Anne Hathaway attending a red carpet movie premiere in New York City.
Conceiving in Your 40s
Anne Hathaway is offering a blunt look at the realities of getting pregnant later in life. At 43, the Oscar winner is currently expecting her third child with her husband, Adam Shulman.
While attending the Odyssey premiere in New York City, she spoke candidly with Access Hollywood about her unexpected fertility journey.
“There’s always hope until there’s not, but when you get to a certain age, that hope looks like it’s 1 percent to 2 percent,” Hathaway explained. She noted that she and Shulman navigated the process with a “very, very healthy, realistic expectation, which was very low.”
A History of Heartbreak
The couple, who announced this latest pregnancy in June, are already parents to two sons: 10-year-old Jonathan and 6-year-old Jack. Hathaway’s immense gratitude stems directly from her past struggles with infertility.
“We’re overjoyed because we just know from personal experience that not everybody gets this, and certainly not when you want it — sometimes not ever,” she shared. She called the current pregnancy a true blessing that her family does not take for granted.
Hathaway has a history of speaking out about the darker side of conception. When announcing her pregnancy with Jack in 2019, she took to Instagram to tell fans her journey was “not a straight line” and offered solidarity to others experiencing infertility.
Suffering in Silence
Hathaway later disclosed the specific depth of her previous losses. Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2024, she revealed she suffered a miscarriage in 2015.
The timing of the tragedy was particularly agonizing. Hathaway was starring in the off-Broadway play Grounded, a role that forced her to simulate giving birth onstage every single night while privately grieving her own loss.
“It was too much to keep it in when I was onstage pretending everything was fine,” she confessed. This devastating experience made her realize that feigning pure joy online would be dishonest to women enduring the same silent pain.
Raising Boys with Emotional Depth
Hathaway stressed that women in the thick of infertility shouldn’t feel pressured to force a smile. She wanted to reassure them that it’s perfectly normal to lack grace during such a heartbreaking struggle.
Now preparing to expand her family once more, Hathaway remains fiercely devoted to raising well-rounded sons. “The thing about boys is they don’t make any sense until you get the stamina up, then once you get your stamina up, they’re a breeze,” she joked.
Beyond the humor, Hathaway highlighted the necessity of nurturing emotional intelligence in young men. She actively encourages her boys to identify and express their feelings, building a foundational emotional vocabulary that she believes is just as critical for boys as it is for girls.
