Laura Linney was on Live with Kelly on Friday, when Kelly cohosted with her husband, Mark Consuelos. (I’m still taping that show but it’s filling up my DVR so I may have to rethink that. It’s one of those shows I might need for my job so I just save too many of them.) Laura is promoting her role on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of The Shadows, which seems unfortunate given her level of talent and experience. It’s probably a nice paycheck though and I can’t begrudge her that.
Laura is a normal person who doesn’t say batsh*t things like her co-star Megan Fox, but she knows how to get headlines when necessary. Kelly Ripa asked her about her “secret” pregnancy, two and a half years ago, when she gave birth to a boy at 49 and no one knew she was even pregnant. Laura said it wasn’t secret per se and that she wasn’t in hiding or anything, she just didn’t advertise it:
When you got pregnant you kept it a secret, you were on our show and pregnant and we didn’t even know. Why did you decide to keep it a secret?
Well I was an older mother to be and it had taken me a very long time to have a child, so I wanted to make sure that my child actually arrived and was safe and healthy. So I just was very quiet about it. I didn’t hide it intentionally I just didn’t advertise it.I was going to the theater when I was eight months pregnant and no one said a thing. When I actually had the baby this big deal was made about ‘she was secret,’ no I just didn’t have a sign that said ‘I am pregnant now.’
How is Bennett?
He’s great, he’s two and a half.You’re lucky that nobody noticed
Well I vomited a lot. So yeah, I wasn’t huge.
[From Live with Kelly, aired June 3, 2016]
That’s so funny that she said she didn’t get big because she vomited a lot. I was looking through the photos on Getty and WENN and Laura didn’t attend any events which I can find after June, 2013. So after she was about three or four months pregnant she stopped doing red carpets, which was smart. She may have gone out, but it’s not like she deliberately went to places where she would be photographed. She’s never opened up about her fertility struggles and Laura seems to keep a lid on her personal life, so she waited until she had the baby to say anything. It’s admirable and shows that celebrities can keep their private lives under wraps when they want to. Laura also has no Instagram, Twitter or Facebook accounts which aren’t fan-run. She lives in NY and does her thing under the radar.
Laura in June, 2013:
Here’s that segment with Laura on Live with Kelly:
photos credit: WENN.com
How refreshing!
Yes!
Gorgeous woman!
I love her so so much. She’s one of my favourite actresses, a huge talent and seems to be very smart too.
She is one of mine too. She is a true artist, not just famous. She actually gives interviews about something, not the vapid interviews you read these days. This is really an in depth interview about her career and about falling in love. with Marc.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/magazine/01Linney-t.html?_r=0
@Jayna – thanks so much for posting that link. So much talent and so much grace. A beautiful and very moving interview.
Yes! She’s wonderful in every way, and so underrated.
I love her, too. I think it would be great to be friends with her.
Yup, she’s the best.
Very refreshing especially after all those fame whoring stunts from Chrissy
I originally wrote something similar above but deleted the bit about Chrissy. She has had enough attention from me today.
Chrissy is such a troll, I don’t even click on her articles very often because it feels like I’m giving attention to a naughty child. The more we pay attention, the more she acts out.
Wait, who is Chrissy?
She looks great and is aging really well. I’m glad she was able to finally have a child at age 49. If this was a 49 year old man having a baby with a 30 year old, no one would be judging or asking if the guy was too old to be a parent. I don’t understand why in 2016 people still think they have the right to tell women when and what to do with their ovaries. Either it’s abortion, or birth control, or virginity, or the right age a woman should have a baby. It’s ridiculous.
Actually I don’t think it’s very good for men to have children later in life either. Look at Celine Dion. Her children have now been left fatherless and they’re still very young.. Sorry, having tons of money and famous parents don’t make up for having a mother (or father) old enough to be your grandmother (or grandfather), which is the case for Laura Linney or anyone who chooses to have children in their late 40s and early 50s.
Rene Angelil didn’t die of age related illness.
