny, she is a therapist. She is like a bit of you know, heaven in your living room. It's pretty amazing.
I totally identify with I mean, I went through IVF seven times.
Oh wow, I didn't know that you went you.
Eight, you said eight.
Nine.
Yeah, oh god, it's just it's so heartbreaking, and it's it's worse like my husband would see me rip off the estrogen patches, you know, I would be bleeding and then lost pregnancies. And and then when you really start talking to people and you realize how common it is, you know, but is your h how is your schedule going to change with the with the start of the NFL season.
That's going to be the hard part for me. That's why this month has been so good for us. And we get home in a couple of weeks and it's just like boom, here we go. And you know, if I have a random, you know, athlete calling me for the game I'm studying for, if we have a you know call change for you know, we are our life is based off of what the teams that were covering schedule basically, So if we have a set schedule with a head coach and a quarterback at nine am on a Tuesday, but then practice didn't go right, he's injured, we go off of them. So then we had, you know, and so my life has to kind of change. And then of course I travel and I go do sit down interviews, and I'm there for the game, and I pray the game doesn't go too long so I can get back on my flight and get home for that night. You know, we miss Thanksgivings, we miss Christmas, so a lot of anxiety all wrapped into one. And it's about to happen in four to five weeks, which is absolutely crazy. But again, the good thing with Connie is she's been with people like you. She's been with people that have really hectic schedules, and she's like, baby, we'll get through it.
But you've been in sports and you've been a sideline reporter for so many years. You've covered college football, You've covered the NFL, and then you also covered baseball, hockey, basketball, and even NASCAR.
I mean, I did one stont on NASCAR, and it was my biggest nightmare in the whole world, my big nightmare. And I'm interested to know what yours is coming from the acting world. Mine is I wake up, I'm at a game or I'm at an event that I don't know why I didn't prepare for, because preparation for me is insane. It's half of the reason why I have wrinkles or anxiety. So NASCAR, the one event. I had just signed with Fox Sports. I'd been with ESPN for eight years. Here she is, they're rolling her out for their big event at Nascart's before football. I don't know anyone like I will do my best studying. And they had played it off. They said, no, no, no, no, no, it's a fun walk and talk. You're just gonna go out, you know, before the race, and you're going to talk to all the drivers right before they get in their cars. I'm like, okay, I can bys with the best of them. I had studied the people that they said we we're going to go to all right, we're going to send it down to the newest member of our Fox Sports family, Aaron Andrews, her debut at NASCAR. Well, she's just going to catch up with some of the drivers and see what they're up to second before they go into their car. Guys, thanks so much. I'm so thrilled to be here. It's an honor. I'm so excited. Let's head over to that driver's not there. Let's okay, Well they're not there, Well, we'll come back later. Let's head over to where danikapet everybody. Brooke went to go pee. I had no one to talk to. Nightmare coming true, and I was like, oh my god, oh my god, finally fifty cent is here. Fifty I mean, you know, it was horrific, awful experience. So yes, that was my one NASCAR experience, and I am mortified. Whenever I see a driver, they're like, you remember that, I remember it? You know what I think about it at three thirty in the morning with chest pains.
You know, I can't even I can't even imagine keeping all of the information. So how do you prepare? Do you? What's like, what's your homework?
Like? So much so and I don't even use like three fourths of it right Like, I sit there with my big binder, my big trapper keeper on the sidelines in my arm.
I'm holding it.
I've got all my stuff typed out ready to go. If it rains, I get pissed off because it gets wet. I've got my notepad. We get packets every single day, so getting ready. In a couple of weeks, we are going to do a preseason game, and then two weeks after that we have Week one. So we're already now getting every day packets of every single article that was written of these teams, and when you are doing teams brook that are big time markets, like your New York's, your Philadelphia's, your Dallas. Dallas has like seven thousand writers. Your pamphlet is this big and I am so anal and probably something I need to let go and maybe baby Mac and Connie will teach me about that. I don't have to read every single one. But because I'm a female, because I never played, because I never want the NASCAR experience at the football game, I feel like I have to read everything. Then during the week we get on calls that are probably two hours long with the head coach, the quarterback, the star of the defense, the defense, which that teaches the defense. It's way more preparation that i'll, like I said, i'll ever ever use. But I am so like robotic that if I don't have that done, I feel like I will be paralyzed on the field. Which probably is a great session for doctor phil Why who.
Knows that type of preparedness that you are just describing is so important. But you also said something that was very striking to me. You said, because I am female, can you delve into that a little bit more? Is it more pressure.
Yeah, I mean, listen, I'll be honest. I'm fortunate to have one of three four spots on a Fox, NBC, ABC, But those spots, I mean, this is the starring role every sideline reporter wants. You know, I'm on the A crew. Yes, I worked my ass off to get here, but look, I never want to forget what got me here. And I think what got I know what got me here was the chip on my shoulder. I didn't play this sport.
