Hilary Swank’s life is a true Cinderella story. She toiled relentlessly from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of Hollywood, only pausing to care for her dying father. After decades of helping others, the pieces finally fell together, allowing her to realize her lifelong dream of becoming a mother.
The 48-year-old recently welcomed the birth of healthy twins, and as she navigates the early stages of motherhood and cares for her darling tiny ones, online trolls are abusing her, throwing a dark shadow of uninvited opinions over a beautiful time.
Swank gained major prominence in Hollywood after playing a transgender man in Boys Don’t Cry (1999). Her outstanding performance earned her several awards, including her first Oscar and Golden Globe Award. Prior to this film, she had roles in movies like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) and The Next Karate Kid (1994), the fourth instalment in The Karate Kid franchise.
Fans know her best for her role as Maggie in the inspirational sports drama Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman.
In the film, her character, an amateur boxer competing for a World Boxing Association title, dies from an unlawful sucker punch in a million-dollar battle.
In real life, she won best lead at the Oscars and Golden Globes.
Hers is a real Cinderella story.
Swank stated in her Oscar speech for Million Dollar Baby, “I’m just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream.”
Swank grew raised in squalor in a trailer park, with her mother sacrificing her own aspirations to help her daughter achieve hers.
Swank has been a hard worker from the age of 15, and her triumphs are the result of her determination.
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 across the world with films such as the 2020 horror picture The Hunt, the Netflix sci-fi series Away, and Alaska Daily, in which she plays a prominent journalist based in Anchorage.
Swank frequently contributes her time and celebrity to raise awareness for a variety of issues, such as cancer research and animal welfare. She formed the Hilaroo Foundation–a name derived from her and Karoo, a stray dog nearing death that she saved while filming in Africa–which unites at-risk youth with rescues with the purpose of reciprocal healing, something she experienced with animals when she was younger.
Swank announced her pregnancy in October of 2022. The announcement surprised everyone, including the staff of her show Alaska Daily, as she tried to conceal her swelling belly with on-the-spot self-tailored attire. The diva proceeded to film while pregnant, convincing crew workers that she needed a stunt double to do certain tasks because she was bad at them.
Swank, referring to her “geriatric pregnancy,” remarked 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.”
In fact, a 2018 study by Pew Research reports that more women are having babies “at the end of their childbearing years.” The study attributes the growing numbers to “increases in educational attainment and women’s labor force participation, as well as delays in marriage.” The reports also says, “Given these social and cultural shifts, it seems likely that the postponement of childbearing will continue.”
Swank is not the only celebrity in their 40’s to successfully give birth to healthy babies.
Some of them include Halle Berry, who gave birth to daughter Nahla at 41 and son Maceo at 47; Cameron Diaz with daughter Raddix at 47; U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth gave birth to her daughter Maile Pearl at 49; Susan Sarandon had her three children at 39, 42 and 45; Janet Jackson was 50 when she had son Eissa Al Mana, and Al Pacino’s wife Beverly D’Angelo was 50 when she had twins.
“You know what? The sky is really the limit if you allow yourself to believe in all realms,” Swank said.
