Well, now I know why there were some random rumors about Jessica Chastain and a baby on Twitter last month. Those rumors were around because Jessica and her (hot, Italian) husband Gian Luca Passi De Preposulo welcomed a baby via surrogacy, and there were some lowkey photos of Gian and Jessica out and about with the baby last month. This is the first time anything has been confirmed though: Page Six says that Jessica and Gian welcomed a baby girl FOUR MONTHS AGO and never issued any kind of confirmation or announcement about it. Page Six has the name of the baby girl too:
Jessica Chastain and her husband Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo have a new bundle of joy. The actress, 41, and Passi de Preposulo welcomed baby Giulietta Passi Chastain via surrogate, Page Six has learned.
The now-family-of-three was spotted on the Upper East Side this week on their way to a pediatrician’s office. Chastain carried Giuletta in a baby carrier as they walked the streets of New York and were joined by a woman who is possibly the baby’s nanny. The “Zero Dark Thirty” star, who is known to keep her personal life private, was also seen pushing a stroller in Boston a month ago while filming her upcoming movie, “Eve.”
We’re told the baby girl is about four months old – and is already quite the traveler. She joined her mom and dad in Paris as Chastain appeared at an inaugural Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the upscale department store Galeries Lafayette last week.
It’s kind of cool that they were being so low-key about it, and that so many media outlets didn’t even make it into a thing when Jessica first appeared in some blurry paparazzi photos last month. The only thing I heard was some random stuff on Twitter, from Chastain’s loyal fans. Gian and Jessica have been together for years, and they got married in June 2017. Working backwards, it feels like they probably decided on surrogacy very quickly after they got married. As for the name Giuletta… eh. It’s an Italian name, and it probably had some meaning to Gian, perhaps it was the name of a beloved female relative. My personal thing is that I would have preferred the name with a “Ju” and yes, I know it can spelled both ways. Julietta just LOOKS prettier written down.
Jessica Chastain steps out with baby welcomed via surrogate https://t.co/PHm3hA8a0D pic.twitter.com/S7r0Hc1JFR
— Page Six (@PageSix) November 17, 2018
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Aw that’s nice. Congrats to them.
Another proof that celebs who really want to keep their personal life private can do that.
Congrats to the new family!
Right? Happy for JC and I love the name!
Also, on a very side note, speaking of celebs’ privacy, I really appreciated the fact that Buble didn’t bring his kids along for his Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony. Most of celebs who brought kids along claimed they wanted them to remember that moment, which is utterly silly imo, because those children are often too young to understand what’s going on and to remember it.
EXACTLY
Well, Guilietta is Italian. It hurts my eyes when you write it with “Ju” 😀 😛
#ItalyisCroatiasneighbour
True fact- there is no letter J in the Italian alphabet!
Oh the debates my Croatian husband and I had over spelling of names. There were several names dismissed simply because we couldn’t agree on the spelling.
It hurts my eyes too. I see the “Ju” spelling and want to pronounce it “Yulietta” and that is not Italian. The husband is Italian and of course he will want to correctly spell the child’s name.
We should not have to make all spelling Americanized so that it doesn’t hurt eyes. To my eyes, making things Americanized in this way causes pain to my heart.
I agree. The name is Italian so it should be spelled the Italian way. No need to make it “Americanized”.
Agreed lol
I find Giulietta beautiful. I really love Giulia or Giulianna. 🙂
Grazie; Thank you 😉 That made me eye-roll.
They are probably calling her “Julie”
why? he’s Italian, why wouldn’t they call the baby by her name?
Congratulations! Many Blessings for the new little bundle of joy in the name of our Lord Jesus!
I’ve been seeing and loving this trend(?) of celebs having babies in the most discreet and private ways where we’re only hearing about it after it happens, sometimes months after. I know that may not be everyone’s choice, but since I’m a very private person even while not being a celebrity, I also relish in other people’s privacy.
There is no letter “j” in the Italian alphabet. Giuseppe (joe) Gesù (jesus). The only time a j is used is for foreign words like “jeans”
I will disagree with you that Julietta looks prettier than Giulietta. They’re both nice, and the spelling would make sense as dad is Italian.
Giulietta is simply the Italian translation of Juliet. Julietta looks absolutely painful to an Italian, lol
It’s also a delicate name, a small, pretty version of Giulia.
Congrats to the Passi-Chastains
I think it’s a lovely name.
