Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast is SO GOOD. It’s full of such gems, and Amy is the biggest gem of them all. She puts people at ease, and it usually only takes a minute or two before her celebrity guests are talking to her like a bestie. Well, this week’s episode is one of the best ones I’ve seen, with guest Claire Danes. I went into it kind of curious about what their combined energy would be and I came out of it absolutely loving Claire. I’ve always loved her as an actress, but she’s so funny and REAL. She comes across as such a real and grounded person, which is crazy because she’s been a “star” since she was a teenager. Here’s the full interview:
One of the funniest parts comes around the 40-minute mark, when Claire talks about her third and final pregnancy, with her daughter Shay. Claire was 44 years old when she gave birth to Shay, and it was a surprise pregnancy. Claire and her husband Hugh Dancy thought all of that was over, and they had their two boys (Cyrus and Rowan) and they were done. Claire starts out by saying that she used to be a regular runner but “the third pregnancy really put a dent” in it. Then she and Amy really get into how crazy it was to become pregnant at 43/44 with no medical intervention. Claire confirmed that she “burst into tears” immediately:
Claire Danes is recalling her emotional reaction to the news that she was pregnant with her third baby. The Beast In Me actress, 46, sat down with comedian and podcast host Amy Poehler for the Tuesday, Jan. 27 episode of Good Hang with Amy Poehler, where she opened up about the moment she found out she was expecting at 44 years old. When the Inside Out 2 actress, 54, asked if she “burst into tears” at the thought of having to be pregnant again, Danes quickly responded “totally.”
“I called my OBGYN in convulsive tears. It was a pure like … meltdown,” she shared, noting that each of her children are nearly five years apart. “None of this was by design. I didn’t know it was physically possible. I was 44. And actually, Rowan was very hard-earned. I had to do two rounds of IVF.”
She also talked a lot about her BFF, who had a dream that Claire was pregnant and the next morning, Claire took a pregnancy test and just started freaking out. She’s right, the chances of conceiving naturally when she was 43/44 was pretty small. But she also talked about how Shay is just the happiest child and Claire feels like the kid really just wanted to exist. It was great, and Shay really threw her for a loop. The whole interview is hysterical, and they talked a lot about My So Called Life, Homeland and Claire’s childhood in NYC.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, screencaps courtesy of Good Hang.
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- Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes wearing Prabal Gurung during Met Gala departures from THE MARK Hotel in New York City, Monday, September 13, 2021. 917-519-7666,Image: 632046785, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy on the red carpet for the Downton Abbey: A New Era World Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square in Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom.,Image: 686014304, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights, Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley/Avalon
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- Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy attends ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ – World Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, England, UK. Monday 25th April 2022. -,Image: 686146338, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ – World Premiere, Credit line: JW / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Claire Danes at the 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 11, 2026 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1065265982, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: guest, Claire Danes, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
I saw a clip of she and amy reenacting the famous My So Called Life scene where Jordan Catalano finally takes it public, they walk down the school hall together, he grabs her hand, and she smiles up at him.
It was so sweet.
Yes, Jared Leto is a creep.
But, at 19, i loved me some Jordan Catalano.
Oh same, ariel. Saaaaaaaaaame. 19 and smitten! Now he makes me cringe, but then? Damn.
(Also, that show started my adoration of Claire Danes, which is still going strong :))
Yeah, getting pregnant at 43 would be a big shock. I thought she was great in Little Women and The Beast in Me. I didn’t watch My So Called Life or Homeland. I like how expressive, natural and attractive her face is without any obvious filler.
A friend of mine had a great line when something similar happened to a mutual acquaintance: if you don’t want to be attending a high school graduation in your sixties, be careful! It ain’t over til it’s over! 😅
I thought having a kid at 37/38 was tough enough. I would have burst into tears too. But I didn’t realise she had to have IVF previously so there was probably a lot of emotions going on.
I had my first at 25… because Im a planner and figured that by 50, my son would be 25 and I’d still be young enough to do whatever I wanted… over the next 16 years, my husband and I were smug in how well our only child lives had turned out… but then, I got sick and thought I had the flu. My husband takes me to the doctor and he says: you’re not sick but you are 7 months pregnant. My poor husband almost passed out.
So yeah… Ta Da!
I totally felt Claire
Yeah… that pre-menopause fertility spike can really get ya. My father is the youngest of 13 and was born when his mother was 43 and his father was 46. This was in the late 1930’s in rural Western Missouri and my grandmother thought she was just going through “the change.” She was also on the fluffy side, so none of my aunts and uncles knew she was pregnant until they came to the farm for Sunday dinner and were told to go meet their new baby brother. My dad has nephews who are older than him. My mother was the oldest of 8 and her mother had accidental twins later in life who are only six months older than my brother so my mother and grandmother were briefly pregnant at the same time. My doctor told me this was pretty common because there is a sneaky fertility spike before menopause and combined with erratic periods it is easy to accidentally get pregnant.
It is harder to get pregnant over a certain age but not at all uncommon. Both my grandmothers had their last children at age 46, in the 60s. No help obviously.
One of my grandmothers had 4 children in her forties, all healthy. Very Catholic.
Amy Poehler’s the best. It doesn’t happen often but I love love love when someone uses a sexist stereotype and she goes COLD and ends it. If you notice, the laughter stops and all of the oxygen is sucked out of the room for sh*t like that. For example if you assert that women colleagues must fight over something (Martin Short) or that unfeminine remarks from a woman are not funny (Fallon). She’s a boss.