Hilary Swank is reflecting on the criticism she received after becoming a mother, including one comment she understood through her own experience of grief.
The actress, 52, is expecting her third child with Philip Schneider, whom she married in 2018. The couple welcomed twins Aya and Ohm in April 2023, when Swank was 48.
She discussed the reaction to older mothers during an Oct. 15 taping of The Drew Barrymore Show. The episode is scheduled to air Oct. 20, according to Us Weekly.
“There’s a lot of backlash women get for having children older but not men, which is interesting,” Swank told Barrymore.
A Woman’s Criticism Made Swank Think About Her Own Father
Barrymore pointed to men becoming fathers in their eighties and recalled that people had not always been gracious about Swank’s decision to have children in her forties.
Swank remembered one woman telling her, “How dare you. You’re too old.” The woman explained that her father had been her favorite person and that losing him in her early twenties had devastated her. She questioned whether Swank would be there for her children as they grew older.
Swank, whose father, Stephen, died in 2021, described him as “one of my favorite people on earth.” Reflecting on the woman’s words, she thought she would still choose to have known and loved her father, even with the pain of losing him, over never experiencing that relationship.
She had stepped away from acting to care for him after his lung transplant in 2014. In a 2018 interview with ABC News‘ Peter Travers, Swank explained that what she expected to be a year helping him recover became three years. At the time, she said he was healthy again and living independently. The break also renewed her appreciation for acting.
Swank Says She Would Have Welcomed Children Earlier
In an April 2025 interview with Women’s Health, Swank said she would have welcomed children sooner. She had not deliberately selected her late forties as the time to start.
She froze her eggs at 37, a decision she said gave her reassurance and more flexibility. She also acknowledged that freezing eggs offered no guarantee of a future pregnancy.
By the time she became a parent, Swank felt more patient and understanding than she would have been earlier in life. She described being fascinated by how her children’s minds worked.
With two Academy Awards and decades of acting behind her, she could choose when to work without the same competing demands she faced while building her career.
The Family Used Glow Sticks to Announce Another Baby
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Swank revealed the pregnancy on Instagram on Oct. 14 with a video of the family dancing in the dark. She introduced the baby as her next project and told followers it would arrive in December.
One follower wrote that she was single and childless at 39 and that Swank’s news gave her hope of having the family she wanted. Swank replied with encouragement while acknowledging how difficult she had found it to trust the timing of her own life.
“Things happen in their time, not ours,” she wrote, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Aya and Ohm Keep Asking Whether Christmas Has Arrived
In an Oct. 15 interview with PEOPLE at the EWG Verified Pop-Up in New York, Swank described herself as “elated” about the pregnancy.
When they see babies at restaurants, they approach them to announce that their mother is having a baby around Christmas. At home, they wake up asking, “Is it Christmas time yet?”