Actually Juliet is the translation of Giulietta, being Giulio a latin name (from ancient Rome)
Julius was the Latin as in Julius Caesar. He didn’t spell it with a “J” or a “G”. They used “I” so “Iulius” or probably “Ivlivs”. Probably did pronounce it “Yoolius”.
“G” wasn’t introduced until later and “I”/”J” split into two letters.
Juliet is the name of her sister that died. So I’m guessing it is sort of an Italian tribute to her. Similar name, but not the same. I like it.
Wishing them all much happiness!
That’s sweet, if true. We gave both our kids names that were similar to our grandmothers’ names. Like those movies — “inspired by true events.” 🙂 It was a way to honor our families while still giving our kids their own identities.
It’s true.
https://people.com/movies/jessica-chastain-on-her-sisters-2003-suicide/
Giulietta instantly brings to mind the iconic Masina, an italian legend. I don’t see how it can be a bad thing.
absolutely! the wonderful giulietta masina, fellini’s wife. i bet that’s why they chose the name. and because around here (italy) it’s rather unusual yet traditional and very feminine.
This would have been much harder to pull off if Jessica was the one actualy pregnant. I wonder if that particular factor ever comes into the consideration when deciding on surrogacy by celebrity women (not that there is anything wrong with choosing surrogacy over pregnancy, to each their own). In any case, congrats to them.
I hope it’s not the privacy issue. That really doesn’t make it “their choice”. And really any celebrity can mostly disappear if they want to. There could be a million possibilities; from a personal choice about her body and time, to her being physically unable to carry children (you never know). But doing it to maintain privacy seems a bit over the top (for any celebrity).
Congrats to them, in any event.
It’s very likely due to her age. I was unable to have another child at or over 40, which is common.
Yes, her age and she’s also at the height of her career. Being pregnant would have probably taken her out of business for a year and she can’t really afford that atm, I guess.
That’s great! Congrats to the new family!
Happy for them! I love her. I wonder if it was fertility issues (though of course none of my business!).
I think it’s a lovely name. I am curious as to why they chose to give the baby her last name rather than his. The spelling of her first name would make more sense accompanied by an Italian last name.
I know in Spanish speaking countries, the father’s last name is first and then the mother’s. Maybe it’s the same in Italy?
What do you all think of surrogacy, generally? I’ve never really thought about it before, but last night I was reading this news on another site and there was a big discussion, most of it vitriolic, about surrogacy and how it can never be the right choice – “Commodifying women’s bodies”, “exploitation”, “wombs for sale”, “illegal in civilised countries” etc., and it was eye opening to see such a negative discussion so I was interested to see what the consensus here is. I still don’t know what to think about it – there are pros and cons, imo – but reading the replies last night was a real jolt.
Personally I think it’s no one’s business how people create a family. I had two horrible pregnancies that resulted in my wonderful kids, so I can actually see the appeal in surrogacy.
I think it is wrong. The payment is far too little, considering how difficult a pregnancy is on a woman’s body, the risk isn’t taken into account at all. Rich people buy a family, while less fortunate women are taken advantage of.
I can see people being surrogates for close family members or friends. The rest should be illegal though and I think the US are the only country that thinks it is okay to pay for a women to be exploited in that way.
Serious question, what would prevent rich people from just making an arrangement wherein the paid surrogate just claims to be a close friend? Everything in the US and most of the world is commodified, everything, and if there’s even the slightest opening won’t the wealthiest and most powerful find a way?
I have a friend who has two kids and doesn’t need the money to be a surrogate. She decided to do a kindness for a couple unable to have children and act as their surrogate. She has no regrets and is happy to have done it. She accepted no payment if I remember correctly.
What an amazing person your friend is. Not to be too gender-biased, but there are so many low-key woman heroes, unsung heroes. My son and I went to see Widows the other night and he said something after about “empowering for women” and I challenged him on that word. When I felt how the story highlights how strong and smart women are on the regular. He agreed (such an amazing male) and your friend is another example. As far as the subject, a meant to be mom should have a chance and people’s virulent idea that they have a say is not cool. I’m sure there are chances for opportunists, on both sides, and exploitation and facing harsh judgements will keep those situations in the dark.
I dunno. In theory I have nothing against it, if a woman wants to put her body through a pregnancy to help out someone who can’t, it’s her good right to do so. My problem is how easily this concept is abused and the role money plays in this. Women from poor countries who have no real understanding of what they signed up for carrying the children, yes plural, of rich Westerners etc. Plus I always feel like there are enough of us on the planet already, adoption should be a way more popular option.