You know.
When I first came up in the industry, I didn't want to be like everybody else. I didn't want to wear even though now oversized blazers and baggy pants are really in. And I was the first girl to maybe clip in a couple of extensions, and you know, dye my hair blonde a little bit and gave a gave a here's one from my mom, gave a hoot about what I, you know, looked like. But I also, I'm basically like I talk like the guys, I study like the guys, drink and eat like the guys. But yeah, I know that I will never have the experience of going back in the locker room and knowing how to turn this thing around at half time. Because I'm a female. There is more pressure, I know it on me because I am a female.
I've been thinking a lot about this lately, just how in both of our industries, really, what was always accepted an acceptable behavior the sexualization of women and how women were sexual life or even how they were spoken to or about, regardless of the quality of the work. Did you have to deal with that acutely when you first started your career.
You know, the crazy part is everybody always thinks it comes from an athlete or a coach or my dog's having his breakfast by the way, Sorry, I'm trying to mute the mic every time he's like eating the kibble.
Yeah. It wasn't by athletes.
It wasn't by coaches, it wasn't by general managers, sands well, fans. Yeah, and you know, my husband does not enjoy being on the sidelines very much because fans are absolutely they've been marinating, you know, since the morning. By the time they're at their game, they are inebriated. I had to deal with early in my career, and it's pretty interesting because it's something that I still think fuels me. I know it, you know, it's something that always upset in my family. Local writers. The stuff that was written about me in newspaper by local writers when I first came on the scene. If I ever went back and posted some of that stuff, it is mind blowing and wouldn't be allowed. And a lot of it was guys saw me as coming in with the ESPN's young girl. They saw how coaches and athletes maybe treated me differently, or saw the attention that they gave me, and they would voice their opinion pretty darn quick in their articles. And this stuff now would never be accepted.
Did you respond, did you feel the need to respond, or did you was it? Don't honor that with a response.
I try not to honor things, but I will never forget. I'm sure you're probably the same way. Anytime anything difficult has happened in your life, you remember who was there and who wasn't. I'm really good at remembering what people said there. I went through an experience, obviously it's well documented, where I stalked and my stalker videotaped me in hotel rooms.
I went through a huge.
Trial with it.
And I remember before when my family knew that the FBI was investigating, we were told do not say a word. Do not say a word, because they wanted to catch him in the act. They didn't want him to throw away evidence that he was keeping of all the places that he had stalked me.
And there was a real thought.
There was a lot of people said behind the scenes and even publicly, and I remember who they all are, that I did this to myself for publicity. Look, it's psycho and again things I need to let go in therapy. I remember every single person that said I did it to myself to help my career. And I've confronted some people because some of those people are in my industry and I see them on the sidelines and it's probably not healthy, but they try to be nice to me and because they see where I am now after fifteen years later. I've had situations on the field where I'm talking to a head coach and the head coach is like, oh, do you know so and so, And I'm like, sure do. He said on his radio show that I deserved this and I did it to myself to get higher.
How are you not healthy? Not the best thing to do, but.
Now, but you know what, come on, that's if you need that for yourself. You're you're not supposed to be superhuman. For God. That means I have stalkers, had them, there have been arrests made, I've been to court as well, you know, and you know I've had to face stalkers and and and what happened when then you'll find this too now as a mom, then there are certain things that become so off limits and you will, you will find that animal, ferocious person inside and you're and you're not fine. But thank God that you you you reclaimed that power and you fought it. You fought for yourself, and in doing that as a public figure, you're not taking it lining down. Who were the people that really were on your side that you were?
Family, your family, my family, a lot of coworkers you know also too. And then I don't know, you know what you've You've gone through so much in your life. I kind of like call that time in my life when I was trying to cope and deal with it my glazed over time. I wasn't really present, I was just glazed over. I was like, Hi, how are because I was still on television and I wanted to show everybody like, you know, there hadn't been an arrest.
I was going through a trial. I'm fine, I'm good.
I have a kind of a mailbox, buy my emails where I pushed all the supportive emails from friends, friends back home, friends in high school, and sometimes I'll go back and read them. But it's yeah, like there were so many great people that reached out during men.
I want to pivot back to to parenthood for another minute, just because I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy for Mac. You got a little boy. Did you want a boy or girl or did you have any Oh?
I definitely wanted a boy.
I mean he really didn't have a choice because I just we didn't have much left in the frozen bank. We had already lost two with another Saragate, and this was he was kind of like our last good one left. So yes, we definitely definitely want to. He waited, just he was like, that's what everybody says. It's so funny.
