When Anne Hathaway was portraying a pregnant woman on Broadway, she had a very real miscarriage.
For the first time, she’s opening up about this heartbreaking and all-too-common experience.
Anne Hathaway is a talented actress, a celebrity style icon, and also a mother of two. Her sons are 8 and 4.
She also knows the pain of losing a pregnancy. Her hope is that speaking out will help others to realize that they are not alone.
In 2015, Anne Hathaway played a pregnant woman in ‘Grounded’
Grounded is only one of numerous plays in which Anne Hathaway has appeared. In 2015, she portrayed a pregnant woman at The Public Theater in New York.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Anne Hathaway has opened up about her experience with pregnancy and a tragic miscarriage before she became a mother. Her on-stage role turned into a cruel mockery.
“The first time it didn’t work out for me,” she acknowledged. “I was doing a play and I had to give birth onstage every night.”
2015 came right on the heels of a vitriolic (and seemingly without cause, because she’s a great person) hate campaign against her by online trolls. Understandably, Anne Hathaway did not choose to make her miscarriage public knowledge — instead sharing it with a few friends.
“It was too much to keep it in when I was onstage pretending everything was fine,” she recalled. “I had to keep it real otherwise.”
Hathaway explained: “So when it did go well for me, having been on the other side of it — where you have to have the grace to be happy for someone — I wanted to let my sisters know, ‘You don’t have to always be graceful. I see you and I’ve been you.’”
Obviously, Anne Hathaway is not alone in her pain
“It’s really hard to want something so much and to wonder if you’re doing something wrong,” she expressed.
During the interview, Hathaway also remarked on how surprised she felt at the time. She’d had no idea how many friends had experienced miscarriages.
From watching television, you might think that miscarriages are rare — caused by dramatic falls on soap operas or extreme emotional distress on dramas. In reality, 20% of reported pregnancies result in miscarriages — and the true figure is higher, because so many occur before the pregnant individual knows that they are pregnant.
“I thought, Where is this information? Why are we feeling so unnecessarily isolated?” Anne Hathaway recalled wondering.
“That’s where we take on damage,” she pointed out. “So I decided that I was going to talk about it.”
Sharing our own lived experiences can sometimes be the best way to help others cope with what they may feel is a private shame. Good for her.