In early June 2023, we learned that Natalie Portman’s then-husband Benjamin Millepied was a big-time cheater. Benjamin’s infidelity was outed by a French tabloid, and soon after, the American media picked up the story. Natalie tried to do damage control and she and Benjamin possibly tried to work on their marriage, but a few months later, they reportedly separated. Their divorce was SUPER quiet. Like, I don’t know how Natalie and her team kept everything so hush-hush, but everything was finalized by March 2024 and we still have no idea what the terms were. One year after that, Natalie was seen in Paris with a new guy, a musician named Tanguy Destable (I still have no idea how his name should be pronounced). Well, here’s an interesting update on Natalie’s personal life! She’s pregnant. At the age of 44. Tanguy is the father. She confirmed everything via a Harper’s Bazaar interview:
Natalie Portman is “awed” to be welcoming a third child with her partner, the French music producer Tanguy Destable. The actor revealed the news exclusively to Harper’s Bazaar. “Tanguy and I are very excited,” she says. “I’m just very grateful. I know it’s such a privilege and a miracle.”
Portman, who is 44, is the child of a fertility doctor and has a keen awareness of the challenges and heartbreak that can accompany a fertility journey. “I grew up hearing about how hard it is to get pregnant,” she says. “I have so many people I love who’ve had such a hard time with it that I want to be respectful around that as well. It’s such a beautiful, joyous thing, and it’s also not an easy thing.” She adds, “And so I know how lucky it is. I’m very aware, and I’m very grateful. I have deep appreciation and gratitude.”
Gratitude is one of the feelings she notes she is experiencing more profoundly with this pregnancy. She has two children from her previous marriage to choreographer Benjamin Millepied: son Aleph, 14, and daughter Amalia, 9. “There is a gratitude that when you’re young, you don’t necessarily grasp,” she says. “And there’s a calm and knowing myself: who I want to spend time with, what kind of energy I want around me that makes the experience so beautiful every day. And knowing it’s probably the last time, I cherish every moment.”
Physically, Portman says she is feeling great. “I have more energy than I thought I might,” she says, noting that this pregnancy feels similar to her previous ones. She says she’s swimming and doing Gyrotonics to “keep strong” and spending lots of time with her kids, “which is always the best.”
…She’s enjoying being pregnant in Paris, where she has been based, on and off, for several years. “There’s been beautiful spring weather,” she says, “so it’s been pretty amazing to just walk in the incredible parks here and go see art. Just the usual things you do when you’re not working!” She also jokes, “In France, they consider full-term to be 41 weeks rather than 40, so I guess I get an extra week to be pregnant this time around.”
I ask if Portman succumbs at all to the onslaught of information hurled at new mothers digitally across social media. “I’m not really looking at social media that much,” she says. “I think maybe just having done it twice before… I read so many books the first time, and now I’m like, ‘Oh, we know what to do.’ It’s okay. You figure it out. We’re going to make lots of mistakes, no matter how hard we try. And also, we’re going to do a lot right without having to do research. I feel like if you’re just present and loving, that’s the best thing possible.”
And, no, there are no strange pregnancy cravings. Just fruit, says Portman, especially pineapple and melon.
Recently, I covered Claire Danes’ excellent interview on the Good Hang podcast, where Claire gave some backstory about accidentally getting pregnant with her daughter at the age of 43. This Portman situation reminds me of that – Claire said she was freaking out and in convulsive tears, but soon afterwards, she was just sort of zen about it. That was Claire’s third child as well! There’s something in the air. No, it’s a well-known phenomenon – many women get a fertility spike in their early-40s or mid-40s and get pregnant naturally, often accidentally. It sounds like Natalie found out she was pregnant and just decided “what the hell, sure” and rolled with the punches. Good luck to her and whatshisface. I’m including some tweets below with recent photos of Natalie. She’s pretty far along by the looks of things, which means she got pregnant last year after dating Tanguy for what? Six or seven months? Good for her.
Natalie Portman is pregnant with baby No. 3, her first with partner Tanguy Destable https://t.co/uEw3tmQ58N pic.twitter.com/QtUVJVN1gN
— New York Post (@nypost) April 17, 2026
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
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- SANTA MONICA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – FEBRUARY 25: Natalie Portman wearing a Balmain dress, Jimmy Choo shoes, and Nouvel Heritage jewelry arrives at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards (39th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards) held at the Santa Monica Beach on February 25, 2024 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 850980374, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Natalie Portman, Credit line: Image Press Agency / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- Natalie Portman attends the Award ceremony during the 50th Deauville American Film Festival on September 14, 2024 in Deauville, France.,Image: 908151764, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Thomas Floyd/Avalon
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- Lyon, FRANCE Natalie Portman attends Natalie Portman’s Master Class during the 17th Film Festival Lumiere in Lyon, France. Pictured: Natalie Portman BACKGRID USA 14 OCTOBER 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: Best Image / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Park City, UT Celebrities are seen attending the premiere of “The Gallerist” during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theater in Park City, Utah. Pictured: Natalie Portman BACKGRID USA 24 JANUARY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Park City, UT Celebrities are seen attending the premiere of “The Gallerist” during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theater in Park City, Utah. Pictured: Natalie Portman BACKGRID USA 24 JANUARY 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
“Change of life baby” is what they used to call it.
