The 50 Most Famous Pregnancy Moments in History
Between Kate Middleton and Kim Kardashian, it’s been a major year for famous pregnancies. But those two women aside (for just one second), you can’t pass a newsstand these days without seeing pregnant A-listers posing for magazine spreads — better yet if they’re naked — and gushing about how much they love their fertile bodies. Pregnant women now appear in fashion shows (Miranda Kerr, Jourdan Dunn), on scripted and reality TV (Sex and the City, The Rachel Zoe Project), and in tabloid “bump watch” sections every week. We are officially a womb-obsessed society.
Of course, it wasn’t always like this: In earlier centuries, pregnant deities were carved from stone and worshipped, while real pregnant women were kept behind closed doors. Miscarriages and stillborns were common, which meant pregnancy was often nerve-racking, not joyful.
Our modern curiosity about baby bumps is two-pronged: At its best, it gives women a platform to discuss their reproductive choices and revel in their bodies’ natural processes. At its worst, it invades the privacy of those who would rather keep their uteruses to themselves. Hence why some public figures, like Carla Bruni and Gisele Bündchen, have refused to disclose any information about their pregnancies. Others use it to boost awareness of health-related topics: Brooke Shields wrote a book about her postpartum depression, while January Jones endorsed placenta pills after giving birth.
Now that Kate is nearing her delivery, have we reached the apex of frenzied celebrity-pregnancy coverage, or is this the new normal? Probably the latter, as popular demand for baby-bump news shows no sign of slowing down. If Snooki’s open letter to the duchess about motherhood and Josh Duhamel’s dramatic baby gender reveal on Live! With Kelly and Michael prove anything, it’s that pregnant celebrities continue to comprise a robust micro-economy. Click through our slideshow of the most famous, talked-about pregnancies throughout history, and see how times have changed.
Shop: Summer Beauty Must Haves
Rachel Green,
Friends, 2001 The eighth season of Friends was the most watched of the series, with an average of 24.5 million viewers per episode...
Rachel Green,
Friends, 2001 The eighth season of Friends was the most watched of the series, with an average of 24.5 million viewers per episode, and the plot revolved almost entirely around Jennifer Aniston’s prosthetic belly, which was perpetually peeking out from her clingy tops and hip-huggers. Rachel’s pregnancy not only set up Aniston for a lifetime of baby rumors (and provided the Internet with a wealth of fake “Jennifer Aniston’s pregnant!” pictures), but also reminded the world that a single pregnant woman – albeit a very slender, perpetually sleek-haired one – could be sexy.
Photo: Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
Miranda Kerr, Balenciaga’s Spring 2011 Runway, October 2010 Known for their progressive casting, Balenciaga put Miranda Kerr, then six months pre...
Miranda Kerr, Balenciaga’s Spring 2011 Runway, October 2010 Known for their progressive casting, Balenciaga put Miranda Kerr, then six months pregnant, on their spring 2011 runway. (Also in the same show: Gisele, Stella Tennant, and a handful of edgy girls picked off the street by the house’s then-designer, Nicolas Ghesquière.) Kerr wore what became one of that collection’s most memorable looks: a short houndstooth coatdress with a boyish, roomy silhouette.
Natalie Portman, February 2011 In December 2010, just as her performance in Black Swan was drumming up Oscar buzz, Portman revealed that she was ...
Natalie Portman, February 2011 In December 2010, just as her performance in Black Swan was drumming up Oscar buzz, Portman revealed that she was pregnant and engaged to her Black Swan co-star, ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied. She collected both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her role, and her stylist Kate Young won accolades for dressing her in elegant, red carpet-appropriate maternity wear.
Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage
Charlotte York,
Sex and the City movie, 2008 Charlotte York, played by Kristin Davis, didn’t budge from her preppy wardrobe throughout her ...
Charlotte York,
Sex and the City movie, 2008 Charlotte York, played by Kristin Davis, didn’t budge from her preppy wardrobe throughout her pregnancy in the first Sex and the City movie. Her most notable scene: When she bumps into Big at a restaurant, shuffles out in a fuss, and then gets so upset that her water breaks (labor as comedic punchline!). Somehow, her polka-dotted dress stays free of any spots that aren’t supposed to be there.
Photo: Marcel Thomas/Getty Images
Audrey Hepburn, 1970 Hepburn had two miscarriages (and one son, Sean) with her first husband, Mel Ferrer, whom she divorced in 1968. At age 41, s...
Audrey Hepburn, 1970 Hepburn had two miscarriages (and one son, Sean) with her first husband, Mel Ferrer, whom she divorced in 1968. At age 41, she had a second son, Luca, just a year after she married her second husband, Andrea Dotti. Given her history of troubled pregnancies, she kept a low profile while with child, and this is a rare image of her in public.
Photo: Corbis
Demi Moore,
Vanity Fair, August 1991 Hands down the most iconic nude pregnant photo, this image was taken for the August cover of Vanity Fair by...
