How’d She Do It? 52 Year Old Hillary Swank Announces She’s Pregnant With Third Child!

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, October 15th, and she has two kids and two Best Actress Oscars. And she's about to add to one of those tallies, at least very soon. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. And when I say that the actress is a 52-year-old, you might think, okay, then she's going to get another Oscar.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: Obviously, it's another award.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: It's not. This is a This is a cool story.

00:00:31
Speaker 2: It is incredible. Hilary Swank has announced she is pregnant with her third child at the age of 52.

00:00:39
Speaker 1: Does that have to be a part of a headline that Hilary Swank is expecting a third child? Does her age have to be in there?

00:00:47
Speaker 2: Absolutely. It does. Okay. Absolutely. Look, I'm 53. You and I have, oh, we have talked ad nauseum about how wonderful it would have been.

00:00:56
Speaker 1: Annoyingly so. Could have been.

00:00:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, to have had a child together. We would have loved it, but that ship has sailed. And yes, age is the number one reason. Also, the fact that I'm a cancer survivor also plays heavily into it. But yes, so this is hopeful to so many women who think, I'm out of the baby-making business. I am no longer able to have a child once you reach the age of, sometimes people would say, 40, 42. Yes, you are not guaranteed to be able to. Physically, biologically, for your eggs to actually be in good enough shape to actually have your own child biologically. And then to carry that child requires a certain amount of hormones and all sorts of things.

00:01:39
Speaker 1: Isn't it fair, though? Youth isn't a guarantee either. It doesn't mean just because you're 28 or 31 that you won't have complications or problems or difficulty or it takes time. So, yes, robes to see. And I went through, I just did a quick Google search and just put her name in. And look, the news articles and the headline, Hillary Swank, comma, 52. Hillary Swank, comma, 52. Expecting third. Hillary Swank, 52. It's all in the headline.

00:02:04
Speaker 2: It's a big deal. And look, I think it's a great headline, but it just needs to have some asterisks attached to it for a lot of young women who I think are hopeful and excited to think that they can focus on themselves, that they can focus on their careers, that they can kind of get their ducks in a row, live their life, get their party girl spirit out of them, whatever it is, before they have to start thinking about having kids. And look, I remember in my 20s feeling the pressure, like you better start having kids. If you want kids, you better do it before you're 30 or you are going to have problems. The chances of your children having issues go up, all of those things. So it's wonderful to think that that pressure can be lifted slightly for women in their 20s.

00:02:46
Speaker 1: All of that you just said is still true today. We just have better tools that could help women wait longer and be healthier and make it possible, I guess, though, Rose, but the challenges you faced or the stuff that was in your head when you were in your 20s, how much of that stuff has... Are women having those conversations now in their 30s, where you were getting warnings in your 20s? I think so. How is it shifting?

00:03:08
Speaker 2: I do. I think women, especially, I know this just because of my own daughters and their conversations, but yes, I think there is a general thought now among younger women that they can wait before they even have to start thinking about it until their 30s and 40s.

00:03:24
Speaker 1: Yes.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: Whereas before, I was told in my 20s, at 27, your fertility rate starts dropping every year. And that hasn't changed. That's all still true. That's still true. But look, the reality is it's not guaranteed that you're going to be able to, and you might be facing years of heartache and heartbreak and miscarriages and financial struggles of having to pay for all of these operations that are timely, costly, and painful. Emotionally, people talk about just all the things that it takes, all of the extra steps that have to be made oftentimes to have a child at this age aren't necessarily considered, and they should just be at least outlined or acknowledged.

00:04:05
Speaker 1: The fact that it still remains, and Hilary Swank's story is a perfect example. It's personal for everybody. Nobody can tell you what to do. And if it worked for them, because it worked for Hilary Swank, it might not work for you. We just don't know. This is so personal. All you can do is give everybody the most information, the best information you can, And Hilary Swank is helping in that regard, at least.

00:04:26
Speaker 2: And that's a really good way to put it. And so, yes, Hilary Swank, by the way, so yes, pregnant at 52. She has three-year-old twins that were born in 2023, Aya and.

00:04:37
Speaker 1: Om.

