Soap star Adam Rickitt says autoimmune illness left him infertile

Hollyoaks’ Adam Rickitt has told how he has been left infertile as the result of an autoimmune disorder.

The soap star, 42, suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, which the NHS describes as a condition in which the spine and other areas of the body become inflamed.

He told OK! that he knew his wife, Good Morning Britain reporter Katy Fawcett, was his “soulmate” when he was told he would struggle to have biological children, as both felt happy with life being just the two of them.

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Rickitt told the magazine: “I have an autoimmune disorder called ankylosing spondylitis and one of the effects is decreased fertility. This lovely doctor was like, ‘Mr Rickitt, you’re supposed to have a sperm count of three million, you have two.’

"I said, ‘Two million?’ He said, ‘No, you have two!’”

Fawcett, who wed the actor in 2014, said she “didn’t really bat an eyelid” about the news as the pair had each other.

Rickitt revealed it showed him the couple were meant to be.

“It felt natural that it was meant to be just the two of us and our dogs,” he added.

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The actor starred as Nick Tilsley in Coronation Street and played Hollyoaks’ Kyle Kelly, who recently took his own life as part of an ongoing mental health storyline.

Earlier this month the actor opened up about his own mental health battle, revealing he suffered from anxiety and depression between the ages of 13 to 30.

Speaking on Loose Women, he said: “I’d reached a point where I was essentially praying to die. I would quite happily have killed myself. The only thing that stopped me from killing myself is that I knew my parents would blame themselves. And I didn’t mind ending my life, but I didn’t want to ruin their life.

“And I kind of reached a crunch point when I was 28-years-old and I got an opportunity to go to New Zealand. And it was meant to be for three months and it ended up turning into five years.

“And it just gave me that space and that time and that breath, to actually just go, ‘There is something out there for me.’... And that was the first time in 15 years at that point where for one moment I thought there was a chance of me being happy and ‘normal’.”