Francesca Farago Details Health Complications That Led to Emergency C-Section of Twins
Francesca Farago and Jesse Sullivan’s road to their newborn twin babies was not smooth sailing.
The couple documented their experience in detail on Snapchat both ahead of and after Francesca underwent an emergency C-section for their twins—a boy and a girl—whom they welcomed on Nov. 11.
Prior to going in for the surgical procedure, the Too Hot to Handle star shared on Snapchat, “I’m just scared, obviously, because of everything that can go wrong so quickly.”
The Netflix star was previously admitted to the hospital over the weekend after the couple’s baby boy was having a “growth restriction,” and she felt a lack of fetal movement, combined with Francesca’s own itchy hands. Doctors became concerned that the itchy hands were a symptom of cholestasis—a condition that impairs the flow of bile to the liver—though there was not enough time to perform a proper blood test to confirm.
After getting discharged from the hospital on Nov. 9, the itching returned on Nov. 10, and they were urged by doctors to return to the hospital.
As Francesca explained, they arrived at 4:45 a.m. the next morning, sharing that they were rushed into an emergency C-section by 6 a.m.
Noting that her son “basically had no fluid left,” Francesca shared, “thirty minutes later, my OB’s here, they’re rushing me in. They’re like, we’re taking these babies out right this second.”
However, the social media-savvy couple did take a moment during the prep to get in some content.
“I literally didn't even have time to think,” Francesca said. “I was like, 'Do you mind if I film two TikToks quick?'"
But the complications didn’t end there. Francesca also shared that she experienced a “calcification of the placenta.”
“Baby boy’s placenta was stuck to the wall of my uterus,” she explained. “It was calcifying so I wasn’t able to save my placentas because she wanted to send them off for testing.”
And once the babies—whose names the couple have not decided on yet—were out, Francesca herself began experiencing additional complications.
“I was having blood clots and I was bleeding a lot, which is normal with twins,” she said. “[The doctor] literally had to use her arm to go into my uterus to pull out blood clots. And she actually had to do that again after I was fully awake and could feel everything.”
Calling it the “worst pain,” she’s ever experienced, Francesca added that she’s had to take heavy pain medicine in order to not be screaming out in the hospital.
“I hate these things I have to take,” she said. “But if I don’t take them, my body, it feels like someone has their fingers inside my body and is pulling.”
As a result of the experience, Francesca wants to shed a new light on the pain that C-section mothers endure.
“I feel like I wasn’t prepared for all the pain and everything else, the bleeding, the blood clots,” she said. “I was not prepared because social media doesn’t really tell you about that. They kind of make C-section seem like the easier way out. I don’t know. I thought C-sections were easier.”
On Nov. 12, Francesca wrote on Snapchat, “I do feel like I’d feel at least 85% better if I didn’t have to take any pain meds and my entire body wasn’t super itchy!”
She also shared a photo of her bare postpartum belly, writing, “Omggg.”
To look back at Francesca and Jesse's romance, read on.
Though Francesca Farago tried her luck with love on a few reality dating shows, including Too Hot to Handle, she met her perfect match in Jesse Sullivan while hosting an event online.
“TikTok hired me to host an event for Pride Month,” Francesca told Elite Daily in 2023. “It was over Zoom. It was a TikTok live event with Willow Smith and the app’s LGBTQ+ Trailblazers. I interviewed three people and Jesse was one of them. We met on Zoom and just fell in love very quickly.”
And though her time on season one of Netflix’s Perfect Match (which aired in 2023) didn’t work out, Francesca knew that fate had bigger plans in store.
In fact, as the reality star shared in a TikTok, “Literally the minute I left that villa, I texted Jesse, and I was like, 'Hey, are you still single? I'm traumatized and do you want to hang out?'"
And the rest is history. Since then, the pair have shared insight into their romance on social media. “We’re just so in love, and I feel that’s obvious with what we post,” she told Elite Daily. “Some couples share a filtered version of the happy times, but they don’t post anything negative. We actually don’t have any negative times. It’s all positive.”
Two years after they first met, Francesca and Jesse were ecstatic to start a brand new chapter together.
“WE’RE ENGAGED,” Francesca shared in a May 2023 Instagram post, “a glimpse into the most magical night ever, obsessed with our family… what is life!!” Fast forward to early 2024, and the couple made it clear that they were keen on starting a family, even before their nuptials.
"We want a huge wedding, but I think it would be so cute if we had a little baby in our arms or two babies in our arms at the wedding," Francesca exclusively told Live From E! host Laverne Cox at the People’s Choice Awards that February. "So, hopefully we can have a baby first and then do the wedding after."
And as predicted, Francesca and Jesse—who is dad to teenager Arlo from a previous relationship—announced they were expanding their family.
"We wanted to take this special day to celebrate this amazing milestone with all of you," Francesca wrote on Instagram March 31. "We've brought you with us through the loss, so we couldn't wait to bring you along for the win. I am still pretty newly pregnant, and there's so much more to come, but we are so excited to be growing our family with Arlo as the coolest older sibling! AHH IM PREGNANT!"
As for Jesse, he was more than excited to share the news. "We're pregnant!" the influencer, who came out as transgender in 2019, captioned a clip. "Its been such a struggle to get here, but we felt like TDOV was the perfect day to let you all in on our celebration. Im so proud of @Francesca Farago for fighting her way to get here, and I fall more in love with her every day. Thank you for following our journey, and heres to more trans joy!"
A week after the pair confirmed Francesca is pregnant, Jesse shared they'll be adding not one but two more members to their family.
"We're having twins," Jesse wrote under his April 7 TikTok. "We know it's early but we're preparing for the best."