This is definitely a thing. A colleagues sister with two teenagers thought menopause was hitting but nope, pregnant. Upended all their plans but they were delighted.
Congrats to the couple and their family.
That is wonderful. The age of wisdom and calm energy is just as great as the younger and dynamic learning energy for welcoming a new baby. Congrats
Had my babies at 39 and 43 🤷♀️ no big deal.
I’d travelled the world, had two super careers, five years with my love and was financially sound.. so was content and calm about rearing children. It happens.
My husband and I have successfully reared our lovely girls who are equally calm and very loving.
Wishing Natalie all the best ❤️
I keep thinking the name of the father is detestable…. I wonder where she met him. Regardless , huge congratulations to them!
I think Kaiser referring to him as “whatshisface” is perfect and we should continue it going forward because I don’t have the slightest idea what his actual name is and won’t even attempt to pronounce it.
I suspect they have been together longer than a few months. When they got together and when they went public isn’t always the same thing.
My brain can’t process his name even though it’s not actually hard to understand it when I actually look at it. It’s so strange.
lol same. Even in French it’s a really unfortunate name. First name is pronounced Tawn-gee, Ton-gee (hard nasally prononciation on first syllable). I think it’s a name from the pays basque region
My mother got pregnant with me when she was also 44. My experience as a late-in-life child wasn’t super positive for a number of reasons, I was raised as an only child because my siblings are so much older than I am. By the time I was entering school, both of my parents had gray/white hair and everyone thought they were my grandparents. Also, their energy levels weren’t compatible with the energy level of a child, which meant I spent a lot of time by myself. I do realize that people are aging differently now and taking better care of themselves so having a 10 yr old at 55, can be a totally different experience for the child. Anyhow, congrats to Natalie and her family.
Same here, my mom had me one week after she turned 43. Seems like we had similar childhood experiences. Now that my mom is gone (she’s been gone for 10 years, wow i just realized I was the same age she was when she had me when she passed), anyway I have so much guilt for being embarrassed, especially during the elementary school years. She looked so old compared to all the other moms, I hated parent teacher conferences and avoided school events where parents were invited. As you said, a 43 year old now is much different than a 43 year old in the 70’s but it still gives me pause when I see an older pregnancy.
same, my parents were both between 45 and 50 when I was born and the same age as a lot of my school mates grandparents. my father was sick all the time and my mom was tired all the time. I feel bad now that I was so embarrassed and hated that I could never get rides from them to any activities. it always worked out but as a kid it was a big deal to me. now im that age and im like yeah, im really tired too.
Similar experience to a childhood friend of mine. She was the youngest of five, with a 12-year gap between herself and the next sibling up. They were all out of the house by the time we hit 4th grade & her dad died when we were in 9th.
I can understand that. I do think Natalie will have the means and will to look amazing for her age and to have more energy, etc. She’s a rich famous actress.
I was my mother’s last child (out of four) and she was only 29 when I was born. Wild. But I have friends who were late life babies and they had mixed experiences. My grandmother was the youngest of nine kids, born to a 46 year old mother who was already a grandmother. That had to have been a little weird for her.
I’d pronounce that name like “Tahn-Gee Day Stahb-le”. With the last bit smooshed together. But maybe some Frenchies here can confirm or correct that.
Last name sounds correct but not first name. The “an” in doesn’t really have an equivalent in English, but it may be close to the “an” in “answer”, the g is a hard g like in “guy” but with a “ee” sound.
The first syllable of his first name would be pronounced more like the “a” in “Dawn” but you don’t pronounce the “n” the same. It’s sort of strangled as though you just start to pronounce it and then it stops at your palate. And then “guy” is pronounced like the product “ghee”.
Since his last name doesn’t have an accent, I would pronounce the “de” like it normally is in french (like Simone “de” Beauvoir). With the Stable portion of his name having the “a” sound like the “o” in “stop” – with an extra “eu” flourish at the end (and I don’t know how the heck to describe that!)
Mayp is correct, I put my own phonetic spelling up thread but this one is perfect. I actually know dudes named Tanguy and I never thought it was a particularly pleasant sounding name
No need to guess on the first name. There’s a famous French film that can show us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsleGeCPRi8
😅
Tanguy rhymes with the French phrase ‘tant pis’ which is like saying “Oh well” or “Too bad” and something about that makes me chuckle.
If you must do it, grown and self aware and financially independent is a great time and way to have a baby.
