motherhood

25 Famous Women on Pregnancy

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Pregnancy can be wonderful, but it can also be tough. Because no one understands harsh scrutiny and unwanted advice more than celebrity moms, we turned to 25 famous women for their thoughts. Below, Hillary Clinton, Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, and more share what it’s really like — from food cravings and miscarriages to asking your boss for maternity leave.

Hillary Clinton

“I persuaded Bill to attend Lamaze classes with me, a new enough phenomenon that it prompted many people to wonder why their governor was planning to deliver our baby … As my March due date drew near, my doctor said I couldn’t travel, which meant that I missed the annual White House dinner for the governors. Bill got back to Little Rock on Wednesday, February 27, in time for my water to break. That threw him and the state troopers into a panic. Bill ran around with the Lamaze list of what to take to the hospital. It recommended bringing a small plastic bag filled with ice to suck on during labor. As I hobbled to the car, I saw a state trooper loading a 39-gallon black garbage bag filled with ice into the trunk.” — Living History, June 2003

Zadie Smith

“I remember when I was pregnant with my first child: I was at a book festival and a writer of my own age, who will remain nameless, sat opposite me and said, ‘God, you’re having a kid, huh?’ It was a man. He said, ‘I guess you’re going to lose a lot of time and you must be worried about falling behind.’ I was about seven months pregnant, and I just had a sudden inspiration. I said, ‘Yeah, I guess so,’ and then, ‘You must be worried about just a complete lack of human experience that you’re now going to be 40 and then 50.’ His face went so pale. It was a wonderful way to frighten him back.” — Slate, November 2016

Amy Poehler

“Doing sketch comedy on live television while pregnant is like wearing a sombrero. You can pretend to be a serious person, but the giant hat gives you away … When I was first pregnant with my son Archie, I didn’t tell anyone, as you are supposed to keep it secret. It’s a really magical time, those first few weeks. It almost makes you wish you didn’t have to tell anyone, ever. You could just watch your belly grow bigger, and no one would be allowed to ask you about it, and you would have your baby and a year later you would allow visitors to finally come and meet your little miracle. I was halfway through my seventh season at SNL, and no one really noticed my nausea or extreme tiredness. That was par for the course at a job that made you stay up all night long and eat cold mozzarella sticks you had to buy yourself.” — Yes Please, October 2014

Ali Wong

“I felt powerful in this way of ‘I don’t give a fuck about what people think,’ and I felt this life running through me when she was kicking me. But I did also feel really vulnerable. You become like a vampire when you’re pregnant: Your senses are so sensitive and your emotions are so heightened — that helps with performance because you really feel things. Any stories about something happening to little girls killed me. Put it this way: I did not find Inside Out uplifting.” — The Guardian, June 2016

Jessica Simpson

“People always say that pregnant women have a glow, and I say it’s because you’re sweating to death. I think they just tell pregnant women they’re glowing to make them feel good about themselves, because everything makes them a little bit emotional.” — People, November 2011

Padma Lakshmi

“One thing that happens when you’re pregnant is that as your stomach starts to stretch [and] it itches! So I have to keep my belly really lubricated. Every morning, there’s a buttering ceremony after I get out of the shower. It’s really like basting a turkey with body butter.” — People, October 2009

Mila Kunis

“Hello, I’m Mila Kunis with a very special message for all you soon-to-be-fathers. Stop saying, ‘We’re pregnant.’ You’re not pregnant. Do you have to squeeze a watermelon-sized person out of your lady hole? No. Are you crying alone in your car listening to a stupid Bette Midler song? No. When you wake up and throw up is it because you’re nurturing a human life? No. It’s because you had too many shots of tequila. Do you know how many shots of tequila we had? None. Because we can’t have shots of tequila. We can’t have anything! Because we’ve got your little love goblin growing inside of us. All you did was roll over and fall asleep. You’re not pregnant. We are.” — Jimmy Kimmel Live, June 2014

Beyoncé

“I put a lot of thought into how I wanted to unveil [my pregnancy]. It was important to me that I was able to do it myself. I was extremely nervous. It was the toughest red carpet I ever did. I didn’t want a crazy picture or gossip story to break the news, so I decided to say nothing and proudly show my baby bump. I felt it was more powerful to see the love and enthusiasm as opposed to saying anything.” — Harper’s Bazaar, October 2011

Elizabeth Warren

“I graduated from law school nine months pregnant. You will notice a pattern to this. That was at a time when employers were pretty iffy on the idea of a woman lawyer. And the idea of a pregnant, already the mother of a toddler woman lawyer was just plain old impossible. Nobody wanted me, and I mean that literally. Nobody would hire me. But just as that plan went out the window, I got another call. Would I like to go back to teaching, this time teaching law? I started with night school, just like the original Suffolk Law, and I loved it. I truly loved it … And I knew that this was the work I wanted to do forever.” — Suffolk University commencement speech, May 2016

Samantha Bee

“I certainly spent a lot of time pregnant on camera. But I did have a job where no one cared. You can do your job massively pregnant if you choose to go down that road. It’s fine. It’ll be hilarious. It’ll add to your comedy in ways that you never expected. Like when your elbows grow hair for no reason. Things happen to you that you can talk about. Or you can just ignore it.” — Vulture, March 2016

Diablo Cody

“God, I cannot believe the sexism in the media … Nobody would ever care if a male CEO was expecting a child — or frankly if a male director was expecting a child. I’ve worked with a lot of directors who had babies on the way or had them at home, and nobody ever said, ‘What are you doing here on set?’ What really made me angry was there was an article about Marissa Mayer and the writer said that she couldn’t imagine that Mayer was sleeping with her baby in the same room as her. Was she just making that assumption because Marissa Mayer is a powerful woman and has a career? Because I’m a powerful woman with a career, and my baby sleeps in bed with me every night, and I breastfeed, and I do all those wonderful motherly nurturing things — and I have a really badass high-profile job. You can do both things.” — Fast Company, October 2012

