Claire Danes has opened up about finding out she was pregnant at the age of 44 and confessed her initial feelings were not ones of joy.
The star is married to happily married to Hugh Dancy, but in 2023 she discovered they were expecting again and she went into panic mode
Talking on the Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast, she said her last pregnancy came "out of the blue," having thought they were done with having kids.
© Getty"I called my OB/GYN in convulsive tears," she confessed. "It was a pure meltdown."
Claire and Hugh were already parents to Cyrus who was born in 2012, and Rowan who they welcomed in 2018.
'Not by design'
© Getty"They're five years apart, each kid," she noted. "None of this was by design." In fact, given their difficult journey to conceive Rowan, they weren't even sure they could have another.
"It was just so unlikely," she said, adding that they had undergone two rounds of IVF to have their second born.
When she Googled the chances of getting pregnant naturally at the age of 44, the results show that the odds were less than one percent. "So that was obviously ridiculous," Claire said.
A baby girl
© Getty ImagesWhile the news was a shock, Claire and Hugh welcomed their baby girl, Shay, with open arms. "This beautiful girl emerged," Claire said with emotion. "She's the best. None of it was up to me, and I'm just delighted."
It's not the first time the Inside Out 2 star has spoken about becoming a mom in her 40s.
"I did not foresee this at all," she admitted during an appearance on Smarletss podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. "And it was weird. Suddenly, I felt like a funny shame. I was naughty. I had been caught fornicating past the point I was meant to. No, it was weird, and it was like I found an edge that I hadn’t been quite conscious of — like I was going outside of the parameters a little bit."
Teenager and toddler
© Getty ImagesThe age difference between her oldest and youngest is more than a decade but Claire said: "It's a trip. I mean, I have a teenager and a toddler at once."
Hugh proposed to Claire in 2009, three years after they met while filming the movie, Evening. They were friends before things turned romantic.
In September 2009, the happy couple tied the knot in a private ceremony in France. Claire's friend, Mamie Gummer, opened up to People about the couple's relationship: "I was there when [their courtship] was happening and it's something that I will never forget. I'm incredibly happy for them. They are perfect for each other".
