Gospel singer Israel Houghton and wife Adrienne Bailon stopped by the Sherri show on Wednesday where they shared why they decided to keep their surrogacy pregnancy a secret. 

The couple’s son Ever James was born during a home birth on August 25th, 2022.

Adrienne shared with Sherri that she and Israel had already been through so much that she just didn’t want anyone else’s opinion and she needed to protect her peace during the surrogacy process.

Hopefully I could share my story and bring someone hope at some point, but it needed to be when I had hope.

“It was important to me for my own mental wellbeing and for my family,” Bailon says. “I was just like, ‘I’m just not going to say anything.’ It was actually very peaceful that way. You didn’t have other people’s opinions.”

The former The Real co-host also shared with PEOPLE that the highs and lows of trying to conceive were mentally taking a toll on her.

“It was important to me for my own mental wellbeing and for my family,” Bailon shared. “I was just like, ‘I’m just not going to say anything.’ It was actually very peaceful that way. You didn’t have other people’s opinions.”