We don’t always get to CHOOSE to have a baby late in life. Sometimes it happens. And our kids don’t know any different and, apparently, love us anyway.
Would you rather not be born, though? I would rather have a loving father for a short time and endure the pain of losing him (which could happen at any age, btw) than not exist at all.
Adrien, René Angélil was 73 when he died. He’d lived a good long time and he has left behind children that are like 6 and 15 years old. That’s wrong. If he had died at 40 and left behind children that age it would have been a tragedy. Dying at 73 is hardly surprising. It’s wrong for anyone to actively try to conceive children after a certain age. It’s only ends in tragedy for young children or young adults to deal with aging and/or dying parents.
@Andrea, what make it “wrong?” Why do you care when or how someone else has a child? As long as they have a care-giving plan in place, it is none of your business.
Not everyone’s life unfolds on the same schedule and choices like when to start a family or whether to start a family are very personal.
Andrea, I think child protection efforts are best spent on kids whose parents leave them in a dumpster or beaten at a hospital (most frequently YOUNG parents) rather than kids left well loved and living in a mansion (most frequently older wealthy parents).
Hey. Nobody thinks about the flip side perk…. My moms parents died before she had to take care of them – so she is currently loving her retirement…. Meanwhile, her best friend who is also retired spends ALL of her time taking care of her elderly sick parents who are in a home..and she’s 67 they’re in their nineties… It’s very hard on her…
@Andrea, it’s not YOUR uterus (or testicles). It’s not YOUR body. It’s not YOUR child. Therefore, none of this is YOUR problem. Fertility is a personal issue, and I’m sure Laura did what was best for her and her child. It’s not your place to judge or condemn others based on a magical cut off age that you–Andrea from the Internet– have decided people should not have children after. Simply put, MYOB.
That’s not entirely true. I absolutely side-eye any man who has a child late in life. I think I even said as much on posts about Stellan Skarsgard’s two young kids a few years back. Every parent needs to make that decision for themselves and if everyone is happy, it’s done anyway. But it’s not the same as birth control or someone’s virginity. It concerns another human being whose parent(s) will be rather old once they can stand on their own two feet. I’m in that situation and so are some of my friends. You turn 30, finally get your life together, and bam, you’re dealing with death and hospitals and dementia and the things you generally don’t have to deal with until you’re older. My father is closer to 80 than he is to 70 and while there are worse things in life and I wouldn’t trade my parents for anything in the world, it’s not easy. A friend of mine recently told me she doesn’t think she wants kids now because she and her husband have their hands full with parents. They have to pay for their care and between the stress and the finances, a baby seems insane.
I’m sure LL is a great mother and there are definitely advantages to having kids later. I’m just saying, it’s not that black and white.
I lost my father out of old age when I was 27 and my sister 23. Before that we had to care for 7 years for someone with dementia and almost completely incapacitated. Having kids when you are older IS problematic and selfish. I don’t regret being born and I love my father forever, but the financial, emotional and psychological toll of these last years was huge.
I agree and it is why we won’t have another (we have one). I’m 38 and done. I had a HORRIBLE pregnancy – I threw up for 36 weeks and was on bed rest for 4 weeks. I was 33. I can’t do that again with a 5 year old. I barely did it with a spouse. I’m happy with my one. We are happy.
As far as older women – go for it but know the risks and that is personal.
I lost a step parent when they were 54 (cancer) and my own father when he was 64 (however he had been very drunk for the previous 10 years so lost much earlier). I appreciate the risk of dying increases as one gets older, but older people having kids doesn’t bother me.
I used to work in child protection services – abusive or neglectful parents / ones that ignored the abuse are the ones that stick in my mind as Whattttt?! I tell you, I figured out why I was never sad during those jobs, it was because I was so bl00dy angry the whole time!
Pregnant at 49 – wow – that’s rare. I’m 40 and trying for my first but nada. For every person I hear about having kids over 40, I can tell you about another 10 people who haven’t been able to. She was very lucky. Good luck to her!
