Anne Hathaway Gets Real About The 'Complicated' Side Of Pregnancy
"There's this tendency to portray getting pregnant, having kids, in one light, as if it's all positive,” the actor said.
Anne Hathaway, like many women out there, has not had an easy road to motherhood. The 39-year-old actor, who’s been open about her struggles with infertility and “conception hell,” recently spoke to WSJ Magazine about the painful side of pregnancy and the grief that comes with it.
When asked if she plans to have more children, the mother of two — who shares sons Jonathan, 6, and Jack, 2, with husband Adam Shulman — said she “could see us going for another one,” but knows how much effort and heartbreak truly goes into expanding a family.
"There's this tendency to portray getting pregnant, having kids, in one light, as if it's all positive. But I know from my own experience … it's so much more complicated than that," Hathaway told the magazine. "And when you find out that your pain is shared by others ... you just think, I just feel that's helpful information to have, so I'm not isolated in my pain."
"I mean, what is there to be ashamed of? This is grief, and that's a part of life," she added.
Hathaway announced her second pregnancy on Instagram in July 2019 with the caption, “It’s not for a movie ... #2. All kidding aside, for everyone going through infertility and conception hell, please know it was not a straight line to either of my pregnancies. Sending you extra love 💕.”
She also spoke about feeling isolated on her journey to parenthood while promoting the Amazon series Modern Love shortly after the pregnancy reveal, saying that there is no “one-size-fits-all approach to getting pregnant.”
“You get pregnant and for the majority of cases, this is a really happy time. But a lot of people who are trying to get pregnant: That’s not really the story. Or that’s one part of the story. And the steps that lead up to that part of the story are really painful and very isolating and full of self-doubt. And I went through that,” she told the Associated Press.
Hathaway told WSJ that welcoming kids into the world has completely changed her and admitted that she "didn't feel fully landed and fully here until I was a mom."
"It's not like I was lacking integrity, but it made me want to be completely, on every level, true to my word," she said. "And that meant stopping any nonsense that I had going on inside myself. And it's little breaks that you give yourself sometimes when you know that you're not being your best self."
The WeCrashed actor knows when it’s time to take a break, and famously stepped away from her career and social media — and gave up alcohol — to better herself and take care of her family.
Let’s take note: there’s nothing wrong with sharing the truths of parenthood — and of life. As Hathaway knows, it could personally affect someone ... for the better.
