Supermodel Cheryl Tiegs is scared to be a mom again at the age of 52.
“It’s a very scary thing to do,” Tiegs tells next week’s People magazine.
“It’s about giving up control over something as important as your baby.”
Tiegs is expecting, thanks to a procedure in which the combination of her egg and her husband’s sperm was implanted in a surrogate mother.
The twice-divorced beauty says the woman acting as her surrogate will give birth to twin boys in July – bringing joy Tiegs never expected.
The model – who ruled the runways and magazine covers in the ’70s – had tried in vain to get pregnant by her third husband, yoga master Rod Stryker, over the past two years.
But after even in-vitro fertilization failed, Stryker suggested a surrogate – and a fertility expert introduced them to a candidate who was interested.
Tiegs underwent a fertility treatment to increase the number of eggs that could be harvested – and the resulting embryos were successfully transferred to the surrogate’s uterus on the first try.
Over the past seven months, Tiegs says she’s felt “very protective” and constantly wonders “whether or not she was eating right, what if she got sick, is she doing OK. I had to let that go.
“I’m not trying to impose my life on [the surrogate] but at the same time, I’m trying to be supportive and nurture her through it.”
The blond stunner, who has an 8-year-old son, Zach, by one-time hubby Anthony Peck, insists she’ll be a better mom now than in her modeling prime.
“I was so excited about my career. I have a lot more patience today. I don’t have to prove anything anymore. I can concentrate on my family now,” she says.
Tiegs – recently thrown a baby shower by pals, including actresses Suzanne Somers and Mimi Rogers – won’t say how much she’s paying the surrogate, and refuses to identify her.
“What [Cheryl] is doing is amazing,” Somers told People.
“We’re about the same age, and I couldn’t imagine having children right now.”