I agree that women are bossed and judged too much, way too much. But there are legitimate concerns when a woman has a baby at 49. It’s still her choice, but when I was trying to get pregnant at 35, that was considered a “geriatric” pregnancy. There are dangers to the baby and to her. I’m not judging at all. I would have risked it, too, but I would have expected to hear a lot of “advice” and annoying commentary. She was smart not to make a big deal of it and avoid all of that.
The biggest risk is proven health concerns! Not just a child losing a parent early, but having a baby when (either) parent is older leads to increased risk of many, many health problems for the child itself. It’s not just older mothers. It’s older fathers too. Significantly increased risk of kids having Down syndrome, autism, low birth weight, poor life expectancy, epilepsy, cancer, schizophrenia, multiple genetic problems….I could go on and on. If parents are equipped and prepared to deal with these health challenges it’s one thing, but…one could argue this causes unnecessary suffering inflicted upon all parties, parents and children. It irks me that Robert DeNiro thinks that vaccines caused his son’s autism, endangering other people’s lives, when instead there are a variety of other factors that were at play, and his advanced paternal age could have been a contributing cause.
I agree KHLBHL. My husband and I are 42 and 43. In the past year we both decided that even if by chance we were able to get pregnant we weren’t comfortable with the risks involved. Plus, I just started to feel like I was too old to have a baby (I’m speaking for myself-I know others may feel differently). I would imagine that Laura Linney used donor eggs, though, which is a whole different story (although I’m assuming they used her husband’s sperm and I guess he’s probably around the same age). She also has the money to pay for help, to take a lot of time off from work, etc. (we do not).
It’s a personal decision obviously but past a certain point (which for me was early 40’s) you really need to seriously think about the risks involved, etc.
Well, she oozes intelligence. She doesn’t have to tell us how intelligent she is like Megan. LOL Laura graduated from Brown University and went on to study at Julliard.
She actually did talk about her personal life as far as meeting her now husband. It was very moving where she felt like here her professional life was going so swimmingly in her early 40s and was in demand more than she ever had been, but she had been single for many years since her divorce and said her dating life was in a slump and she had just about given up meeting someone significant in her life. She went to the Telluride Film Festival, and this man was assigned to her as her handler meeting her at the airport and she realized she was attracted to him. He was a local real estate agent who had his own agency in town. And they fell in love. She even talked about her wedding and how at the last minute she grabbed good friend Liam Neeson to walk her down the aisle.
She said about that time before meeting him. ” But she discovered that her newfound prominence came at a price. “It was weirdly isolating,” she says. “The more successful I became, everyone took a slight step back. I didn’t know what to make of it. I was brokenhearted.”
Awwww that’s so sweet.
Love that story! I’ve liked Laura Linney a lot ever since Love Actually. It looks like she isn’t doing anything to her face. She looks beautiful. Hollywood ladies, this is what growing old gracefully looks like!
For the most part, if you don’t announce a pregnancy, engagement, etc nobody will know until you start showing or have a ring. Mostly because of social media people can’t wait to announce everything.
I’m not at all surprised she was able to lay low, she doesn’t seem interested in the celebrity side of the business.
She is wonderfully talented, I hope that check for the turtles movie is nice and big to warrant her appearing in that.
Agree Lucy..what’s interesting is that her living ‘below the radar’ is perceived as odd..I guess it’s become normal for everyone, not just celebs, to make public every life event –from buying socks to their child’s first step. It’s long bothered me that the gifts of personal memories and privacy have been discarded.
Maybe Laura can teach Chrissy Teagan a thing or two.
Yes, but the paparazzi are also way more interested in Chrissy T. than in Laura Linney.
Another reason for her to keep quiet is if the worst happened; it can be so awful to share your joy and then have to let people know it didn’t happen. (Thinking here of Katey Sagal having a stillborn after her pregnancy was even written into Married with Children – what a nightmare she endured.)