I agree with that. There are a couple of quite high profile cases in Australia that are just disgusting (it’s outright illegal to be a paid surrogate in most of the country). One couple fertilised a Thai lady with twins, one had down syndrome and the surrogate ended up keeping that one while the couple took the other one home. Two siblings separated because we’ve decided to commodify children. And the father of the twins had been convicted of child sex offences!
There are also cases of Australians moving to countries where the laws are loose and setting up illegal surrogacy farms, exploiting (and yes I 200% believe it’s exploitation at both ends) women who are hard up for cash yet I’m sure don’t see the bulk of the money and the desperate parents to be. There are a heap of babies in Cambodia I think that can’t be brought home because the govt caught on and are trying to tie up the loose ends.
@Ange Yeah, I’ve heard of stuff like this all over the world and I fully agree that it’s exploitation at both ends. 50000$ paid, the woman receives 10000$ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/23/cambodia-33-pregnant-women-found-in-raid-on-child-surrogacy-ring
Why not I say? I have a friend who was married 13 years and while she could get pregnant she couldn’t get past 2-3 months mark. She suffered a lost of miscarriages, lost one of the ovaries, almost died (because each time a doctor told her that this time she could carry to term that’s why she tried over and over). She had the money to hire a surrogate in another country because here where we live still don’t have that going on, but she, finally, was able to get a pregnancy to term with a lot of work and have a baby. Her husband wanted so badly for her not to try again.
I think the women in developed countries that do that are somewhat protected from exploitation. The problem is in the underdeveloped countries where it’s sure that women are paid cents to have those babies. That’s where I feel unease.
Adoption is a good route to go but we all know that adopting is not that easy, takes time and money and if yo are above a certain age (40 or more) you are not even considered anymore or you can only adopt older children and that is not appealing to many. It’s hard enough to establish a relationship with an adult imagine doing so with a teen or older that will never consider you as his/her parent.
All in all I am pro surrogacy or gestational carrier or what have you. It has made so many people happy and all that has to be done is better the laws that protect the women that do it and forbids people to exploit it even outside the borders of their countries (making it difficult to bring children born from another woman in the country, or some sort of law).
I have a friend of mine who had multiple micarriages as well and when she finally carried to term, it was such a difficult pregnancy with complications.
I read the same site and was taken aback. I have never seen such virulent hatred of surrogacy anywhere else. I don’t believe it is generally a controversial matter. They have just all made up their one mind about it.
A friend of mine was just a surrogate and gave birth in June.
She likes being pregnant, but doesn’t want anymore kids.
She got compensated for the time out of work, medical and well being
But she did it to give this couple a gift.
It did shock me – it was quite unexpected in what I thought would be a pretty benign post.
If it’s well regulated, then it’s okay to me. Saw a documentary about it and some of these women accepting the surrogate role are incredibly grateful for the money, which they couldn’t have earned anywhere else and which is often multiple what they’d earn in a year in their normal jobs / countries. Exploitation could happen in any role, whether you’re a nanny or a surrogate. Keep in mind the parent(s) requesting the surrogacy have a strong interest in ensuring the surrogate has excellent healthcare during pregnancy and birth. For this reason surrogacy can work for both parties with less risk of exploitation than say a person slaving away in a toxic mobile phone parts factory. And it’s not, obviously, anything close to selling a kidney or some other sort of biology-related economic transaction.
Hi there, long time lurker, first time commenter. I wanted to comment as someone who is at the beginning of the gestational carrier process to explain the reasons we are going this route.
First thing to explain is that I always wanted to be a mom. My husband and I started trying for a baby when I was in my 20’s because I had always had irregular periods and I thought it might take awhile. Little did I know that we’d still be trying years later, with more IVF failures and miscarriages than I can count. We found out eventually that I had a genetic blood-clotting disorder that leads to recurrent pregnancy loss, and so my doctor recommended we go the gestational carrier route. (FYI, i’ve been told that “gestational carrier” is the most common term when the woman carrying the baby does not have a genetic connection to the baby).
Second, we are EXTREMELY lucky to have the resources so that we can even consider this option. Neither of us came from money but we are doing well enough now that we were able to save *just* in case we had to go this route. The reason we are using a gestational carrier instead of adoption (which is something I always get asked!) is because we have a lot of frozen embryos from our attempts at IVF, and I would like to try to use them (we plan on donating the remainder when we are hopefully done building our family).
