Nancy Kerrigan reflects on miscarriages: 'I felt like a failure'

April 12 (UPI) -- Nancy Kerrigan says she "felt like a failure" after having a series of miscarriages.

The 47-year-old former Olympic figure skater discussed her struggle to have children in the April 24 issue of People after going public about her six miscarriages on Dancing with the Stars.

"The first time that you go in and they tell you, 'Oh there's no heartbeat,' it's devastating," Kerrigan admitted. "I felt like a failure."

"[My husband], Jerry [Solomon], asked me if I was sure I wanted to keep going. It was hard for him for see me hurting," she said. "But I wasn't ready to stop trying."

Kerrigan welcomed son Matthew in 1996 after marrying Solomon, her then-agent, the year before. She had several miscarriages before undergoing in vitro fertilization and giving birth to son Brian in 2005.

"I think about it now and remember we couldn't come up with a name for Brian," the star recalled. "I wonder if we probably were afraid to come up with a name because that makes you close and we could lose him."

Kerrigan successfully underwent IVF again and welcomed daughter Nicole in 2008. She said on Monday's episode of Dancing with the Stars that it was her longtime dream to have several kids.

"Since I was 10 years old, I always wanted to have three kids by the time I was 30," the star shared. "Not long after having Matthew, we thought, 'We want to have more kids,' so I got pregnant, but I had a miscarriage."

"It was pretty awful. You feel guilty and like, what did you do wrong?" she confessed. "I had six miscarriages in eight years. It was really hard, actually. It almost felt shameful because I couldn't do it on my own."

Kerrigan shared her story for "Most Memorable Year" week on Dancing with the Stars. She and partner Artem Chigvintsev scored a 33 out of 40 with their foxtrot to the Rascal Flatts song "My Wish."