Is 43 the new 35? Anne Hathaway, (and the rest of Hollywood) take on the geriatric pregnancy myth
Anne Hathaway just blew up one of society’s most stubborn taboos.At 43, the Oscar winner is expecting her third child with husband Adam Schulman, and her announcement has reignited an age-old debate: When, exactly, is a woman supposedly “too old” to become a mother?Hathaway shared the pregnancy on Instagram with a video that has racked up more than 18 million likes, sparking a fresh conversation about fertility, age and the pressure women still feel to follow an outdated timeline.And “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Odyseey” star is far from alone.A CDC report found that birth rates for women 30 and older climbed from 1990 through 2023 — and births among women over 40 recently surpassed teenage pregnancies for the first time ever.Amplified by the reach of fame, the celebrity baby boom is challenging decades of fear and judgement around advanced maternal age.Look no further than Hathaway’s video, the comment section flooded by women celebrating the reminder that motherhood doesn’t come with one expiration date.And 43 in particular appears to be a bit of a magic number among celebrities: Singer and beauty mogul Gwen Stefani, former Team USA soccer player Carli Lloyd and actresses Claire Danes and Sienna Miller all learned they were pregnant at that age.Miller, who had her first child at 29 and her second at 41, told Glamour that being pregnant with her second and third child in her 40s was “the best” because she felt more grounded and less scattered.
By 40, she said, “I kind of know who I am.I don’t really give a shit about what anyone else thinks.'”Danes described a much more complicated reaction.On Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast, the mother of three remembered having a “meltdown” after discovering she was pregnant with her third child.
She also admitted on the “SmartLess” podcast that she felt a “funny shame,” as if “I had been caught fornicating past the point I was meant to” and stepped “outside the paramete...