Emmy-Winning Actress Reveals Her Unplanned Pregnancy at Age 44 Sparked a ‘Meltdown’

Claire Danes admittedly had a full-on “meltdown” when she learned she was pregnant with her third child at age 44.

The Beast In Me actress, now 46, opened up about the moment she learned that she and her husband, Hugh Dancy, would be welcoming an unexpected new member of the family on the Jan. 27 episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler.

When asked by host Amy Poehler if she had “burst into tears” at the idea of having to be pregnant again, Danes admitted she “totally” did.

“I called my OBGYN in convulsive tears. It was a pure like … meltdown,” recalled the Homeland actress, who is also mom to 12-year-old son Cyrus and 7-year-old Rowan. “None of this was by design. I didn’t know it was physically possible. I was 44. And actually, Rowan was very hard-earned. I had to do two rounds of IVF.”

The mom of three previously opened up about her complicated emotions regarding getting pregnant in her mid-40s on the Smartless podcast with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett.

“I was so old when that happened. I was 44,” Danes said, admitting that she “didn’t think it was possible” to get pregnant at that point in her life.

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The Emmy-winning actress felt “a funny shame” being pregnant at 44, partially due to the stigma of having children later in life and partially because she and the Law & Order star, 50, were not trying for another child.

“I did not foresee this at all. And it was weird. Suddenly, I felt like a funny shame,” she said on the podcast. “I was naughty. I had been caught fornicating past the point I was meant to. No, it was weird, and it was like I found an edge that I hadn’t been quite conscious of — like I was going outside of the parameters a little bit.”

Danes and Dancy, who tied the knot in 2009, welcomed their third child, daughter Shay, in July 2023. “It’s a trip,” the actress said. “I mean, I have a teenager and a toddler at once.”