Claire Danes suffered "an emotional breakdown" when she found out she was pregnant at 44.

BarcelonaActress Claire Danes, known for series such as Homeland and The beast in meShe explained that her third pregnancy, when she was 44, took her completely by surprise, to the point of causing an "emotional breakdown." In a conversation with the podcast Good Hang with Amy PoehlerShe explained that the pregnancy was unplanned and that when she found out, she called her gynecologist "crying uncontrollably." "It wasn't planned. I didn't even think it was physically possible. I was 44 years old. And, in fact, Rowan [her second child] was very difficult to conceive. I had to do two rounds of IVF." in vitro"," says the actress, who is now 46.

During the chat with comedian Amy Poehler, Danes explains that she started thinking she might be pregnant during a spa stay with a friend, to whom she confessed her suspicions. She told her friend: "Yesterday I lost it and decided I was pregnant. I went into a spiral and finally looked up the chances of getting pregnant naturally at 44 and it's less than 1%, so it's totally ridiculous."

Danes details that after that moment she had two "strong" cocktails. The next day, however, we decided to make me... (capital and bold) Pregnant "And I started crying," she recalls. In July 2023, she gave birth to a daughter named Shay, completing the family the actress shares with fellow actor Hugh Dancy. The couple has two other children: Cyrus, 12, and Rowan, 7.

Lact SmartlessOn that occasion, she explained that becoming pregnant at 44 caused her some embarrassment because of her age and the stigma surrounding older mothers. "I hadn't planned on it at all. And it was strange. Suddenly, I felt a strange shame," she said. "I felt like I was naughty: I'd been caught having sex beyond the appropriate age. No, it really was strange; I encountered a barrier I wasn't entirely aware of. Danes maintains that the experience of raising both a teenager and a baby is "quite a journey."