I’m honestly surprised that Anna Paquin of “True Blood” is expecting twins with her husband and co-star, Stephen Moyer. She’s young at 29, and I associate twins with fertility treatment. I know they occur naturally for a lot of women, but when you see older women having twins you make assumptions. (I mean I wouldn’t say it to anyone’s face, but I’ll admit that I do it.) Anna’s costar Sam Trammel (Sam Merlotte) confirmed the news to US Weekly, and joked that “True Blood” is the twins show, since he has has twin 10 month-old boys with his partner. This makes me wonder if Sam is the one who leaked the news (like Jack Black, remember that?) and if Anna and Stephen wanted it to get out. They granted the pregnancy announcement to Entertainment Weekly, and they strike me as private people. Here’s more:
A source confirms to Us Weekly that Anna Paquin, 29, and her husband of nearly two years, Stephen Moyer, 42, are expecting a double delivery in the fall!
“I’m so excited for them,” the couple’s costar Sam Trammell — father to 11-month-old twins Winston and Gus with girlfriend Missy Yager — shared with Us recently when we chatted with him about the double baby news at Planet Hollywood’s Gallery Nightclub in Las Vegas. “We sent them a special gift. It’s so interesting that True Blood has become, like, the ‘twins’ show.”
And though Moyer has two children, Lilac, 10, and Billy, 12, from a previous relationship, he’s been listening intently to Trammell’s advice on the ins and outs of raising multiples.
“It’s harder, having twins, but it’s all we know. So we’re trying to impart some decent wisdom,” Trammell added. “I told them to hold on tight!”
But Moyer is up for the challenge. “It’s always amazing,” he told Zap2it in May of his wife’s pregnancy. “I love my kids so much. And I think that the fact that Anna is pregnant just adds more crazy to the bundle of fun.”
[From US Weekly]
I don’t have any friends with twins and I can’t imagine how much harder it must be to raise them. Anna and Stephen can of course afford 24/7 help, although I see them as very hands-on parents also. So they’ll have a lot of sleepless nights and joyous moments. I wonder if they’re expecting boys, girls or a boy and a girl. I’m actually a little excited about it.
Mild spoilers for past episodes True Blood
As for “True Blood,” I’m barely hanging in there with that show. There are so many things going on that I just don’t care about, and I’m having trouble watching it straight through. (I watch it on HBOGo or I would just fast forward through a lot of it.) It must be hard to keep a show fresh for so many years, but if they would stick to the basics, like the vampires, I think they could do it. We just learned that the fairies are back and I have to say I didn’t miss their ridiculousness at all. I really disliked the fairy subplot. (And the werewolves, whatever is going on with Terry’s old Marine buddies, and Tara as a vampire.) But at least the witches are keeping quiet – but then Lafayette had that thing where he got possessed and poured the bleach in the gumbo. It’s making my brain hurt to think of how much is going on with that show. Lainey got a screener of the first four episodes and she said it gets more interesting this coming week. I hope she’s right, not that I’ll stop watching it. The men are so pretty.
When you hit 30, the natural chance for twins or triplets goes up by 30 percent. I know she’s only 29, but that stat always gets me. Huge percentage change!
Yes in general twins in your (very)late 20s/to mid 30s are normal twins in your 40s mostly caused by medical intervention.
I did not know that, learn something new every day..
Yup your odds of having twins skyrockets once you hit 30 (usually fraternal) and again when you hit 35. My nephews are twin boys and the doctor explained once you hit that age your body will occasionally ovulate with two or three eggs. Kind of like your body is screaming-BABIES!
Apparently once you have a set of fraternal twins your odds of having another set go up.
well, I would not be using “Skyrocket” in this context. The odds are going up but not dramatically for a natural conception.
That was my ob’s words not mine. 😀
My OB described it as a “going out of business sale.” The ovaries know they’re closing up shop so they’re getting rid of what’s left at a faster rate.
Wow! That explains how we tried for one after 32, and got two- we know there were twins on one side, later found out they were on both sides (mine generations back).
Oy. I just had my first at 32. Reading this might seal the deal on only childhood for DD.
I have them on both sides of my family, and have always figured should I change my mind and decide to have kids, I’d probably end up with twins. Add the increase for being 30+? Yikes.
….we aren’t planning on having another baby until we hit 30. If I have twins, I’m giving one away. Who calls first dibs?!
