Natalie Portman is preparing to become a mother for the third time. The 44-year-old actor revealed in a new interview that she is expecting a child with her partner, French music producer Tanguy Destable, sharing that she feels both “lucky” and “grateful” as she enters this new chapter.
Portman confirmed the news in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, where she spoke candidly about what the pregnancy means to her at this stage in her life. “Tanguy and I are very excited,” she said. “I’m just very grateful. I know it’s such a privilege and a miracle.”
In the interview, Portman explained that her age has changed the way she experiences pregnancy. “There is a gratitude that when you’re young, you don’t necessarily grasp,” she said. “And there’s a calm and knowing myself: who I want to spend time with, what kind of energy I want around me that makes the experience so beautiful every day.”
Portman also acknowledged that she approaches the experience with a heightened awareness of how difficult fertility journeys can be. The daughter of a fertility doctor, she said she grew up understanding the challenges many people face when trying to conceive.
“I have so many people I love who’ve had such a hard time with it,” she said. “I’m very aware, and I’m very grateful.”
Portman already has two children—14-year-old son Aleph and 9-year-old daughter Amalia—from her previous marriage to choreographer Benjamin Millepied.
The pregnancy marks Portman’s first child with Destable and also places her among a growing number of women embracing motherhood later in life.
Her pregnancy arrives amid a broader conversation about women having children later in life. Several high-profile Black women have publicly shared their experiences with motherhood after 40.
Janet Jackson welcomed her first child at 50. Halle Berry had her second child at 47, while Naomi Campbell announced the births of her children at 50 and 53. Other public figures, including Tamron Hall, Angela Bassett, Ashanti, and Nia Long, have also spoken publicly about becoming mothers after 40.
Those examples have increasingly shifted public perceptions around age and pregnancy, particularly as more women speak openly about fertility, family planning, and the realities of parenthood later in life.
Portman’s news also arrives just weeks after Gwen Stefani made headlines for discussing her own experience with later-in-life pregnancy. In a recent interview tied to the Catholic prayer app Hallow, Stefani said she became pregnant with her youngest son, Apollo, at age 44 after what she described as a “miracle.”
According to Stefani, she had believed she was too old to have another child before becoming pregnant several weeks after her son Kingston prayed for a sibling.
For Portman, however, the focus appears to be less on the pregnancy's unexpectedness and more on the perspective it brings.
“I have more energy than I thought I might,” Portman said. “If you’re just present and loving, that’s the best thing possible.”
