Meghan Markle has certainly lived a full life. Born on August 4 1981, the Duchess of Sussex is most famous for her work as an actress, UN ambassador and, of course, a working royal, but she’s also a proud mum-of-two to Archie and Lilibet.
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Though some critics have speculated that Meghan has lied about her age, the Duchess of Sussex, who is also three years older than her husband, has always been comfortable with getting older.
“I’m always told, ‘Don’t say your age,’” Meghan said back in 2015, when discussing how women in Hollywood have a “shelf life” and are encouraged to not reveal their age. “I’m 33, and I’m really comfortable with that. I think if anyone has a problem then it’s their problem, not mine.”
In her now defunct lifestyle blog The Tig, the former Suits star also discussed how it took years for her to find inner happiness.
“My 20s were brutal – a constant battle with myself, judging my weight, my style, my desire to be as cool/as hip/as smart/as ‘whatever’ as everyone else. My teens were even worse – grappling with how to fit in, and what that even meant,” she wrote on her 33rd birthday in 2014.
“My high school had cliques: the black girls and white girls, the Filipino and the Latina girls. Being biracial, I fell somewhere in between. So everyday during lunch, I busied myself with meetings – French club, student body, whatever one could possibly do between noon and 1pm- I was there. Not so that I was more involved, but so that I wouldn’t have to eat alone.”
At 37, Meghan became a mum when she and Harry welcomed their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in May 2019.
Two years later, the couple announced the arrival of their second child in June 2021, just a couple of months ahead of Meghan’s 40th birthday.
However, Meghan isn’t the only famous woman to become a mum after the age of 35. Check out the other famous mamas, from Australia and overseas, that became parents in their late thirties and beyond.
Jules Robinson
Back when the season six Married At First Sight bride announced that she and husband Cam Merchant were expecting, Jules, who was 37 at the time, confessed she thought it would be harder.
“I honestly thought it was going to come with a fight. Because of my age, I had done all the hormone testing, the egg count… so much is instilled that you’re going to struggle because of your age,” she explained to Stellar.
“So I had it in my head that it was going to be a problem, but on the flip side, I think my saving grace was because all my focus was on launching my Figur shapewear line, it wasn’t the centre of my universe. I wasn’t obsessing over it. And for that, I’m so grateful.”
Jules and Cam are now proud parents to son Oliver Chase, who was born in October 2020.
Fifi Box
Radio host and TV presenter Fifi was 37 when she welcomed her first daughter Trixie-Belle and was 42 when her daughter Daisy Belle was born.
“I know the value of this miracle because I have seen first hand the heartbreak, tears and sacrifices so many women and couples suffer on their IVF journeys and my heart goes out to those who are facing that pain and struggle,” the mum-of-two wrote on Instagram.
“It is not lost on me that I am one of the lucky ones. Being a mum is my greatest joy in life, it is quite simply everything to me.”
Nicole Kidman
Though she became a mum to her adopted kids Tom and Bella Cruise in her twenties, the Oscar winner welcomed her first biological daughter when she was 41. Two years later, Faith Margaret was born thanks to a surrogate.
Speaking about being “an older mother” with CBS News in 2016, Nicole became emotional.
“I would just like to – and it makes me sad – I would just like to be here long enough to have my children grow up and for me to see them thriving.”
Michelle Bridges
Fitness queen Michelle Bridges welcomed her son Axel in 2015 but told WHO that when she fell pregnant at 43 she got “a lot of heat” for it.
“A lot of heat. And it was such a kick in the guts for me because I was so excited,” she revealed on the Raw Talks podcast.
“I thought ‘So what? I can’t talk about it because I’m an older mother and I fell pregnant naturally?’
“They’d say I was irresponsible for having a child at 44 naturally. I was like ‘Hello! I’m not sixteen! I’m not a teen! I wanted to have a baby late and it just happened that way.
“It was a beat up. It wasn’t as though I was going out saying ‘You should have a baby at 44.’”
Salma Hayek
Award-winning actress Salma Hayek became a mum in her forties when she and husband François-Henri Pinault welcomed their daughter Valentina, but she had no regrets about having children later in life.
“I thought I was going to need help getting pregnant, and I didn’t,” she told WebMD magazine.
“I’m a more fulfilled human being now, and I probably wouldn’t have been 10 years ago. She gets a better mother for being born now.”
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