Hilary Swank has claimed that women still face "a lot of backlash" for having children at an older age having announced that she is pregnant at the age of 52.
The two time Academy Award winning actress confirmed that she is expecting a baby with her husband and businessman, Philip Schneider. The couple are already parents to three year old twins, Aya and Ohm.
Swank spoke about this on the Drew Barrymore Show, where she said: "There's a lot of backlash women get for having children older but not men, which is interesting".
"I mean, it is weird. Men have babies in their, like, 80s. That is not a euphemism or a joke", she continued. "You had babies in your 40s and people weren’t always gracious about it".
"There’s one story that I found really interesting and I think that I was attracted to this particular story because this one woman said, 'How dare you, you’re too old and you won’t be old enough when your kids are older. My dad was my favourite person and he died when I was in my early 20s and it’s just devastation’", she added.
The actress said she related to this as her father, Stephen Swank passed away in 2021.
"He was one of my favourite people on Earth so I was drawn to that", Swank said. "And I thought, myself, I would rather be born and have that person that was my favourite person and experience that than not at all".
"So that’s how I took what she said".
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Hilary Swank has been married to Schneider since 2018, having been dating for two years. She was previously married to Chad Lowe for nine years until 2006, as well as being engaged to professional tennis player turned financial adviser, Ruben Torres. They split up in 2016.
Swank had announced her pregnancy by sharing a neon stick animation which showed her with a pregnant belly along with her announcement.
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Swank is a double Academy Award winner, having scooped up the award for Best Actress for her roles in Boys Don't Cry in 2000, and Million Dollar Baby in 2005.
