*48-year-old Tamron Hall and her husband, Steven Greener, welcomed their son Moses last month; hitting up social media at the time to announce: “Moses & Mama!!” Hall wrote, sharing a photo of herself wearing a hat with her son’s name, and holding the baby (see above). “I can’t wait to introduce y’all to my #sonshine. Photo credit: Dad who can’t stop crying tears of joy. Thank y’all for the love and support. It got us here.”
Now the veteran journalist is speaking out about why she kept her pregnancy a secret.
“I was high-risk, not just because of my age, but there were other medical factors too,” she tells PEOPLE.
“My doctor said, ‘This is your body, your health. You share of your journey what you want to share,’ ” Hall recalls. “I was terrified I would lose this baby and I would have to go back and tell everyone that now it was bad news, and after this pregnancy had gone so far.”
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— People (@people) May 22, 2019
Adding, “I just wasn’t mentally prepared to deal with that. That’s why I waited. And trust me — if I could’ve gone the whole way to delivery, I would’ve.”
In February 2017, Hall exited the “TODAY” show shortly after it was announced that Megyn Kelly was taking over her timeslot.
“I leaned on my friends, my family. I cried. They weren’t pity cries; it was the reality of fear,” she told PEOPLE at the time about her emotional departure.
Meanwhile, when it comes to motherhood, Hall tells the publication’s latest issue that she initially tried fertility treatments in her 30s, and it was an epic fail.
“I knew that the clock was not on my side,” she says. “When I tried in my 30s, I still felt like I had some time, and the fertility clinic felt like a bright room. In my 40s I saw all the gray: The faces looked gray, the walls were gray, nothing seemed shiny and optimistic.”
Continuing, “Just like with my job search during that time, there were so many frustrations: I’m putting in the work, I’m taking care of my mind and my body and I’m being rejected. I’m thinking, ‘Wait a minute. What have I done wrong here?’ Somehow, like Rocky, I kept getting up.”
Hall will make her TV return in the fall when her new show “Tamron Hall” premieres in national syndication on Sept. 9.
Read more from Tamron Hall when the latest issue of PEOPLE hits newsstands Friday.