00:04:38
Speaker 2: And so she got pregnant when she was 47 for the first time, gave birth at 48, and now is pregnant at 52. But here is what she has been very open and honest about. She froze her eggs at the age of 37.

00:04:52
Speaker 1: You've always said this to me, babe. If you hear that a woman that's 50 had a baby, carried the baby, those eggs were frozen.

00:05:00
Speaker 2: They were frozen or they're a donor egg. And that is a very big, amazing, awesome, wonderful thing that younger women will provide. But yes, I've had several friends... And the way it's been described to me is you literally go through a book of baby pictures. They don't have the women who donated the egg, their adult faces. You see their baby faces. And then you can see if someone looks a little bit the way you did when you were a baby. You choose that woman's eggs for whatever reason, but a lot of it is the physical attribute because, yes, that child will resemble you and it will feel closer to a biological match. I would love.

00:05:38
Speaker 1: To look through that book.

00:05:40
Speaker 2: Isn't it interesting?

00:05:40
Speaker 1: I wonder if it's available online or something. That's fascinating, isn't it?

00:05:44
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have known that if I didn't have friends who went through it. And I thought that is actually a really smart way to do it. If that matters to you. For some people, it might not matter. But for people who want to have, especially when people are different ethnicities, which was the case with some of my friends, they wanted to have a baby that matched their husband's DNA with someone who had similar DNA to them.

00:06:03
Speaker 1: What would we pick? What kid would we be looking for? And again, it's all the mothers. The mothers. The donor egg mothers.

00:06:09
Speaker 2: Yes, because I would need a donor egg, so I would have to pick, like, I'm 92% German, so that would just be, like, a part of it maybe, and just you want to have a similar DNA makeup just so it's a similar blend.

00:06:20
Speaker 1: They don't tell you the background. You're just strictly looking at pictures.

00:06:23
Speaker 2: Well, no, they're pictures, and then, no, you can see a lot of times where they went to school. You can see, like, so you can see, like, intellect, all sorts of things.

00:06:30
Speaker 1: But ethnicity, they'll tell you.

00:06:31
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, and sperm donors, same thing. You can literally pick. On the other side of it, you know, just the attributes and all of that.

00:06:38
Speaker 1: But baby pictures are the same. You're going through guys' baby pictures.

00:06:40
Speaker 2: I don't know about that. I don't know anyone who did that, but I would think it was probably the same.

00:06:45
Speaker 1: Well, God, what would we be looking for? Some little German African-American kid with curly blonde hair and crazy eyes? Right.

00:07:03
Speaker 2: But yeah, so she's got these twins. It was actually really cute how she made the announcement on Instagram. It took some time. It was creative.

00:07:11
Speaker 1: This was well done.

00:07:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, the family, it's just cute. The twins and the husband all had glow sticks that made them look like stick figures dancing in the dark. And then she comes up. with a little glow stick, like a baby stick figure on her belly dancing. And it was really cute. And her caption was great about the baby's going to be due. Yes, everyone's been asking me what my new project is. Well, the release date is December. It was very sweet. So that's pretty cool. But she's talked about choosing to be an older mom and I, and she talked about it a lot because this is inspirational for a lot of young women. And she said, I always knew I wanted kids. And that's why she froze her eggs. And a lot of women do it earlier than that. But she said, I always knew I wanted kids. I wasn't planning what that would look like. So I know it's different for everyone. But for me, if I had had a kid in my 20s or 30s, I think I'd be a much different parent than I am now.

00:08:09
Speaker 1: Oh, that's true.

00:08:10
Speaker 2: I would be a much different parent now. In fact, it makes me sad because I know I would be a better parent now. There's no question.

00:08:17
Speaker 1: Well, of course. We all learn. I would have been a better student. I've been a better dad. I've been a better mate. I've been a better... Journalists, all kinds of stuff, given what we know now, but this is why we're here and we're learning. Do I have right? Help me here, babe. She froze her eggs at 37. Is that about the age? That was my question.