She might not be that far along. I remember her saying that people thought she was very far along when she was pregnant when she won the Oscar but she was only maybe four months pregnant at the time but looked easily seven months
She’s very petite so she’ll pop sooner. The baby just doesn’t have anywhere to go in the torso but out when you’re short.
This is also her third baby, so she’s probably showing much sooner than she did with her previous pregnancies.
Congratulations! I hope her new relationship and family bring her so much joy.
I remember an era when men wanted her and women wanted to be her (and plenty wanted her, I’m sure). It’s still astonishing to me that she ended up with a complete dbag and not a man who thanked his lucky stars every day for her. I hope she has that now.
I used to like her, until she came out in support of Roman Polanski. She did try to backtrack from that (only after receiving public backlash), but when people show you who they are, believe them.
Oh, I did not remember that. You’re right, that’s a tell tale sign when women don’t believe women (or believe but don’t care).
I’m sort of not surprised she wound up with the first husband who cheated on her. Beautiful women in Hollywood generally end up with strange men that the rest of us can’t fathom.
I think I’m more surprised she got pregnant twice accidentally and then has to proceed to make the relationship work because she got pregnant. She seemed kind of judgy as a teenager when she starred in the Walmart movie.
Doctor here, this is my experience and your mileage may vary.
I think it’s unlikely that she had a surprise pregnancy. Given that her dad’s a fertility specialist she undoubtedly has access to the highest level of treatment available. that means optimizing and selecting the best possible embryo with genetic screening and gender already known.
this is pretty common practice in Europe and particularly in Israel. the only question in my mind is if she had her own eggs or used a donor.
From Europe myself. Would never think to call it “common practice”.
There are people who have difficulties getting pregnant, not just because of age – a lot of them up to a decade younger than her. Personally, I also know quite a few late mothers. I remember a collegue who was celebrating her “little one” leaving the house. She had so many plans and was looking forward to having independence and freedom… She cried for a week when she found out she was pregnant again at 45.
This is incorrect; PGT is heavily restricted in the European countries I looked at. It seems much less regulated in the US than Europe. I specifically looked at France, Scandinavia and Israel (which is not a part of Europe) as well, where PGT is performed under certain circumstances (mainly screening for genetic illnessses, it seems) but gender selection is prohibited for non-medical reasons.
From her statement it sounds like a surprise baby, but a happy surprise. She already has two kids, and Tanguy has two young children from his previous relationship. They have only been dating seriously for about a year, and she’s spent a lot of that time filming two movies and then promoting Arco. She was supposed to start filming The new Tom Hooper movie in June. This reads like a happy accident to me.
I would hope it’s a happy accident because she’s only been seeing this dude less than a year
If you are not using birth control (the pill or IUD), it’s not a surprise pregnancy
Sorry, what??? That is definitely not common practice in the UK — first, the NHS would never cover it — and second, i mean, it’s vaguely fragrant of eugenics. I can understand this being a niche luxury speciality line of medicine for rich, late-in-life parents, but she already has two kids, I’m guessing she just had a happy surprise. Having a fertility doctor father doesn’t mean you become a science experiment.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a baby later in life … but only if I had no other children or if I had maybe one other child who would be close in age to the new child. Not if I already had two older kids. The thought of going through all of that again … newborn-stuff, toilet training, the terrible twos, having to watch the child 24/7… no thanks.
All of these celebrity women having these kids in their forties are rich, keep that in mind. They certainly aren’t doing the bulk of the child raising, much less the drudgery aspects. Far more financially consequential for us normies to make a whimsical choice about having a kid at 44.
I’m sure a lot of them are wonderful moms doing ALL the child-raising — but what they aren’t doing is working full-time outside the home, doing their own laundry, cleaning their own houses, and even doing their own grocery shopping and other regular chores. Therein lies the difference.
It seems Natalie is copying the same exact moves as Giselle after her divorce from Tom. I hope Natalie is happy now that she’s washed that man out of her hair.
Have to confess, at a quick glance I thought that guy’s name was Tangy Detestable. Which was totally what I would have called him when I was 10. I’ll show myself out….
@Beanie, that’s how I read it too!
I think the way she acknowledges how very fortunate she is to have a viable pregnancy at 44 is remarkable and other celebs should take note. It’s incredibly considerate and empathetic of her to acknowledge how difficult it may be for other women going through fertility issues to hear about a celebrity getting pregnant well into her 40s. Natalie Portman is a class act.
It’s good that she’s so pleased that she’s pregnant but what should be mentioned is that a pregnancy at her age is considered high-risk. It’s better for mom and baby if pregnancy occurs before age 35. At age 45 there are risks of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and chromosomal abnormalities. Perhaps she froze some eggs which would reduce the risks. I’m sure she’s aware of this since her father is a fertility specialist plus it’s the first thing an OB/Gyn would tell her.