In 2023, Florence Welch stepped on stage to perform. She had no idea her life was in danger.

In the summer of 2023, Florence Welch thought she was experiencing the wonder of her first pregnancy. At 37, the Florence + The Machine singer had conceived immediately after she and her long-term partner decided to start trying for a family.

What followed was a medical nightmare that nearly cost her life.

The ethereal vocalist has finally broken her silence about the "emergency surgery" that forced her to pull out of multiple festival appearances in late 2023. Back then, she posted a mysterious message on Instagram, telling fans that while the operation had "saved [her] life", she wasn't ready to share the full story.

"Suffice to say I wish the songs were less accurate in their predictions," she wrote at the time.

Speaking to The Guardian, Welch has now revealed the harrowing truth: she suffered a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy that ruptured while she was performing on stage.

Watch: Jessie Stephens shares personal essay on miscarriage. Article continues after video.

When Welch and her boyfriend — a musician she chooses not to name publicly — first started trying to conceive, she was pessimistic about their chances. 

"I thought, 'There's no way, because I'm ancient,'" she laughed about being nearly 37.

But pregnancy happened straight away.

"It was a big shock. But it felt magical, as well. I felt I had followed a bodily instinct, in that animal sense, and it had happened."

But the joy was short-lived. Early in the pregnancy, before they'd told anyone their news, Welch began bleeding and assumed she was having a miscarriage. Having never been pregnant before, she accepted her doctor's reassurance that while miscarriages were "devastating," they weren't typically "dangerous".

With a major festival performance in Cornwall just a week away, Welch decided to push through. It was classic behaviour for the performer, who once famously continued a gig after breaking her foot on stage and bleeding everywhere.

"With physical stuff, I have a strange, otherworldly strength," she explained. "Emotionally, I'm an absolute nightmare. Literally, will crumble. But broken bone? Fine. Internal bleeding? Let's go."

The day of the Cornwall festival, Welch felt terrible. She was pale, bleeding heavily, and experiencing significant pain. Her doctor mentioned the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy — where a fertilised egg implants outside the womb — and suggested she get checked out as a precaution.

Image: Getty

But Welch had a show to do. She popped some ibuprofen, slipped into her white lace dress, and walked onto the stage in stormy, muddy conditions.

"Women! It's funny. I took some ibuprofen and stepped out on stage," she said. 

"I was in the elements, in the wind and rain, and I just felt something working through me," she recalled. Remarkably, the pain vanished as she performed. "And I felt this thing take over, the thing that's always there, the safe space of performance."

For Welch, the stage has always been her sanctuary — the one place where her anxious mind finds peace. "My sister says it might be because everyone's looking at me. Like, 'Your most peaceful place is where you're the f***ing centre of attention?'"

The show was incredible. But as soon as she stepped off-stage and onto the tour bus back to London, the pain came flooding back.

The scan that saved her life.

Waking up the next morning feeling better, Welch almost skipped her hospital appointment. She was so confident that everything was fine that her boyfriend didn't even accompany her.

"Do you know the f**ked-up thing?" she said. "I didn't want to go for the scan. I thought, 'I've done this show, I'm fine, I can cope'. But my doctor's insistence that I come in saved my life."

During the ultrasound, everything changed. The sonographer's pause told her everything she needed to know. Her fallopian tube had ruptured, and she was bleeding internally.

"I had a Coke can's worth of blood in my abdomen," she said.

Emergency surgery was required within the hour. The damaged fallopian tube couldn't be saved, and had to be removed entirely. In a moment of pure terror, Welch's fight-or-flight response kicked in — she literally tried to escape while still in the examination stirrups.

"It was animal instinct. Like, 'Run,'" she said, managing to laugh through her tears. "But there was an [ultrasound wand] inside me and a woman I'd never met before, and I was like, 'Gotta go!'"

Image: Getty

Had she boarded her planned flight to another festival, the consequences could have been fatal. "If I'd got on that plane, I'd have come off on a stretcher. Or worse."

Back home after surgery, the full weight of what had happened hit her.

"I think the sound that came out of me was like a wounded animal or something," she said, her voice breaking. "And then, that was that."

True to form, Welch was back performing just 10 days later.

Looking back, she describes the experience as "the closest I came to making life was the closest I came to death. And I felt like I had stepped through this door, and it was just full of women, screaming."

Ectopic pregnancies occur in approximately 1 in 90 pregnancies and can be fatal if not treated promptly. The pregnancy cannot continue and must be ended through medication or surgery.

By sharing her story, Welch joins other women breaking the silence around pregnancy loss and reproductive health complications — proving that even our darkest moments can become sources of connection and healing for others.

Feature Image: Getty.