My first daughter had been frozen for two years. Oh my yeah, yeah, she was in the freezer for two years. All the other ones didn't take or took them, and I lost, you know, and I I was like, just put the rest in, let's take you know. See what happens, you know, but you know it's a very interesting thing. No, did you because when you have because I don't know this world. But when you interview, do you find us? Are again? Do you get to know her? Yeah?
Yeah, we're very lucky we were aligned. So after our first experience where we finally decided to do Sarahgacy, it was really hard to get to that point because it was just like, you still have hope.
Right.
My husband's a former NHL player, I'm very competitive in what I do. Haven't really dealt with much, I guess defeat, not winning, not being the top of your sport, your industry. So that was very hard kind of being like, we need help, and I think, well, I know when we decided that. On Easter of twenty twenty, when we're all locked down. Normally we're with all our friends that have kids to celebrate Easter and go have a good time with them. We were all locked down and we didn't have kids, and I just remember being like, this sucks, like it suck to be locked down anyways, but it just we what were we doing. We need to start a family, We need to get serious about this. So we decided then to find a saragacy group. Through loss we had gain. We had went one direction, we lost two of our embryos, but then it led us to this other group and this lovely woman who runs a I want to say company, but it's not. But it is a company where she aligns people with sarrogates and she became a family member.
Her name is Stephanie.
She's with family Match consulting anybody that's looking for advice or maybe help with this, I highly recommend her. She just holds your hand like you said, you didn't know anything. We didn't know anything, and it's a difficult and it's a really grueling process, especially when it doesn't work. Because I didn't have many embryos left. My doctor was very very strict, very thorough, very picky.
In who he chose.
We probably went through maybe I want to say, three to five women before we landed on our girl or woman, our saragate, our angel. And it consists of this in a nutshell. You first get a profile on them, you read all about them, you read about their life, they read about you. Then both parties decide if they want to meet. You get on a zoom, you meet them, You meet their better half. You talk about your story, you ball your brains out. Then you call your person back and decide if it's a match. If it's a match, then comes the contract, the legal process.
Which is all so fun.
Yes, so that's money that takes time. And then once you are in agreement about all of that, you then send her to your fertility doctor. They do thorough exams, so you wait a month or so to get results on that. Then if there's a match, you go. We had gotten to the point with like I said, three to five girls, that it came to this is a match. Or my doctor was like, I just looked at her, but I need her to be perfect because you only have one left. And plus he to me felt so bad that we had lost the two before and I didn't have that many. And so finally, after all of that, gosh, I think it took us probably about a year, we found our girl. And then comes the process of her going through the drugs, her going through you know, the transfer, her waiting the ten to twelve days to see if she's pregnant. You're pregnant. But as you know, Brooke, go you gotta overcome some hurdles. You gotta go, you know, so it's so growing. It feels like the longest marathon.
Did you share all this publicly?
Like?
Were you or was it?
I had always said when people asked after we got married, when are you guys going to start a family, I'd always said, oh, you know, we're working on it. But I had never really been too honest with how much we were working on it, that I was shooting up at games, that I was, you know, going through IVF every summer.
Did you wish you it's fuken about your fertility struggles earlier?
I think that, and it's a good not to turn the tables. I don't know when you decided to share it. I shared it after I think like the seventh or eighth try, where I was just like, I'm so tired of this. And I think it's like when I started realizing these waiting rooms are packed, there are so many women in here, there are so many couples in here, and what are we doing? Why are we not talking about this? So I think that's when I just got so done with it and so tired of it. I don't know if I wished I had, I am after seeing all the outreach that I and support I've gotten where women are like thank you, thank you, But for some reason, people just don't talk about it. I mean, what do you think with your journey?
I mean, I spoke about it pretty publicly. I wasn't ashamed of it at all. Yeah, I don't. That's just not the way I operate, you know. I'm like, this is my truth, this is it. I know I'm not the only one, so that, you know, for me, I spoke about it pretty quickly, but more so because I had such terrible postpartums, So that was when, you know, that was when I of course shared it. You know. I didn't feel I mean, I didn't feel obligated. I didn't feel like it was a responsibility. But I did feel that we need to talk about these things to take away the stigma. I'm no less a female, I'm no less a mother. I think it's important, and I think sharing the story. I don't think it is an obligation. I don't think it's because of a public figure. I don't believe that you are obligated to share your entire life with people. For me, it's cathartic because then I own my narrative and I feel that you have that strength as well. Do you keep reclaiming your narrative? What are some of the things about your life that you cannot wait to share with mac.
Or frightened? Just I don't know.
I think, do you want them to play sports? Like that's such a weird like as a mom, do you want them to play sports? Yeah?
I do.
I mean the other day, a preseason game was on and I was on the couch and holding him and feeding him, and I just looked.
At my husband. I was like, do you know how long I've been waiting for this?