Nora Ephron

“If pregnancy were a book, they would cut the last two chapters. The beginning is glorious, especially if you’re lucky enough not to have morning sickness and if, like me, you’ve had small breasts all your life. Suddenly they begin to grow, and you’ve got them, you’ve really got them, breasts, darling breasts, and when you walk down the street they bounce, truly they do, they bounce bounce bounce.” — Heartburn, 1983

Salma Hayek

“I got gestational diabetes, which I didn’t realize at first. It occurs in women who have high blood-sugar levels during pregnancy. I didn’t know whether I was feeling bad because I was pregnant or whether something was seriously wrong. I was nauseated for nine months, which can be one of the symptoms … If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t eat so much fruit at the beginning. I didn’t know that eating fruit that is high in sugar is not recommended when you have gestational diabetes. But you know what? At least I had fruit. In a lot of countries, they don’t have these kinds of choices.” — American Baby, August 2008

Tina Fey

“I had this thing for Entenmann’s chocolate donuts. Somewhere during my pregnancy I gained something like nine pounds in two weeks and my doctor was like, ‘You know what it might be? Are you drinking a lot of juice?’ I was like, ‘Yeah. That must be it.’ I was eating like a box a day of Entenmann’s donuts.” – People, April 2008

Cindy Crawford

“I got morning sickness bad. For a while, pizza was the only thing that made me feel good. And fish grossed me out. I couldn’t walk by the tuna cans in the grocery store. Fear of fish. Yeah. And this time I am also carrying a little lower, so there’s more pressure on my back. I bought one of those pregnancy belts, and that does help. But they could make ’em a little more stylish!” — Fit Pregnancy

Kate Hudson

“Some women have that metabolism where you’re like, ‘Wow, you didn’t even gain any weight being pregnant.’ Well, that’s not me, and I think a lot of women probably relate to that … I gained 70 pounds [with Ryder]. The experience of trying to lose it was really interesting, because I’d never been in a situation where I realized I really needed to lose quite a few pounds … I’d lose, like, 10 pounds and then I’d plateau at 150 and I’d stay there forever. It was really discouraging … you just have to push through it. That’s the hardest part.” — Yahoo Style, September 2014

Jennifer Lopez

“Everybody gives you a lot of advice when you are pregnant, which I find a tiny bit annoying, so I’m not going to give any. But I did read What to Expect When You’re Expecting, by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel. You can go day-by-day with that. It’s awesome.” — OK! Magazine, March 2011

Kim Kardashian

“I just don’t think pregnancy and me really agree with each other. You know, it was really hard for me to get pregnant so I do feel really blessed that I am pregnant and, at the end of the day, it is a million times worth it … I’m really not complaining, I’m just being honest … I hate it. … I’ve heard stories forever about how amazing pregnancy is from my mom and Kourtney and, that’s just not the case for me, and I’m not going to sit here and lie and act like it’s the most blissful experience. It’s awful.” — E! News, November 2015

Iman

“People talk about the miracle of birth. No. There’s the miracle of conception. I did IVF, but nothing happened. So I began to think of adoption, and then I got pregnant. It was definitely a miracle.” — Parade, May 2009

Mariska Hargitay

“When I was pregnant, I was so huge and people on the bus would get up for me. That made me feel so precious and valued and valuable. I try to treat everyone like they’re pregnant.” — USA Today, October 2012

Giuliana Rancic

“My first IVF I did get pregnant — that was the miscarriage. But the second one, I did not get pregnant, and that was the biggest kick in the stomach, because I just could not believe you go through so much to get those eggs and put them in, and when the doctor calls you, to hear, ‘Oh, sorry, it didn’t work.’ That was the most shocking. I would go, ‘I’m a good person, and I could give someone the greatest life of all, but yet I can’t get pregnant.’ And then you watch these TV shows, 16 and Pregnant, and these girls who want nothing to do with their babies are pregnant. And you’re going, what? None of that made sense to me.” — CNN, November 2012

Emily Blunt

“The first pregnancy is the most self-indulgent thing in the world because you get massages and prenatal yoga and hypnotherapy CDs. During this one, I forget that I’m even pregnant. I’m hoisting a 2-year-old around!” – C Magazine, April 2016

Chrissy Teigen

“I really do feel more confident. I keep telling everybody, there’s no pressure anymore. I’ve always been kind of uncomfortable just on the beach in a swimsuit. I’m never my most confident in a bikini on the beach, especially when you know people are looking at you and they expect one thing because of what they see in the magazines, and you might not look that way. It’s always been a scary thing for me. But now I swear I feel like rocking it more than ever because now is not the time for a six-pack. There is something very beautiful about being pregnant. I think I enjoy being pregnant more than not being pregnant. I know it could go either way and the next pregnancy could be the complete opposite.” — Cosmopolitan, January 2016

Olivia Wilde

“I just thought, oh I’m going to hide this forever. But I ended up getting kind of excited to show the bump, as a badge of pride, like, ‘I’m a woman! Look at me making a human! I am a goddess!’ … Pregnancy brings you into this sort of commune — you feel connected to women in a way that you never have.” — Lucky, May 2014

Amy Adams

“Being pregnant finally helped me understand what my true relationship was with my body — meaning that it wasn’t put on this Earth to look good in a swimsuit. I was like, ‘Look, I can carry a baby! I’m gaining weight right, everything’s going well.’ And I’ve had that relationship ever since.” — Parade, December 2010

25 Famous Women on Pregnancy