The Thelma and Louise star became a mother for the first time at the age of 46 with her fourth husband.
Some women welcome motherhood early in life while others wait for it, no matter how long it takes, until they are ready. There is no right or wrong way of deciding when to have children. Women can make that choice for themselves since it's about their lives and bodies. Many wait until they have become successful enough to do it while others believe that they can juggle work and children at the same time.
For Geena Davis, 64, motherhood didn't happen until later in life and she won't have it any other way. The first time she gave birth was at the age of 46 and gave birth to twin boys at the age of 48.
It is most likely that modern medicine helped her get pregnant but that doesn't dismiss her experience in any way. Lately, she has been spending lockdown with her 18-year-old daughter, Alizeh, and 16-year-old twin sons, Kian and Kaiis, in Los Angeles.
"Well, I’m a bit of a homebody anyway, so I’m good at amusing myself in downtime," she told the Guardian. "I’m wiping everything down with Lysol, scrubbing the bananas with detergent …"
This concerned mother, who has been married four times, including to Jeff Goldblum, said that she is unlikely to get married again. "Oh man … I don’t think so. But with my track record people might be skeptical. I keep trying to get it right," said the Thelma and Louise star. Her most recent marriage to 15 years younger Reza Jarrahy, a surgeon, ended in 2017 and it was with him that she welcomed her children.
“I always felt lucky that I had my kids late, because I just feel like I changed so much. I always knew I wanted kids, but what I was doing waiting that long, I don’t know. I never tried before, in other words. But it’s been great. And twins are fun!” she said.
More importantly, she knew she was ready. "I felt 100 percent that I would be such a better parent than I would have been even five years earlier and certainly ten or 20 years earlier," she told GoodHousekeeping.
"If I'd had kids earlier, I could easily have become one of those mothers who over involve themselves and try to live life through their kids. I'm sure there are younger people who have figured things out long before I did, but in my case, I became a parent with exactly the right person, at exactly the right time."
Having the twins two years later felt "pretty daunting," she revealed. "My daughter was two when they were born, so that meant three kids under the age of three at home. And I was worried because part of me thought, 'Am I going to be able to love boys as much as I love my little girl?' Of course, I do, and it's been really wonderful. But it was overwhelming," she said.
The A League of Their Own actress believes that she would have succeeded as a mother if none of the children became actors. "I profoundly am not encouraging her [daughter Alizeh] to go into this field," she told InStyle. "In fact, I’ve always said, ‘If none of my kids become actors, I’ll have done my job right.’ It’s such a crazy business. It’s better to have a real-life job," she added.
This entire path won't have been possible for her until she went through a bad phase in Hollywood. The actress said that when she turned 40, the acting jobs had started drying up but at 50 her personal and professional life was thriving. "It just happened two decades after I thought it would," Davis told GoodHousekeeping.
"Once I turned 40, I really did feel like I'd ceased to exist in Hollywood. I thought I'd have an older-woman's career like Meryl Streep or Jessica Lange did. But not only weren't there roles for me, there weren't any for Meryl either. It was noticeable and unmistakable. And painful," she added.
This had also given her time to figure out what she wanted to do apart from being an actress and surprisingly turned to archery. "I didn't realize archery would become such a big part of my life, but I got completely hooked," she said. The Stuart Little actress competed in the National Trials and was close to qualifying for the Olympics.
Her love for the sport also helped her battle her low self-esteem and that had emboldened her enough to pursue a romance with much younger Jarrahy. "I was always in the type of relationship where everything was about the other person," she says.
"I'd find my worth through sacrificing everything for his sake. And that had everything to do with my own feelings about myself; the guys I was with felt pretty great about themselves all on their own -- they didn't need me to fix them because they weren't damaged. But I sure was," she added.
Initially, she thought the relationship with "him seemed a little far-fetched" as the age-difference was considerable but she decided to give it a go anyway. Unfortunately, they parted ways in 2017.
References:
https://www.instyle.com/news/geena-davis-this-changes-everything-documentary