LOL!
wow i had no clue…
CB you are totally right to assume fertility treatment, because people always assume it is only that fertility doctor’s intervention is mainly when it is the woman who has problems, but it qualifies for men too, particularly ageing men (past 40)
the best age to conceive for a man is as for a woman 24/38, but oddly few people knows.
she is young…but not him, and men’s fertility decrease greatly as they age past 40
men have only 11.6% of chances to father a child within the year (no matter how old is their partner)… and the ratio continues decline with time, the quality of sperm and quantity of swimmers decrease greatly, with mulpplicating riks for desease and miscarriage.
so maybe you first thought is spot on.
so maybe, just maybe they got fertility help
Yes, I’m also leaning towards conclusion that it’s fertility treatment. I guess they had constrains in terms of timing – she needed to get pregnant once the shooting is done and hopefully deliver before next season starts. I’m actually surprised that more stars don’t go the surrogate’s way…
I Don’t know, i think It’s not daje to convince anything related to pregnancy and fertility because those Are very, very individual things. My mom got my youngest sister when she was 40, my dad 46, and my oldest Sis 23.;)
Re:surrogacy- TBH I would never choose it, I’d rather adopt. I have to many issues with it. Of course, it’s a free world, and I have nothing agains those who choose it bc they have a fertility problem. But to choose it bc of your body and comfort? Having a Child is a serious matter, and you have to sacrifise some of your choices and ways of life-Child is not a pet you buy.
@Geekychic: unfortunatly nature is truly unfair 😉 some like your parents had they fertility prime last longer and others struggle to conceive around 27/30.
I think it depends on your biological age (age of your organs and egg stock) doctors can define it by tests, but there is unfairness in it, so even if some get lucky (Ma nana bestfriend had her last kid at 54!!! and naturally it was an accident!!) the informations I provide concern the great majority of people, not the lucky ones!
Sorry for all the typing mistakes and mistakes English is not my first langage…;)
Hahahaha, english is not my first language too, But what usually kills all my posts is autocorrect on my iPhone. ;))
Oh, I just wanted to say that, IMO, speculating about someone’s pregnancy is Kind of missing the point-bc pregnancies Are individual. Who knows, maybe these two Are lucky, as my parents were-or maybe she has many aunts with bunch of twins?
Speculatig on pregnancies is a new trend in gossip and I Don’t Like it(yes, yes hypocritical of me, But Hear me out):
it started with beyonce, and although i think those rumors were stupid and hurtful, people said that she invited them bc she showed her baby bump on awards night etc.; But Then We get Simpson and months and months of headlines “JS Is LIKE AN ELEPHANT”, “JS MUST BE CARRING TRIPLETS BC SHE’s HUGE”…and finally Aisharwaya R “SHE’s AN ELEPHANT BC SHE AIN’t SKINNY 2 MINUTES AFTER GIVING BIRTH”…
In my society, pregnant women Are untouchable-There is no stress and gossiping about a woman who’s carrying a CHILD (on the other hand, pregnancy and birth Are considered a natural part of life, So There is no overfussing, “forget that glass of wine” etc. Also). I’d Like to see it stay that way, and it makes me sad to see that media got It’s hand on that, too.:/
yeah, my first thought was IVF too – not that it’s a big deal one way one or the other. congrats to them!
It does not have to be IVF right away – could be chlomid treatment or something less invasive. I just think that she would have troubles having ivf cycle during shooting since women look bloated and not the best during it, and it’s long – like 2.5 months.
My kids are 8 & 9, that was uncomfortably close, but afforded some room. The other week I took a friends kids for the week, 5 & 6 – while those are not twins I will say that parents who have twins, especially after having one or two older kids in the house already, are gifted. With that many children – even slightly different ages it get to be a zoo quickly and OMG you should have seen the mess and the look on my dog’s face!
My great-grandmother had twins when she was 45!
That is good to know – my sis is trying at 39 and it is heartbreaking since she wants a baby so much.
till 43 everything is still possible with quite high probabilities (sometimes it’s because women put so much psychological pressure on themselves that they have difficulties to conceive)
and my grand-mother best friend had her last kid at 54!!!
in the 19th and early 20th it was quite common to have a good chunk of mother in their late 40’s and early 50’s… because no contraception was available and women were conceiving till menopause!
great hopes for your sister I hope she will be a mommy very soon (currently the ratio in france are that 17% of women have their very first child at 40, so you sister have still a great deal of chances to be a mom soon;))
Best wishes to your sister!
