Actress Hilary Swank is expecting her third child. The Boys Don’t Cry star, 52, announced her pregnancy on Instagram on October 14 alongside her husband, Philip Schneider, and twins (son Ohm and daughter Aya).
Swank became a first-time mom at 48. During a recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Swank opened up about what it’s like to be pregnant at 52.
“I just entered my third trimester,” she told Barrymore.
Swank’s pregnancy at 52
As the two sat down together, Swank shared that the last time she appeared on Barrymore’s show, she was 12 weeks pregnant with her twins.
“Now with this baby I’m 28 weeks,” Swank said before adding, “Just one this time!”
They continue to talk about Swank’s pregnancy cravings (which include Rice Krispies Treats and a vegan alternative to Cheetos) before Barrymore reiterates how “beautiful, glowing, gorgeous” Swank looks.
“It’s amazing what women’s bodies can do, and it’s just such an extraordinary privilege and honor and blessing to carry life. It’s a dream come true and I love being a mom,” said Swank.
Barrymore asks Swank to share more about what it was like to share her first pregnancy with the world at an “older age.”
“This was the right time for me. Although not everything happens in our own time. We have ideas for timelines for ourselves, and getting pregnant isn’t always in our own timeline, right?” Swank shared. “You can hope and pray for certain things, and things happen when they’re supposed to happen. I was very excited, and it was a good time for me because I feel like I had this career that was a ‘baby’ of mine that I really wanted to give to and devote my time to and not share. And now I can totally devote [myself] to my children.”
“Backlash” for older pregnancies
Swank continued, “What’s interesting and beautiful is a lot of people say, ‘This has given me hope that I can get pregnant too, and it’s something that I really want in my life,’ because for a lot of women it’s a ticking clock. It’s not the same for men.”
Swank then talked about the “backlash women get for having children older but not men, which is interesting.”
Barrymore chimed in that men “have babies in their 80s,” and when Swank had babies in her 40s, “people weren’t always gracious about it.”
Swank responded with a story about criticism she received from a woman who told her, “How dare you! You’re too old. You won’t be [young] enough when your kids are older. My dad was my favorite person, and he died when I was in my early 20s. And it’s just devastation.”
She added that she “related” to the woman’s story and was “drawn to it” after her father died at a young age as well. But then she thought to herself, “I would rather be born and have that person and experience that than not at all.”
Becoming a mom at 48
In a 2024 interview with PEOPLE, Swank opened up about why getting pregnant at 47 and welcoming her twins at 48 was right for her.
“I was 47 when I got pregnant, and I feel like I have a lot more patience, and I’ve done a lot of my own personal work to be the type of mother I want to be, whereas it would’ve just been different in my twenties and thirties,” she told the publication.
“I don’t think I would’ve had the patience and the grace that I hopefully can bestow a little bit more [of] now, and a self-awareness in a different way that I don’t need to focus on myself anymore in the way that I did at that point,” she said. “I can give differently.”