Demi Moore,
Vanity Fair, August 1991 Hands down the most iconic nude pregnant photo, this image was taken for the August cover of Vanity Fair by Annie Leibovitz when Moore was seven months pregnant with Scout, her second child with then-husband Bruce Willis. At the time of its publication, critics called it “vulgar,” but it has since become one of the most celebrated covers in magazine history, paving the way for dozens of celebrities to pose nude while visibly pregnant.
Photo: Vanity Fair
Cindy Crawford,
W, June 1999 Crawford posed nude for W just one month before she gave birth to daughter Presley. The cover headline was “Move Ov...
Cindy Crawford,
W, June 1999 Crawford posed nude for W just one month before she gave birth to daughter Presley. The cover headline was “Move Over, Demi,” and the image revealed even more of the model’s body than Moore’s famous Vanity Fair cover. Nude pregnant photos: not only de rigeur, but also competitive!
Photo: W
Pregnant Betty,
Mad Men Season 3, 2009 (Fictional Year: 1963) January Jones's fake pregnant belly was sometimes unrealistic, perched jauntily on...
Pregnant Betty,
Mad Men Season 3, 2009 (Fictional Year: 1963) January Jones's fake pregnant belly was sometimes unrealistic, perched jauntily on her midsection while the rest of her body stayed slim as ever, but what a great parade of 1960s peignoirs and prim maternity dresses! Every outfit on Mad Men is rife with symbolism, and in this scene – a Kentucky Derby party where she first meets her second husband, Henry Francis – she wore a white lacy dress, perhaps signifying her own rebirth.
Photo: Everett Collection
January Jones, 2012 Shortly after her fictional pregnancy on Mad Men, Jones became pregnant in real life. She refused to name the father of her c...
January Jones, 2012 Shortly after her fictional pregnancy on Mad Men, Jones became pregnant in real life. She refused to name the father of her child, Xander; her partner’s identity is still unknown.
Photo: Jean Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images
Lucille Ball,
I Love Lucy, 1952 When Lucille Ball wrote her real-life pregnancy into the plotline of I Love Lucy, she not only challenged cultur...
Lucille Ball,
I Love Lucy, 1952 When Lucille Ball wrote her real-life pregnancy into the plotline of I Love Lucy, she not only challenged cultural norms, but also TV standards: According to Time, clergymen were “brought in to oversee the writing of the seven episodes that mentioned Ball's pregnancy, while the word ‘pregnancy’ itself was banned from the script in favor of ‘expecting.’” Nevertheless, the birth episode brought in unprecedented ratings, sowing the seeds for all pregnancy-related TV shows thereafter.
Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Kate Moss, 2002 The model gave birth to her only child, Lila Grace Moss Hack, at age 28 in 2002. (The father, notorious modelizer Jefferson Hack,...
Kate Moss, 2002 The model gave birth to her only child, Lila Grace Moss Hack, at age 28 in 2002. (The father, notorious modelizer Jefferson Hack, is the editor of British magazine Dazed and Confused.) Moss’s pregnancy was relatively uneventful; at the time, she told journalists that she had abandoned her hard-partying ways for a quiet life with Hack, although they split up shortly after. Her belly was famously photographed in an orchard by Juergen Teller.
Photo: Mel Bouzad/Getty Images
Rachel Zoe, January 2011 Rachel Zoe and her husband’s desire for a child became a major plot point during season three of her reality show, and w...
Rachel Zoe, January 2011 Rachel Zoe and her husband’s desire for a child became a major plot point during season three of her reality show, and when she announced her pregnancy before season four, her fans rejoiced. Although many worried about the fetus's well-being, given Zoe's well-documented health problems, she carried on dressing herself in her signature sparkly caftans and heels and had a healthy baby boy, Skyler. (She later called birth "an unglamorous experience.")
Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Elizabeth Taylor, 1957 Taylor’s third husband, Mike Todd, refuted rumors of their marital troubles by boasting to reporters about his wife’s “gla...
Elizabeth Taylor, 1957 Taylor’s third husband, Mike Todd, refuted rumors of their marital troubles by boasting to reporters about his wife’s “glamorous pregnancy.” Here she is in a pink silk maternity dress, returning home from Europe on the ocean liner Liberte in July 1957.
Photo: Corbis
Abby Clancy, Giles Deacon’s Spring 2011 Runway, September 2010 For Deacon’s spring 2011 show, he tapped Abbey Clancy, a British swimsuit model, T...
Abby Clancy, Giles Deacon’s Spring 2011 Runway, September 2010 For Deacon’s spring 2011 show, he tapped Abbey Clancy, a British swimsuit model, TV presenter, and wife of footballer Peter Crouch, to model one of his ruffly floral dresses. She had only recently announced her pregnancy, and while her belly wasn’t yet pronounced, her new cleavage more than made up for it. Her appearance made extra waves because Deacon had also just taken over Ungaro, which was in the process of recovering from Lindsay Lohan, so this show got a lot of attention.
