“Yellowjackets” star Hilary Swank is answering her critics. Swank addressed the backlash she received in the days since she announced that she was expecting her third child at the age of 52, speaking in a preview for an upcoming episode of “The Drew Barrymore Show.” The Hilary Swank pregnancy announcement earlier this week drew a wave of comments about her age, and Swank used the interview to push back.
“There’s a lot of backlash women get for having children older but not men. Which is interesting,” Swank told host Drew Barrymore. She recalled a “really interesting” anecdote that made her reflect on her decision to have children later in life. The Hilary Swank pregnancy remarks came in a preview clip released ahead of the full episode.
Swank said she was drawn to “this particularly story” because the woman, like her, was told she was “too old” to have kids and had also, like her, lost her father when she was a young adult.
“And I related to it because my dad is also passed but he was one of my favorite people on earth and so I, I was drawn to that and I thought to myself, ‘Well, I would rather be born and have that person, that was my favorite person and experience that than not at all,'” Swank said. “So that’s how I took what she said.”
Hilary Swank pregnancy announcement draws backlash
Swank broke the news earlier this week with an Instagram video featuring the fluorescent outlines of her, husband Philip Schneider and their 3-year-old twins dancing in the dark. An outline of Swank’s unborn child, also dancing, could be seen in the clip.
“A lot of people have been asking what project I’m doing next, this one releases in December,” she captioned it.
The playful announcement came with a due date hint. The Hilary Swank pregnancy video put the news in her own terms before the commentary started, but the response still included criticism of her age.
Hilary Swank pregnancy: what she told Drew Barrymore
Swank’s comments on “The Drew Barrymore Show” preview frame the Hilary Swank pregnancy debate as a double standard. She pointed to the different treatment of older fathers, who rarely face the same questions. The two-time Oscar winner has rarely discussed her family life in interviews, which made the remarks stand out.
The anecdote she shared about the woman told she was “too old” gave her answer a personal shape. Swank connected the story to her own father, who died when she was young, and to the way she thinks about giving her children the people she loved.
Swank’s family and the twins
Swank and Schneider, an entrepreneur, married in 2018 after two years of dating in a wedding in the redwoods of California. In 2022, Swank revealed she was becoming a parent during an appearance on “Good Morning America.”
“I’m so happy to share it with you and with America right now, this is something that I’ve been wanting for a long time: I’m going to be a mom,” she said at the time.
Swank welcomed twins Aya and Ohm in April 2023 and confirmed their arrival with an Instagram post of her cradling the newborns as they watched the sunset: “It wasn’t easy. But boy (and girl!) was it worth it. Happy Easter! Posting from pure Heaven.” The twins were 3 years old when the Hilary Swank pregnancy video was posted this week.
She publicly confirmed the children’s names for the first time in a 2024 Valentine’s Day post. She later shared the meanings behind the names on the “Today” show. “Aya was a Syrian refugee we met in Lebanon. So she was just this courageous, brave young girl full of life going through a really difficult time. My husband and I were like, ‘She’s so beautiful, what a great name,'” Swank explained. “Ohm is considered the first universal sound and unites all people, and that sounds very fitting.”
The Hilary Swank pregnancy announcement follows four years of family milestones shared on her own terms, from the 2022 reveal to the twins’ names in 2024. Swank has not said when the Hilary Swank pregnancy episode of “The Drew Barrymore Show” will air.