As Kaiser has been covering, InStyle has so many profiles this month of former cover models in honor of their 25th anniversary. They’re all surprisingly good and candid. I’ve enjoyed the interviews I’ve read, which are presented without commentary and without context for the questions which were asked. Halle Berry talked about her career, her kids and how much she liked being pregnant. That came up as background for one of cover appearances, when she was pregnant for the first time with Nahla. (I think it’s this cover, dated April 2007. She wasn’t pregnant yet as Nahla was born in March, 2008.) She’s said something similar before, I covered an interview she did saying in 2014 in which she said that she was the happiest she’d ever been when she was pregnant.
On being pregnant
Honestly, I felt the sexiest during both my pregnancies. Around the time of my third InStyle cover, in 2007, I became a mom at 40. Knowing that someone would always be counting on me made me a better person. I’m more focused and in line with my values and my goals. I stopped letting negativity get me down. Plus, I loved being pregnant. Had I started earlier, I probably would have had five children. Or if I hadn’t been busy trying to make movies, I would have been the perfect surrogate. All the hormones made me feel amazing. I was so alive with my purpose and my femininity. It felt like my body was doing what it was built to do.On her kids realizing she’s famous
Being a mom is the best job, but my kids don’t care about who I am outside of this house. My daughter [Nahla, 11] got a sense of who I am from friends at school. And — this is funny — for the last year, my son [Maceo, 5] has been saying my full name really loudly in public like, “Halle Berry, can you pass me the ketchup?” It’s just so embarrassing! [laughs] He knows it gets a reaction from people, but he can’t quite figure out why.On being a mom
The only thing I want at the end of the day is for my children to say, “You weren’t perfect, you didn’t do everything right, but you were a good mom.” I spent almost 10 years being in mom mode. Now that my youngest is starting kindergarten, I feel like I can get back into my life, and that’s important. I want to keep challenging myself and proving that I can still follow my passions, take risks, and take on characters who make me feel alive… One day they’re going to grow up, and I don’t want to be the mom who’s crying because her kids left. I want to be the mom who says, “Yes, girl, go fly. Go do you, do your life.”
[From InStyle]
When I was pregnant I was uncomfortably large, had to pee all the time, would get terrible heartburn and couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep, especially during the last trimester. Every woman is different though and some of my friends loved it. Halle has Type 1 diabetes and I wonder if she had some relief from that while pregnant, as pregnancy can help with a lot of autoimmune diseases. As for the stories about her kids, that’s hysterical that her kid says her name loudly in public to get a reaction! Kids can troll us so hard. Also I need to re-read that last line about being happy and wishing her kids well when they leave the nest. Nahla is 11 and Maceo is just five so that’s easy for her to say now. Wait until they’re teenagers. It goes by in a blip.
Halle in October, 2013 right before Maceo was born.
photos credit: WENN and via Instagram
I am so envious of women who feel amazing while pregnant. I am tired and anxious. I burp up stomach acid, get dizzy easily, and feel stretched to my limits sometimes.
I guess when you’re noted sex symbol ‘Halle Berry’, you probably feel a lot of pressure to look and be sexy all the time, even when you’re literally growing a human being inside of you. I remember Ian Somerhalder talking about how sexy his wife looked pregnant, and how weird and borderline creepy that was. There is wayyy too much pressure on women to be sexy all the time, and leaning into it sounds exhausting.
What’s weird or creepy about a man finding his pregnant wife sexy??
I guess creepy was the wrong word to use there, but people talk about a woman’s body as if it’s one and only function is to provide sexual pleasure. It’s weird to focus on how ‘sexy’ someone is to you, when they’re literally creating a life. And men say it often, as if it’s high praise that they’re still willing to ‘do’ you. I just think it plays into the damaging expectations we have on women. (I used creepy because Ian Somerhalder threw away all of his wife’s birth control pills without her knowledge and now it’s the only word I associate with him).
I completely CANNOT relate to this sentiment.
i understand what she’s saying. i felt pretty good during my pregnancy. my body was doing what it was supposed to and i didn’t feel fat – i felt pregnant. i wore more form fitting clothes than i normally do to obscure my body. my hair and skin had never looked better. i was totally unselfconscious for the first time in many many years and that is why i felt good.
Mee too – I had a very easy pregnancy and my skin was the best ever. But then the next two, three years were very very hard and I was so exhausted. And I lost a lot of hair. I feel like I never really recovered!
Same, Lizzie. Even when I’m at my most slim, I still carry a LOT of tummy fat. My pregnancies have felt so freeing in that regard, just because it felt like my gut was cute all of a sudden, because it was “supposed” to be there. Gave birth to my second precious little pumpkin six weeks ago, and now I’m back to trying desperately to dress and carry myself in such a way as to make my tummy less obvious. I definitely miss the way I felt at peace with my body during pregnancy.
I’m happy for women who have this experience. I was not one of them.
Halle Berry – you are sexy all the time..,
I’m glad she felt that way but as a currently pregnant woman I certainly do NOT.
Holy hell her arms in that recent Insta are goals though. I can’t wait to get back to my normal workouts once this kid pops out. My decidedly unsexy back pain and nausea kept me from doing much up til now lol.
Really happy for her and other women who love being pregnant. I haaaated being pregnant. In my mom group I would say about half loved it and half hated it. I felt huge, self conscious, uncomfortable. The only thing I liked was feeling his kicks and my thicker hair. Physically I had a text book super healthy pregnancy and had my son at 38w2d when I was 37 years old. I am glad he didn’t make me wait until 42 weeks! Mentally I think I had prenatal depression from about 6 or 7 months on – once I couldn’t run anymore without intense pain. It turned into PPD. If I was younger I might have done it again, even though it was really hard on me, but as it is we are one and done. My OB said i would have (physically) made a good surrogate though.
Halle B always has the look of a house wife on xanax. Except she’s also gorgeous while being high as a kite