My great-grandmother was a twin, I’m a twin (fraternal girls), my husband is a twin (fraternal boys.)His twin brother has one year old twins (boys). When I had my first pregnancy scan the first thing I asked was how many babies. One girl (sigh of relief). Now my dilemma is I’m 40 and convinced if I tried for another one I would get twins.Thinking we might just stick with one child!
I always kinda thought the same thing until I got pregnant with twins at 25 naturally:)
Me, too! I had my twins when I was 27.
Same here! As far as I know, there are zero twin pregnancies in my family anywhere, ever, and I got pregnant with natural twins at 21.
I got pregnant with identical triplets naturally at 32 and we don’t have a single set of twins or anything on either side of the family.
Something I’m SHOCKED at how few people know: you never get identicals from fertility treatments, only fraternals. This is because fertility treatments (like Clomid) encourage the release of extra eggs, increasing the chances that multiple eggs will be simultaneously fertilized. Seperate eggs give you fraternal twins/multiples. Identical twins/multiples all come from the same egg, so fertility treatments do not affect the chance of identicals at all. I’ve had to explain this to several perfect strangers who, upon seeing my children, feel it’s their right to demand to know what fertility treatment we used.
Actually, identical twins can happen with fertility treatments. One of dd’s classmate’s mom had triplets. One of the eggs split naturally, so 2 are identical and 1 is fraternal. I am sure that this is very rare, but it does happen. 🙂
I didn’t phrase it properly, you’re right. Identicals can happen anytime, but they are not CAUSED by fertility treatments. They can happen concurrently with them, though. Thanks 🙂
Whoa, crazy! Natural triplets are so rare, what a shock that must have been!
Something I keep having to explain to people is that the father’s family history has nothing to do with whether twin/multiple births occur. People always say, “Were there twins in you or your husband’s families?”
First of all (A): Don’t assume marriage. Just don’t.
Second of all (B): Identical twins are caused by the woman’s egg splitting randomly. Has nothing to do with a guy. Fraternal twins are caused by the woman’s body releasing two eggs at once. Again. Nothing to do with the guy. It’s kind of amazing how many people don’t know that.
Must be fabulous to have three lookalikes, each with their own distinct personality. I’d love to hear your stories.
My dentist has a set of fraternal twins and the girl looks EXACTLY like his wife and the boy is the spitting image of him. Truly, it is like they cloned themselves. He says it feels a little freaky sometimes, like they are watching themselves grow up, but as brother and sister instead of husband and wife.
I love this couple. Congrats and good luck to them with their twins!
When I was at a beach resort last year, I took note of how many couples I saw with twins…and yeah, the parents were all of a certain age.
According to my doc (who’s counseling me to “make babies soon!” since I crossed the 30 finish line awhile back) twins also seem to be more common with women who’ve been on hormonal birth control for awhile, then go off of it hoping to get knocked up quickly. More common to ovulate several eggs at the end of a pill pack, then you end up with fraternal twins.
Which, actually, would be a very QUICK way to get the family-making out of the way in a hurry……
This is what happened to me at 21– went off the pill and my ex knocked me up a week later. Fraternal twins, though there are no twins anywhere in my family.
Interesting info! I had no idea the chances for multiples, without fertility treatment, increases for a woman in their early 30s. I’m 32 and it’ll most likely be 2-3 more years before I consider having a child and twins run in my family. I always suspected I’d have twins and guess I’m not too far off.
Congrats to them! She’s so SMALL-looking to have twins in there – are we sure this is true?
People were always telling me I looked too small to be carrying triplets and they’d give me this suspicious look. It made me furious. Like, “really, have you seen my ultrasound photo? Because I have! Are you my doctor?” I know it was just an observation but it used to drive me up a wall. Probably pregnancy hormones.
Don’t you hate that? I didn’t get very big with my pregnancy either and people were always upsetting me about it. You know, eyeing your belly and saying “their cousin, sister, aunt is due when you are and they are muuuuuuch bigger. Is everything all right with your baby?” I would go wailing to my doctor and he would pat my hand and tell me my baby was fine, but it still worried me. People should shut up.
I had twins and never got out of my pre-pregnancy pants. Dead serious.
I did use the rubber band trick (twist it through the hole and around the button on the jeans for an extra couple inches), but never bought a pair of pregnancy pants. And my twins were both 5 lbs, too, so they weren’t exceptionally small or anything.
