Ali Wong Gets Candid About Her Miscarriage

Ali Wong is on the cover of Health‘s November 2019 issue, out on October 11.

Here’s what the 37-year-old comedian had to say…

On her early stand-up: “It was very disgusting. It was all about sex. I had moved back from Vietnam and was single, living in San Francisco, and so horny. There were all these cute hipster men. It was fun. I would just go out with these guys and then talk about them onstage the next day. I would talk about their erectile dysfunction and stuff like that. If you can imagine, it was even dirtier than my [material] is now.”

On whether she was scared to talk about her miscarriage: “No. I remember hoping my husband’s parents wouldn’t be disappointed. It was this intrinsic concern. I didn’t want them to feel like their son married a bad seed—and they didn’t feel that way; they were very supportive. And there was nothing that would indicate that they would ever think that way, but that’s where my mind immediately went. Yes. I didn’t realize miscarrying was a thing that could happen. That’s why I told everybody. I told the lady who cleans my house, and when she found out I was seven weeks along, she told me I shouldn’t be telling people. Now I know why. It’s because then you have to tell everyone the bad news. Some people have insensitive reactions. Like, they will ask if it’s because you had sushi or you were performing too much. They want to point to some cause and don’t realize how bad that makes you feel.

On the lesson that took her the longest to learn: “Figuring out my relationship to my body and accepting that it’s going to be what it’s going to be. I’ve had two C-sections—I’d show you, but I don’t want to get Me Too’d. But if I am naked, you can see my belly is a little lopsided over my scar. I have a keloid thing that runs in my family. Some women will have scars that look like little strings of floss. Mine looks like a finger. It bummed me out for a while, until one day, I was like, ‘It is what it is. I got two beautiful girls out of it.’ I’d like to say it’s a celebration of my body, but if I am being truthful, it’s not—it’s just that it doesn’t bum me out anymore.”

For more from Ali, head to Health.com.