00:08:35
Speaker 2: That's a little older because, look, I think they've changed the age from geriatric pregnancy to advanced maternal age pregnancy. But after the age of 35, doctors do take different or more, just they take a more careful look at you and they care for you slightly differently because your eggs are older. There's a higher chance of complications after the age of 35. So yeah, she froze her eggs at 37, but certainly her eggs at 37. were far superior to her eggs at 47.

00:09:07
Speaker 1: But is the recommendation usually that women do it before that age?

00:09:11
Speaker 2: Before 35, yes. I mean, that would be the recommendation. But look, I think before 40 is very common too, because people don't know what they want. And that too is expensive to freeze your eggs. It's painful. It's a very long length of time. I know several people who've done it.

00:09:28
Speaker 1: But most women in their early 20s, even late 20s, most of us aren't at our peak earning potential to be able to do something like this.

00:09:35
Speaker 2: Correct. And I think you're always thinking, I'm going to meet the guy, I'm going to meet the person who I'm going to want to share my life with, and I'll wait for them. And so you're just, you're waiting, you're waiting, you're waiting. And then all of a sudden you look up and you're like, holy crap, I'm 40.

00:09:49
Speaker 1: And dating sucks in New York.

00:09:51
Speaker 2: And I can't find anybody. But when we come back, we're going to put this into perspective for you because Hilary Swank is just the latest. in a very surprisingly long list of celebrities who've had babies at 50 plus. Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. And a big congratulations to Hilary Swank, who is expecting her third baby in December at the age of 52. That is so remarkable. Now, the number of women having their first baby when they are over 35... has increased by more than 270% over the last four decades. That is wild. But I had both of my babies. I was 29 when I had Ava. I had just turned 33 when I had Annie. How old were you when you had your kids? You were young.

00:10:53
Speaker 1: I mean, you were pregnant. Yes, but I was still in college initially for the first, right? Sabine, I was 34, 35. 34, 35.

00:11:01
Speaker 2: When she was born.

00:11:04
Speaker 1: So that's probably around the age I should have been having kids and more appropriate. But yes, it's, again, you know what? To Hilary Swank's point, wasn't ready in her 30s. I wasn't ready maybe even in my 30s. Yeah. Right? Got there and things are great now, but I didn't know what I was doing.

00:11:24
Speaker 2: Oh my God, no. And I actually think, because yes, I started to become, I became a mom at 29. I would have loved to have become a mom like at 42. I feel like that is when I had gone through enough of life. I had enough perspective, but I was so hell bent on my career. It was a, it was a struggle. And Hilary Swank talks about how she was able to throw herself completely into her work. And she won two Academy Awards. And that's remarkable.

00:11:51
Speaker 1: Is it because she wasn't sweating it? Because I got my eggs hanging out here. I don't need to.

00:11:54
Speaker 2: It probably didn't hurt for sure. And look, I can imagine like the mom guilt I felt for the majority of my career still haunts me because you have to make tough choices and it's not easy. And so, yeah, to be able to focus on your career solely and then have kids, that's what a gift that is. But It's expensive. The decision to give birth after 50, they say can cost as much as $ 25, 000 to $ 30, 000 with egg donation for a single successful IVF attempt. That's what most women have to do when they use surrogates because their bodies just aren't capable of not only conceiving a child, but keeping a child and delivering a healthy baby. The fact that Hilary Swank was able to use her frozen eggs... and her 52-year-old body was able to receive that is incredible through IVF. But it was expensive.

00:12:47
Speaker 1: Okay, that sounds incredibly pricey. It's expensive. And you talked about the, I may well just try to Google it here, and I'm sorry I don't know the answer to this. The first step, if a 29-year-old woman wants to go in and just freeze her eggs for now, forget the process later, but just that egg retrieval and storage.

00:13:03
Speaker 2: That's thousands of dollars.

00:13:05
Speaker 1: It's tons, right?

00:13:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you have monthly fees, like storage fees for the eggs. So, yes, this is an expensive endeavor to be able to have a baby much later in life. And a lot of people in their 50s, when they make headlines, they've adopted. But those who have actually had their– Janet Jackson, that was the one that really I remember at 50. In 2017, she shocked her fans by saying, here's my son.

