Anne Hathaway is not afraid to talk about the joys and challenges of parenthood.
The Academy Award-winning actor has a son named Jonathan with her husband, Adam Shulman. In July, she announced they were expecting their second child. Since becoming a mother in 2016, she’s opened up about her approach to parenting in a number of interviews.
In honor of her birthday, here are 12 quotes about parenthood from Hathaway.
On How Parenthood Changed Her
“I think about who I was when I made ‘The Princess Diaries’ and how little confidence I had, but how ambitious I was. Those two things were not a comfortable mix for a very long time. I don’t feel like that person anymore. It took until having my son and connecting with a certain ... realization that inside every single one of us there is something that is sacred and ... pure. It’s important to acknowledge that in everyone, but we have to acknowledge it in ourselves.”
On How She Spends Her Time
“Before I had my son, I sensed this pressure to fill my schedule. If I wasn’t working, I felt like I was wasting time. Now I know I have to build in breaks in my year, and there are times when I’m just not available to work because it’s important for me to be home with him. So I shop a lot less. I cook a lot more. I read a lot more. I write a lot more. I communicate a lot more. I make more time for the things that matter to me because suddenly I have more time.”
On Prince William And Kate Middleton’s Parenting Tip
“They get down on the child’s level and speak to them eye to eye to make their child feel empowered. I thought that was really cool. I started doing that with Jonathan.”
On Pregnancy
“Some days you wake up and you’re like, ‘Really, that’s my face?’ You kind of feel carved from butter.”
On Choosing To Stop Drinking As A Parent
“I’m going to stop drinking while my son is in my house just because I don’t totally love the way I do it, and he’s getting to an age where he really does need me all the time in the mornings. I did one school run one day where I dropped him off at school, I wasn’t driving, but I was hungover and that was enough for me. I didn’t love that one.”
On Opening Up About Her Fertility Struggles
“There is a one-sided narrative to this and, of course, it’s wonderful that we celebrate the happy moment when it’s ready to share. I think there is a silence around the moments before that and they are not all happy and, in fact, a lot of them are quite painful. I think that pain is that these women feel like we’re the only ones going through it. I just knew that somewhere my announcement was going to make somebody feel worse about themselves because — and it wouldn’t be their fault that that happened — you just can’t help it when you want something so bad and it feels like it’s happening to everyone else but you. And I just wanted that person to know that they’re included in my story too and that my story didn’t just have happy moments too.”
On Singing At Home
“My son hates my singing voice. Right now, he is very into ‘The Lion King.’ He’s Simba, of course, and my husband is Mufasa. I am Zazu. I am the annoying, nasal, officious Zazu, so I am allowed to sing now, but only as a nasal British man.”
On Joining The ‘Sesame Street’ Movie
“A big reason why I’m doing it is just an off chance that [Jonathan] has a memory of hanging out with Cookie Monster. I’m a big fan of Snuffleupagus. I love Snuffy, but my son is all about Cookie Monster. All about Cookie Monster.”
On Parenthood’s Effect On Her Communication
“I’m loving feeling reborn in a certain way as a mom. I don’t often talk about this, but there’s a wonderful thing that you learn when your child’s becoming emotional about something ― you become very calm around them. I’m finding that’s transferring to the way I communicate with people as well, and in situations like this. Or earlier, somebody said something and I found myself really bristling against it. I felt my righteousness start to rear its head. And then I calmed down. And I feel like that’s the way I like to communicate. That’s the way I like to be heard ― to go below what’s going on. And by the way, I don’t think that one’s right and one’s wrong. I think the way we exist together is by accepting each other and accepting the way people come at things.”
On Mom Guilt
“When Johnny was a week old and I was holding him and I was in the ninth level of ecstasy, I just all of a sudden thought, ‘Mommy guilt is invented nonsense.’ We’re encouraged to judge each other, but we should be turning our focus to the people and institutions who should be supporting us and currently aren’t.”
On Privacy
“I had never posted a photo of my son, and I decided to post a shot of the back of his head, and almost as soon as I’d done it, I wished that I hadn’t. I felt like I had broken some kind of a seal in inviting people into my life. And even though I felt as though I had done it in as protective a way as I could, even though it was a moment I was incredibly proud of, I don’t know that I’ll ever do it again.”
On Imperfect Parenting
“He’s so beautiful. I’m not perfect, but if I’m frustrated or distracted, I’m good at making sure he’s sage and walking away, calming down and then coming back to him ... I fall short every day, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it, I’m going to learn from it.”