We have not yet been matched with a gestational carrier (we literally just started the process last week) but i’m very impressed so far with the thoughtfulness that my agency and fertility clinic have shown towards the women who apply to be a GC. Only a tiny fraction of the women who apply are actually accepted, my understanding is that they are very demanding to make sure that the women are good candidates health-wise and emotionally. I struggled a lot with our decision initially because it felt so “Handmaid’s Tale” to me to ask another woman to do this amazing thing for us. I didn’t decide to go forward until after several meetings with the agency and doctor, who explained over and over again how carefully vetted the pairings are before a couple is matched with a GC. I hope that my clinic is the norm in the States and not the exception, because my biggest fear IS exploitation.
Anyways, i’m very aware that there are strong feelings about the surrogacy/gestational carrier process, and my fear of judgment is what has kept me from sharing our plans more widely IRL. At the same time though, the idea of hopefully, finally welcoming a baby makes me so incredibly grateful that this option exists and that there are women willing to do this.
@Hi thank you for sharing your story. One day soon I hope to hear you have your baby in your arms.
Jessica Chastain strikes me as a serious career actress like Meryl Streep. She’s beautiful but hasn’t marketed herself as a sex symbol so she could easily take a year off to carry a child. She will probably still be working when she’s 70. If she used a surrogate I’m sure it’s fertility issues not vanity.
Hi to you too! Thanks for this – it’s helped me to see the other side after reading the other, very furious, opinions yesterday. Best of luck to all of you, good health to your GC and many blessings for your future.
I think as long as both parties are consenting then it’s a completely nice and selfless gift you can give someone.
I would just make sure you have some lawyers involved. To help protect both sides.
Congrats to them! She really has her private life on lock down, huh?
I too personally prefer the J spelling, but they’re using the Italian spelling, which makes sense.
I’m not shocked that she used a surrogate with this lavender marriage, it’s exactly what I expected (or an adoption). She’s obsessed with her career and would never consent to take the time away to be pregnant.
Judgemental much?
She was already in her 30’s when she made a name for herself. Of course she has to capitalize while the iron is hot. You don’t know if she tried to conceive without success. Or do you?
Wow…
Miss M, +1. So judgy about her personal choice. Men never have to be judged for using a surrogate as they have a “biological advantage.”
This! Also… lavender marriage? Whut? A) Which one is supposed to be gay and B) We live in the 21st century, you do know that, right?
What a vile comment! There is so much misogyny in the media, it would be really nice to not have to read it here too.
It is none of your business how, when, or why JC made her reproductive or career choices. And if the former came at the expense of the latter—or vice versa—that’s her business too!
But… isn’t this site called CeleBITCHY? Not CeleNICEY?
Congratulations to them!
It is nobody’s business why they chose a surrogate. However, I highly doubt anyone chooses to go that route because if ”convenience”.
In Canada, you cannot pay someone to be a surrogate only for costs directly related to the pregnancy.
Guilanna Rancid did. She was underweight to begin with and didn’t want to put on the weight to be able to carry a baby. The Dyland’s Candybar chick did it too because it was too inconvenient for her career to carry a child for 9 months. I hope that women like them are in the minority.
Wasn’t she rumored years ago to be with Tom Hiddleston?
Nope, that was just wishful thinking of a few fans.
Let’s not kid ourselves, she is not on the level of Brad and Angelina or Beyonce. Talented woman, but no one is checking for Jessica.
The attention goes both ways. She’s certainly not leaking every detail of her life like some big stars do. She doesn’t court the paps for fame’s sake. During her wedding she was certainly sought out (drones or choppers filming her wedding).
Beyonce was able to give birth to her twins without anyone knowing for weeks. So no, its not even a matter of your level of fame so much as your level of discretion.
Jessica is not a big star. Period. Talented but again, no one is looking into what she is up to.
Milli, you could say the same about Jen Garner, except the latter does pap apointments with kids, at church, etc. I’d say Jessica is a busy actor who doesn’t self-promote the same way as some. Like Leo Dicaprio, like Tom Hardy, R Downey, etc. Noteable actors (whether or not you like their acting) who aren’t so much celebrities, but that doesn’t mean they’re not power players in their industry.
Short for “Gian Luca” is Luca, not Gian.
Gorgeous woman. Love the way she handles the attention and her pr: genuine and never attention seeking for its own sake. Congrats!
@Earlyriser – my thoughts exactly. I love it when people say exactly what I’m thinking & don’t have to use the 10,000 words that it would take me!
Congratulations to the couple.
she is #goals to me. Badass feminist, uber talented, hot Italian husband-always love to hear good news about her. old interview on graham Norton with her and Michael fassbender she seemed so fun and easy going.
She is soooo gorgeous