Like I can't wait for in our house, it's always either the NFL network or the NHL network. And you know, I can't wait for him to go to the ring for the first time with his dad. I can't wait for him to put his first skates on. I can't wait to take him to a football field, not so much a game, but just to run around on the grass and see where Mommy's office is. I think that'll be really cool. I can't wait till him and my dog finally connect. My Golden retriever was having a really hard time just because he's not feeding him. He's not like you know, Max's just worried about. What's he worried about right now? The pacifier and maybe you know the bottle. But yeah, until mac has a treat in his hand, howie, my dog will not care.
But the dog's got to adjust too. I mean, the dog has ten six years all to himself. And now mom is a little bay tracked, and now it's gonna take a while. And then once he becomes once Max's not really a person yet, he's like a little and then once like my U, we had a big, big dog and at the time and dog always slept in our room. And then once the baby got to be a certain age, she just started sleeping outside of the baby's room and didn't never came back up to be with us, just stayed literally stayed in my daughter's room. Again, I should call this show now What because it is about those unexpected, like massively unexpected moments. Do you have a most significant now what moment?
Wait? Give me an example? Can you give me an example? I mean mine?
Now what was my biggest now what was probably having postpartum yea, getting my own television show like it was so positive. But I had to do it, you know, I had to. I had to show up, really show up. Getting into college that was a now what moment? It can be any it can be, Mac.
I mean it is, and it's because of how much you know it kind of not that it was my narrative, but it's been my life for so long. I you know, I think I said to my husband this summer, do you realize this is the first summer since we've met, I haven't been doing IVF. I mean, I you going on a trip and not having to schedule the trip when you're going to have your period, when you think you're going to have to go get an ultrasound, like your whole thing is, you know, based on your reproductive system, and it sucks. Yeah, Mac, I you know my career, I would say, finally, you know, being a part of a big football broadcasting crew something I've worked so hard for. I know, you know, like you talked about with your experiences in life, mine obviously stalking, might obviously lost with pregnancy and so forth. Be interesting to see what's now? Aren't you curious about that? Now that you've done what you've done with the television show, you came out about postpartum, Like, what's the next one?
I think you just finding them. You know, I started my own company and it's all based around new beginnings. It's called Comments, and it's for women over forty and it's and it's really it's my next sort of platform. I just want to sort of finish with your clothing line, because I mean it's called where by Aaron Andrews, and I love it because I think for years, Game day clothing for women was either cropped or sparkly, or super sexualized and not chic or the flip side sort of way to mail. Right, what made you want to create the line? Like, I can't believe it hasn't been done, and I'm so glad you did it.
Well, it's all those things that you mentioned. You know, I'm very much kind of like a basic Betty Tomboy kind of in my dress. Like I love an oversized blazer, I love a you know, a comfy V neck. I love a bomber jacket. All the things that we wanted to kind of make for women to be able to support their team wait for it anywhere and everywhere. I just I've been a sports fan my whole life, and I kind of just had a hard time figuring out what I was going to wear to games. I like, you know, cheering for my team during the week, but I don't need it like puked up you know on my chest that I am.
You're gonna have plenty of one.
I already did.
Last yesterday, we really got into the projectile point of the show and it was crazy. Anyways, So yeah, I like, you know, I a huge fan of my husband's team. I like to dress that support, you know, the Los Angeles Kings, the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Celtics, the Florida Gators where I went to school.
Not I vas NASCAR, baby.
But yeah, so I just I felt like there needed to There was such a huge white space as you mentioned, and I listen, we are still trying to knock doors down. Girl, I cannot wait to have a compis by it.
I love you for that.
Fanatics dot com where by EA dot com. It's in pretty much all the arenas and stadiums if you're heading out to an NFL game. But yeah, check us out. It's definitely been a labor of love. I didn't go to school for this. I'm learning so much. It's incredible the even now to this day, how many doors still get slammed in your face.
With you having success, Oh yeah, oh it and it never ends. But you know you've you've you've done it, and you're learning more and more and more and more. And isn't that great to be at this stage and to keep keep broadening your mind and your and your bag of tricks. So I think everything you're doing is wonderful. I lovely best, best, best of times as a mom, and you just savor, savor that little baby head. Smell tell Nanny Connie, I say hi, and give him back a kiss from me.
Oh you will.
That was Aaron Andrews. To hear more about what's going on in her world, go listen to her podcast Calm Down on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your shows. As for me, I'm taking a few weeks off to perform a one woman show. I have been writing it and rehearsing it for months. It's scary, in fact, it's terrifying, but it's also exciting. It's a gift and I can't wait to tell you all about it in the meantime. Stay safe, be kind, Thank you for listening. Now. What with Brooke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio Our lead producer and wonderful showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional research and editing by Darby Masters and Abu Zafar. Our executive producer is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Vahid Fraser.
