Claire Danes’ Quotes About Motherhood and Having a Baby at 44: ‘I Felt Like a Funny Shame’

Claire Danes unexpectedly became a mom of three after welcoming another child at the age of 44.

Danes — who was 43 at the time — confirmed in January 2023 that she was pregnant with her and husband Hugh Dancy’s third baby. The couple wed in 2009 and previously welcomed son Cyrus in 2012 and son Rowan in 2018.

“I think [this is] the last! This one was a surprise,” the actress shared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon after the news broke. “This pregnancy happened to me, but we’re thrilled Cyrus is 10 and Rowan is 4, so it’s going to be quite a big span there.”

Danes later revealed that she felt “shame” after getting pregnant in her 40s.

“Well, it was actually really interesting because I did not foresee this at all. And it was weird. Suddenly I felt like a funny shame,” she said on a November 2025 episode of the “SmartLess” podcast. “I was naughty. I had been caught fornicating past the point I was meant to. No, it was weird, and it was like I found an edge that I hadn’t been quite conscious of.”

Danes and Dancy welcomed their youngest daughter in July 2023.

Keep scrolling to see everything Danes has said about motherhood and having a baby in her 40s:

Claire Danes Was ‘Nervous’ Becoming a Working Mom

“I’ve always wanted to have kids, but I’m glad I didn’t until now,” Danes told New Idea magazine in a 2013 interview. “When I was thinking about [working and being a mother] originally, I was really nervous about it. I think I would make a lousy stay-at-home mom.”

Danes noted that being a stay-at-home mom just “wouldn’t suit” her.

“I feel so fortunate, in that I’ve had this arrow-straight focus that I wanted to act,” she explained to the outlet, noting that she’s also grateful for Dancy. “Hugh was just the right partner for me. I got very, very lucky. There’s only so much credit you can take when it just sort of works, you know?”

What Surprised Claire Danes Most About Motherhood

“That it’s physical — that my missing my son is physical,” she shared in an Interview magazine interview with Dustin Hoffman in November 2013. “It’s a new kind of pining. It’s serious — I need to be with him. I guess it’s closest to being infatuated with a lover or something. But it’s not that. It’s cellular. So, yeah, that the love for your child is physical was a big surprise.”

Danes shared that she “can’t not look at” her son, Cyrus, if he’s nearby “because there’s no competition.”

“I can’t read. I can’t watch a show. I can’t do anything but stare at him doing nothing,” she said. “It is amazing how rapidly he changes. I swear, a day passes and he is different. I mean, he produced four teeth in about three days. He understands the concept of no now. He didn’t know that two days ago.”

Claire Danes Said That Being a Mom is ‘Incredibly Challenging’

“Being a mum is incredibly challenging, but we still feel a pressure to talk about it in very romantic terms. And it’s not just that,” she shared in a Harper’s Bazaar UK interview in October 2014. “We all have that resentment at times and anxiety about being trapped by the role, that responsibility. And then chemically it can run riot … And there’s no ‘off’ button. [For me] that was the hardest adjustment. You always feel beholden to somebody … And for so long they’re like koala bears, you just feel a physical responsibility to be there for them to cling to. It’s pretty primal.”

Claire Danes’ 3rd Pregnancy Was ‘Not Intentional’

While debuting her baby bump at the 2023 Golden Globes, Danes admitted that getting pregnant with her third child was “not intentional.”

“Eek, I know,” she told Access Hollywood on the red carpet in January 2023. “This one was not intentional. But here we go! I have Cyrus, he’s 10 and Rowan is 4, and this one, yeah. Evenly spaced, but a broad spectrum. We’re excited, we’re thrilled.”

At the time, Danes noted that she was in her second trimester and she and Dancy were “rolling the dice” on the baby’s sex.

Claire Danes’ Sons Were Not Thrilled About Their New Sibling at First

“[Our oldest] Cyrus was sort of resigned to it. I mean, the worst has already happened, his name is Rowan,” Danes quipped during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “But Rowan has more to lose, like, he has more at stake. And he was categorically opposed to the idea. He said, ‘Yeah, no no no, I don’t like it. I like peace, Mama.’ I was like, ‘That’s rich because that dude does not shut up.’”

Danes went onto say that Rowan told his mom that, “When it comes out of your tummy, we’ll give it to a family that doesn’t have a baby because we’re done.”

“He was less than thrilled but then we talked about how when the baby comes out, it’s going to be pretty dumb [and] doesn’t know a lot, [and will] need assistance and some educating,” she continued. “That was interesting to him. He liked the idea of being a condescending presence. So, now he’s a little more optimistic.”

Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy Struggled to Pick a Name for Their Baby