00:13:30
Speaker 1: Wasn't it a magazine cover?

00:13:31
Speaker 2: It was a magazine, and she looked gorgeous and stunning. Naomi Campbell, 50, same thing, supermodel, surprised the world in 2021. At the age of 50, Naomi Campbell had a daughter, which is remarkable. I'm trying to say, okay. Oh, Sophie B. Hawkins at 50. She's a singer. She conceived her second child using an egg. She froze when she was 31. That is pretty cool. I mean, think about it. She actually, it's actually using an embryo she froze when she was 31.

00:14:01
Speaker 1: But she had the baby at what age? 50.

00:14:04
Speaker 2: That, I mean, that's wild.

00:14:06
Speaker 1: So they store, they'll keep.

00:14:08
Speaker 2: For 19 years.

00:14:09
Speaker 1: Damn, that is impressive science.

00:14:10
Speaker 2: She had an embryo frozen. Like that's so wild. I imagine being that kid and realizing I actually was created 19 years before I was born. That is wild.

00:14:21
Speaker 1: Do you tell your kid you sat in a freezer for 19 years? It's good to have your thought out.

00:14:27
Speaker 2: Maybe that's why you don't like skiing. It's just PTSD.

00:14:30
Speaker 1: Can we move to Florida? It's cold up there.

00:14:34
Speaker 2: That is wild. Helen Morris is a TV producer. You might know her husband, Martin Scorsese. She gave birth to a girl when she was 52 and he was 56. That's crazy. I didn't realize Annie Leibovitz existed. 52 when she gave birth to her first child. I didn't know that. 52.

00:14:53
Speaker 1: She had a hell of a resume by then at 52, didn't she?

00:14:56
Speaker 2: And then she had twin girls via surrogate four years later. But still, think about it. So at 56, she's taking care of twins. That is wild to me. And then, again, a lot of folks adopt in their 50s, and that's wonderful and beautiful. But I'm just impressed with women who give birth. Bridget Nielsen, 54. danish model and actress had her fifth child daughter frida.

00:15:21
Speaker 1: In 2018 yeah she carried that those.

00:15:23
Speaker 2: Are the wild wild stories but it the birth rate in people aged 45 to 49 has risen 12 percent in the past few years so look this is something that is we're going to see more and more of these headlines are going to keep coming and i do think it's it is inspirational and It is wonderful. It's just something to keep in mind that it is going to be costly in a lot of ways.

00:15:53
Speaker 1: This is successful and we're celebrating. I mean, how many women does it get more complicated when you're 48, 49, 50? I mean, how many stories? Are there a lot out there that women do attempt this?

00:16:07
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:16:07
Speaker 1: And it goes... doesn't go the way they want it to.

00:16:09
Speaker 2: I've had plenty of friends where that has happened too. Yes. And that should be remembered. The average age for menopause is 51.

00:16:15
Speaker 1: Okay.

00:16:17
Speaker 2: When a woman goes through menopause, you no longer can... can obviously have a child. So just keep that in mind. The average age for menopause is 51. Some people start that process in their forties and it makes it incredibly difficult to get pregnant. So fertility decreases rapidly through your thirties and even much further in your forties. And it's largely extinguished by 45. That is what the medical experts, the consensus is your ability to naturally conceive your fertility is largely extinguished. That's the phrase they used by the age of 45. So that is why when you hear Hilary Swank is pregnant at 52, that is a hell of a headline.

00:17:00
Speaker 1: And congrats to her. It was a very fun way she announced it. And obviously we're all fans of hers over the years. And she's a very, she's a cool celebrity that kind of just does her thing.

00:17:11
Speaker 2: She's private. Yeah. You don't hear about her. There's no controversy.

00:17:15
Speaker 1: But this is exciting news she wanted to share. All right, moving on. This is well done. So congrats to her.

00:17:20
Speaker 2: Congratulations.

00:17:21
Speaker 1: And with that, everyone. To the family, I should say. Yes, to the whole family. To the husband as well who contributed.

00:17:25
Speaker 2: Yes, he did contribute. We always appreciate you listening to us, everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside DJ Holmes.

00:17:31
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you soon.