Having dated long-distance, briefly split, and reconnected in 2022 after Francesca’s run on Perfect Match, the pair announced their engagement in April 2023 and soon after shared they’d be postponing wedding planning while they focused on having a baby.
“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 told Laverne Cox at E!’s 2024 People’s Choice Awards in February. “So, hopefully we can have a baby first and then do the big wedding after.”
By that point, Jesse—who came out as transgender in 2019—and Francesca had already begun exploring in vitro fertilization (IVF), an experience they’d document on social media.
“We’re really excited to get it started and take you along with us because I know a lot of people don’t show this process,” Francesca said in a 2023 YouTube video with Jesse. “He was even trying to look up trans men who have done this, and it’s so hard and there’s not a lot of information out there. So, we got you guys.”
Jesse started the IVF process first, with his egg retrieval taking place on his 34th birthday in August 2023.
“He had eight eggs retrieved,” Francesca later shared on TikTok. “Out of the eight, five were turned into embryos and three survived. So we have three of Jesse’s embryos ready to go in the freezer.”