Giuliana Rancic Says She's 'So Lucky' to Have Son Duke, 11, as She Looks Back on Her IVF Journey (Exclusive)

The former 'E! News' correspondent shares her son with husband Bill Rancic

Giuliana Rancic is grateful to have her son in her life.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the former E! News correspondent, 49, reflected on her journey to becoming a mom to her son Duke, now 11, whom she shares with husband Bill Rancic, 52.

"For me, my faith is very strong," the proud mom tells PEOPLE. "When we got married and we set out to start a family, we didn't realize that we were going to have the path we had, which was struggling to get pregnant in fertility."

"IVF [in vitro fertilization] thankfully, we're fortunate enough to have a wonderful healthy child, but we always thought we were going to...even in interviews before, Bill and I would say, 'Oh we want four kids.' But it's like, God gives you what is right for you."

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Related: Giuliana and Bill Rancic Give 'Inquisitive' Son Duke Scavenger Hunts in Every City They Visit

"And I think that we're just so blessed," Giuliana continues. "We're so lucky. It was such a hard time in our lives when we were going through IVF and even opening up about it, something that was so personal at the time was really not talked about as much publicly."

The journalist went on to share that she was so glad that she did open up about her journey, adding that people still approach her to thank for her sharing her story.

"I'm glad we did. I mean, the fact that our story impacted people makes it worth it for sure," Giuliana says. "But yeah, I mean we always say we're a small but mighty family and we are always together, the three of us. We have a lot of fun together."

Rancic and her husband welcomed their son via surrogate in 2012.

In 2019, Bill spoke with PEOPLE about how they manage to make traveling fun for their son Duke, who was 6 at the time.

“[Duke is] fortunate that he gets to come on the road with us,” Bill told PEOPLE. “He travels with us and in every city we give him a scavenger hunt."

"So when he is in New York City, he has to go to the top of the Empire State Building, he has to go to the Statue of Liberty — he’s 6, but we want him to experience these cities and really have some takeaway. It’s experiential learning.”

Giuliana added that her very active son not only loved to take part in their work travels but also in their work itself. “He loves anything to do with our jobs. I have a clothing line on HSN and he watches me on HSN.”

“The other day, I come home from HSN and I’m in my room unpacking and Duke has set up on the coffee table, all the products, and he’s like, ‘Mom, shoot me on your phone’ and he’s doing the presentation of [my] skincare line,” she said. “Then I asked if he wanted to watch and he said, ‘No, just make sure it gets on TV.’ ”

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