A nurse said that to me when I went in to deliver my twins. Almost smacked the bitch. LOL and back to the age topic, I was 26. 🙂
We have fraternal twins, girl/boy, we were both 37 when they came along, without treatments.
It wasn’t easy in the beginning but our moms helped.
There are several fraternal twins among our friends, often kid #3 came as a surprise which got even bigger when the friends found out they were having 3a and 3b.
Who knows if she had fertility treatments or not. I know women who needed help at young ages to get pregnant because of various reasons. She DOES look small for someone expecting twins, not that that means anything.
I do tend to think she might’ve gotten fertility treatments, but at the same time, what difference does it make? It’s not a negative thing.
Exactly. Age is not the only factor in fertility. My sister needed fertility treatments in her late 20s. My grandmother had my father when she was 42. Statistics only tell the story as a whole, individuals of any age may or may not have fertility issues. Anna probably got pregnant “naturally”, and if she did use fertility treatments, doesn’t really matter….
I agree, this season sucks rotten eggs, and old ass!
Too much going on, no one is getting anything out of their storyline, no one is listening that we’ve had enough of Tara’s badly, and overacted drama. Who f-cking cares about Arleen and her hubby. They’re tertiary characters, they are background decor, they are to highlight primary character flaws and drama.
The only redeeming quality this year? Alex Skarsgard had recovered his incredible mojo. This season, he is mesmerizing, and I find that he had listened to what the fans want from him:
1- Learn how to kiss passionately, and stop the chipmunk-like nibbling
2- Show more snarky-insensitive, yet fun-loving Eric
3- Ruthless nudity. Yeah, you heard me.
You can’t help but stare ONLY at him whenever he’s on… Or whomever he is on top of. Guess the writers heard us. Wish only they would listen to us about the other characters as well.
Lastly: PLEASE, I BEG, NO MORE SOOKIE UGLY CRYING!!
At least it’s not 8 babies like Octomom!!
I always assume fertility treatment too, at least if it is fraternal twins, and I don’t think I would believe a celeb if they said otherwise, unless there was valid proof that twins run in their family.
Not suprising at all considering alot of women in Hollywood use fertility drugs to get preggers.
I twinned with EVERY pregnancy, then lost one or both. Twins run in my family on my father’s side. The one that lived had a fatal birth defect. Eventually adopted.
I’m sorry that you had to experience that, and so glad that you were able to create a family anyway 🙂
Congrats to them on the expected twins. All this speculation on how the babes were conceived when clearly it is so simple…one is Bill’s and one is Eric’s. Duh! 🙂
Awwww, good for them! I love Anna Paquin. She seems like such a nice, sweet person.
I have 3 friends who had natural twins. I have no freaking clue how they do it, 1 is MORE than enough for me
I had twins at 21. Everyone in my multiples group with over 35 🙁
Congrats to them! Probably good they work together but don’t have many scenes together anymore, their schedules can be staggered a bit.
I would never think of it being fertility treatments – not at her age anyway. Congrats to her. Though her next film is supposedly starting filming in September even by US standards that’s not a lot of new mummy time… even by Heidi Klum standards it’s not a lot of body recovery time.
@feebee, I had “fertility treatments” at 28 in order to conceive my first son and again at 31 for my second. There were plenty of people in endocrinologist’s waiting room who were also in their mid-to-late twenties or early thirties. I was quite surprised.
Sorry I didn’t mean anything by that other than it wouldn’t cross my mind to think of that first when I hear of twins being expected. My first question is if there are twins in the family sort of thing.
TB is just as entertaining/infuriating as it always is, so I do not get all the moaning I’ve been reading on the internets. Perhaps fickle people are just getting bored with it. And then there’s those over enthusiastic fangirls who just hate the show because Eric/Sook don’t f*ck for 50 minutes each week and Tara ain’t dead but still watch and whine *massive eyeroll* Anyway, congrats to Anna/Stephen on the kids, I think they’re nuts but hey, I can’t afford a nanny.
I wonder if fraternal twins run in her family. Women with a family history of fraternal twins are likely to have a set themselves.
man, i used to want to be a twin SOOO-SOOOO bad as a kid (only-child syndrome). but all the coolness of being one has been ruined by all the genetic tampering of the last 15-20 years.
being twins has officially:
jumped.
the.
shark.
ya heard it here 1st, my friends. womp. 🙁