Hilary Swank’s Perfect Response to Critics Who Say She’s Too Old for Her Miracle Million-Dollar Babies

Hilary Swank’s journey is a true Cinderella story. Rising from humble beginnings, she worked tirelessly to reach the pinnacle of Hollywood success, pausing only to care for her ailing father. After years of supporting others, she finally realized her lifelong dream of becoming a mother.

Recently, the 48-year-old celebrated the birth of healthy twins. As she navigates the early stages of motherhood and cherishes her little ones, online trolls have cast a shadow over this beautiful moment with their unsolicited and negative opinions.

She is best known for her role as Maggie in the inspirational sports drama “Million Dollar Baby,” directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars alongside Morgan Freeman.

In the film, her character—an amateur boxer—competes for a title with the World Boxing Association and tragically dies after an illegal sucker punch in a high-stakes match.

In real life, her performance earned her the title of Best Lead Actress at both the Oscars and the Golden Globes.

In her Oscar acceptance speech for “Million Dollar Baby,” Swank declared, “I’m just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream.”

Swank grew up in a trailer park, facing financial hardships. Her mother sacrificed her own aspirations to support her daughter’s pursuit of her dreams.

A hard worker since she was 15, Swank was always determined and earned the successes she’s achieved.

In 2014, she took a break from her hugely successful career to be a caregiver for her father, Stephen Michael Swank, an Air Force and Air National Guard veteran, who needed a risky lung transplant.

The one-year sabbatical turned into three as her father’s recovery from the invasive surgery was slow.

In that time, you’d never find her lounging around. Instead, she was working on a new project, her clothing line Mission Statement, that features “high performance and high fashion” design for women.

Still also caring for her dad, who lived with her until he died in 2021, Swank returned to filming.

Swank’s love for family is demonstrated in the first role she played after three years of caring for her dad. What They Had is a 2018 film starring Swank as a woman coping with her mother’s journey with Alzheimer’s.

She returned to filming around the world with movies like the 2020 horror film The Hunt, the Netflix sci-fi series Away and Alaska Daily, where she plays a high-profile journalist living in Anchorage.

All throughout, Swank generously shares her time and celebrity in bringing awareness to various causes, like advocating for cancer research, and for the wellbeing of animals. She founded the Hilaroo Foundation–a name blending hers and Karoo, a stray dog nearing death that she rescued while filming in Africa–that pairs at-risk teenagers with rescues and has a goal of mutual healing, which she found herself with animals when she was younger.

For the “Freedom Writers” actor, whose instinct is to prioritize others’ needs over her own—a trait inherited from her mother—finding love with a human proved challenging.

 

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She married Chad Lowe in 1997, but the relationship was strained by his struggles with substance abuse, leading to their divorce in 2006. In a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair, Swank shared insights into her personal growth, stating, “My pattern is that I’ve taken care of everyone. I took care of my mom; I took care of my dad; I took care of Chad. And I don’t want to carry that anymore. It’s a big habit to break, but in the end, I sacrificed part of myself.”

In a conversation with USA Today, Swank mentioned that caring for her ailing father at home played a role in helping her find a good partner.

In recognizing her own needs, the Logan Lucky star opened herself to a new relationship with Schneider, an entrepreneur, whom she married in 2018, two years after they met.

Everything started coming together for the Award-winning actor.

In October 2022, Swank announced she was pregnant. The announcement was a surprise to everyone–not even the crew of her show Alaska Daily had known–as she attempted to hide her growing belly with on-the-spot self-tailored clothing. The star continued to film while pregnant, convincingly lying to crew members that, because she was terrible at performing certain activities, she needed a stunt double to shoot in her place.

Referring to her “geriatric pregnancy,” Swank said in an interview with Extra TV, “I was having a career and not having the right relationship until … four years ago, and all the elements needed to come together and be right.”

She later added: “It’s just something I thought about even as a young girl. It’s something that was on my mind, so it’s nice to be here and just be pregnant.”

She wasn’t too surprised she was having twins. She said that as a little girl, she predicted that she would be a mother of two, and increasing the likelihood of having a pair, both her and her husband’s grandmothers are twins.

When Swank was six months pregnant, she spoke with ET and said about the positive support, “It’s just nice to see a lot of women in their 40s going, ‘You gave me hope,’ because once you really believe something can happen, you have a different thought pattern, you know what I mean? You get out of your own way,” the actor said.

In March, Swank posted an ultrasound photo, with what appears to be a baby flexing their arm. She called it, “Baby A, Million Dollar Baby.” Kate Hudson responded with, “Well we know baby A already has mamas shoulders!!!!”

 

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Swank should be praised for how she handled her dad’s death, pregnancy at 48 and a busy work schedule but instead, she was attacked.

Announcing the birth of her children, Swank posted a beautiful photo of her, facing the sunset, cradling the tiny babies. Dismissing the opportunity to congratulate her, one follower remarked, “How deeply irresponsible to bring kids into the world at such an old age, just to fulfill some inner selfish desire for children. By the time your kids are in their 20s both their parents will be in a nursing home or dead.”

Another said, “AREN’T YOU LIKE 50 YRS OLD. Gonna be in your 70’s when they graduate college. MIGHT live to see their wedding, maybe.”

Emmy Rossum, who co-stars with Swank on the 2014 film You’re Not You, snapped back with a simple, yet pointed, “Gfy.” (an abbreviation for go f— yourself).

“You know what? The sky is really the limit if you allow yourself to believe in all realms,” Swank said.

 

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Women at any age should be praised for carrying and welcoming a child, and we love learning about all the fabulous babies who get the opportunity to live in a home where they’re loved. That, is more important than how old the mother is when she gives birth. It needs to be said that today, it’s not uncommon for women to give birth later in life.

Tell us what you think about Hilary Swank having her first child at 48!