There is no right or wrong with this, IMO. If someone famous wants to announce to the world that they’re pregnant, what’s the harm? For some reason its now become a bad thing to tell everyone how happy you are that you’ve finally (in some cases) become pregnant. IMO, let people have their own reactions to their situations, just like we’re allowed. I’m happy for her (babies are a blessing), especially since she seems like a decent well grounded person.
Well, that was reasonable.
I saw this snippet with her out on a Teenage Turtle event, and thought” How did Micheal Bay get so lucky??”, but she really seemed so pumped about the whole thing. I guess a little levity never hurt anyone, and goodness knows she is one amazing actress.
Maybe she’s thinking about how cool it will seem to her kid.
I am a big fan of hers and am happy for her that she handled this the way she wanted to. Maybe it wasn’t a huge story, maybe she just hadn’t met the right guy yet/wasn’t wanting kids before this. I know it’s likely she had fertility treatment but not necessarily the case either. You do you Laura.
She’s one of my favourite actresses so I’m very happy for her!
I’m the same age as Laura Linney and I can’t imagine having the energy for a toddler. My cat exhausts me.
I’m 12 years younger, and I don’t have energy for my toddler. I keep thinking getting pregnant as a teenager might not have been such a bad idea.
WORD! I’m 37 with a 2 yrold.
HONK for Laura Linney and for her smile and for not inviting us to her uterine choices!
I’d never seen anything she’s been in until just last week – I watched Kinsey in a History of Sexualities class, and she was absolutely fantastic. Sad she’s not in more!
Did she say how she managed this? Was it a donor egg? Or were her eggs previously frozen? I ask, not to judge, simply seeking information. Contemplating my own fertility, medical assistance may indeed be my future too.
I was wondering this, too. Not that she’s obligated to tell us, but I wish more stars who used donor eggs or frozen eggs would talk about it. It would help remove some of the mystery, and might help bring egg donation into the public consciousness, leading to more donations.
The judgment on this thread is sickening. Seriously, mind your own womb.
Great actress!!!
Personally, it’s jarring to see it in real life. My new neighbor is 60+ year old man with a younger Asian wife. When I first saw them moving in I thought she was his adopted daughter. A few days later they bring home their one year old son. My friend said he had a case in court with a 30 year old woman in a custody dispute over their two year old and the father was 60. He said it messed him up to see it. People can do what they want. Being 70 with a 10 year old and being 60 married to a 30 year old is jarring…..for some people. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.
I love her, too. For some reason, she always comes across so warm and genuine in all of her movies, I just can’t help falling in love with her.
Everyone’s life unfolds differently. Why is this such a difficult concept for some people to understand? I had one child at 19, my second at 31. I can’t imagine having another child nine years from now, but then I spent my entire adulthood raising children. I can’t say whether or not I’d go for it at 49 if I hadn’t had any children – I very well might. I know what wouldn’t stop me – the fear of dying while they’re young. I could die tomorrow. She’ll be 67 when the child is 18, which isn’t some great old age to live to. I’m sure she’ll have many good years with her son. LMAO people are acting like she’s 99 and ready to die any day now smh. The perfect age to have a child is the age when you know you’re ready to love and care and want that child, period.
It’s not just about dying though.
More than half the people I know who are 55+ are dealing with some pretty major health problems. Multiple heart attacks, a stroke, cancers that overwhelmingly affect older people, degenerative diseases that have started to fully take hold. Quite a few of the 65+ people I know are showing very strong signs of Alzheimer’s.
People live longer these days, but many start needing care 20-30 years before they die. For every 70yr old who’s healthy and working and living an awesome life, there’s another who’s life consists of hospital stays and recovery.
Older parents are in a better financial position when they have kids, but that also means they spend more than younger parents, and unlike younger parents they don’t have decades of working life left to rebuild their retirement funds. My parents were poor when they had me, but by the time they needed care 45 years later they could afford professional help. My friends with older parents ended up being their parents carers in their 20’s, often having to work full time too because their parents money had run out after a few years.