Hilary Swank describes criticism of older mothers

Hilary Swank said she has faced criticism for becoming a parent later in life, describing a perceived double standard between women and men, in a preview of an interview set to air October 20 on The Drew Barrymore Show. The 52-year-old actor announced October 14 that she is expecting another child with her husband, Philip Schneider; they have twins, Aya and Ohm, born in 2023. “There’s a lot of backlash women get for having children older but not men, which is interesting,” Swank said in the preview. Barrymore replied that men can become fathers at much older ages and that people had not always responded graciously when Swank had children in her 40s. Swank recounted one encounter with a woman who told her she was too old to have children and might not be alive when they were older. The woman, Swank said, described losing her own father in her early 20s as devastating. Swank said the story resonated because her father, Stephen Swank, had also died, in 2021. She said she understood the woman’s grief but had reached a different conclusion: she would rather have been born and experienced a relationship with someone she loved, even if that person died while she was young, than not...