In 2016 the now 28-year-old, who has appeared in everything from Geordie Shore to Celebrity Big Brother and Ex on the Beach, was diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy and had surgery to remove her fallopian tube.
But before her ordeal she had no idea what an ectopic pregnancy was.
At the time, then 25, she was filming an advert for Geordie Shore when she started experiencing intense stabbing pain in her side.
Not knowing what they were she ignored the pain to focus on her busy working week.
For a while the passed, but then came back ten times worse.
"One day, I was filming an advert for Geordie Shore, the last series I was in, and I started feeling excruciating pains – not normal pain, it was like someone was digging a knife into the side of my body," she told Metro.
"I was still working, I had a really busy week in work – I had photo shoots, I had personal trainer days for my DVD, I was doing Geordie Shore press, I had press for my book that was coming out. But all that week, I was experiencing those excruciating pains."
But then came the moment she knew she had to get help.
"The pain felt like my organs were being ripped open, and I knew I needed to go to hospital. At that point, I was scared. I was really scared."
Charlotte told of how she didn't know the signs or symptoms to watch out for, so had no idea what her pain was being caused by.
Now she's urging every woman to learn the signs – after her fallopian tube and part of her ovaries needed to be removed.
An ectopic pregnancy happens when a fertilised egg attaches itself to a cavity outside of the uterus.
Most of the time this is on the fallopian tubes, but this can also happen on the ovaries or the cervix.
The pregnancy can’t be saved if this occurs, and the egg will be removed in an operation or using medicine.
It affects around one in every 80 to 90 pregnancies.
Often there are no symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy, and it is usually detected when a mother goes for a routine pregnancy scan.
If you do have symptoms, typically these will start to show between the fourth and 12th month of the pregnancy.
These can include:
- Vaginal bleeding
- Brown watery discharge
- Pain in your lower abdomen down one side
- Missed period
- Discomfort when going to the bathroom
- Pain in the tip of your shoulder – though it's not known why this occurs.
Following her ectopic pregnancy Charlotte battled depression.
She revealed in her diarised autobiography, Brand New Me, that she spoke to a psychiatrist following the trauma of losing her baby and initially keeping it secret that sparked her depression.
In the book, she wrote: “I’ve never experienced anything that compares to these thoughts and emotions I’m having now.
"I don’t know how to deal with it. I have so many scenarios going on in my head: the fact that I just lost a child, the fact that Gary isn’t there for us to help me cope with losing a child, the fact that I am still in love with him but he’s been off doing stuff with other girls."
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