Michelle Williams, August 2005 One of the few times that the couple was photographed together during Williams’s pregnancy, this image took on ext...
Michelle Williams, August 2005 One of the few times that the couple was photographed together during Williams’s pregnancy, this image took on extra meaning after their divorce and Heath Ledger’s subsequent death. While Ledger looks disoriented, even slightly disheveled, in his suit, Williams looks fresh, dewy, and pulled-together, if not a little self-conscious about her bosom.
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Jane Birkin, 1971 Birkin’s turbulent thirteen-year relationship with Serge Gainsbourg resulted in one child, Charlotte Gainsbourg, born in 1971. ...
Jane Birkin, 1971 Birkin’s turbulent thirteen-year relationship with Serge Gainsbourg resulted in one child, Charlotte Gainsbourg, born in 1971. Gainsbourg and Birkin often argued furiously in public – she once threw a pie at him in a restaurant after he dumped the contents of her handbag on the floor – but photographs of her pregnancy show them looking happy and stylish.
Photo: Bertrand LAFORET/Gamma/Getty Images
Sigourney Weaver,
Alien 3, 1992 In the third installment of the Alien franchise, credited with launching Sigourney Weaver’s career, heroine Elle...
Sigourney Weaver,
Alien 3, 1992 In the third installment of the Alien franchise, credited with launching Sigourney Weaver’s career, heroine Ellen Ripley gets impregnated with an embryo of the Alien Queen. Ripley saves humanity by jumping into a giant furnace just as the creature begins climbing out of her chest, killing herself as well as the newborn.
Photo: Everett Collection
Catherine Deneuve, 1972 Deneuve had her first child at age 19 with director Roger Vadim, who was 16 years her senior. In 1972 – the same year tha...
Catherine Deneuve, 1972 Deneuve had her first child at age 19 with director Roger Vadim, who was 16 years her senior. In 1972 – the same year that she signed a document known as the “Manifesto of the 343 Sluts,” in which she and her cohorts publicly admitted to have gotten illegal abortions – she gave birth to her second and last child, Chiara Mastroianni, with actor Marcello Mastroianni.
Photo: Keystone-France/Getty Images
Gisele, 2009 As one of the world’s most famous models, Gisele’s body was closely monitored by the public throughout her pregnancy. An outspoken a...
Gisele, 2009 As one of the world’s most famous models, Gisele’s body was closely monitored by the public throughout her pregnancy. An outspoken advocate of natural birth, she had her first baby, Benjamin, in a bathtub at home with husband Tom Brady. Within months, she had resumed modeling. When she became pregnant with daughter Vivian in 2011, she refused to confirm or deny it up until the birth, although beach photos provided all the evidence necessary.
Photo: Jason Winslow/Corbis
Farrah Fawcett, 1985 The actress had only one child, Redmond O’Neal, whose father was actor Ryan O’Neal. She surprised the American public when s...
Farrah Fawcett, 1985 The actress had only one child, Redmond O’Neal, whose father was actor Ryan O’Neal. She surprised the American public when she stated that she had no intention of marrying her lover, even after the baby was born. At the time, a Hollywood source told People, “The baby and the refusal to get married are both part of a new productive cycle: Farrah's decision to take charge of her career and life.”
Photo: Michel Dufour/Getty Images
Goldie Hawn, 1979 Hawn gave birth to her second child, daughter Kate Hudson, during her marriage to musician Bill Hudson. In 2010, Hawn revealed ...
Goldie Hawn, 1979 Hawn gave birth to her second child, daughter Kate Hudson, during her marriage to musician Bill Hudson. In 2010, Hawn revealed that she'd gotten her nails done while delivering via C-section. “All of a sudden, out she comes and they said, ‘It’s a boy!’ And I said, ‘No, it’s a girl!’ And, by the way, I didn’t know what it was. I just felt that it was a girl. And then they said, ‘Oh, no, it’s a girl!’ And I said, ‘What part of her anatomy were you looking at?!’”
Photo: Fabian Cevallos/Corbis
Gwyneth Paltrow,
W, June 2004 Paltrow posed for this cover when pregnant with her first child, Apple, in 2004. She later explained her unusual ...
Gwyneth Paltrow,
W, June 2004 Paltrow posed for this cover when pregnant with her first child, Apple, in 2004. She later explained her unusual baby name choice on Oprah: "It sounded so sweet and it conjured such a lovely picture for me – you know, apples are so sweet and they're wholesome and it's biblical – and I just thought it sounded so lovely and … clean! And I just thought, 'Perfect!'”
Photo: W
Virgin Mary, the Annunciation The original pregnant icon.
Photo: George Tatge/Corbis
Madonna, 1996 Madonna’s pregnancy coincided with the release of Evita, in which she starred as of Eva Perón, the first lady of Argentina. ...
Madonna, 1996 Madonna’s pregnancy coincided with the release of Evita, in which she starred as of Eva Perón, the first lady of Argentina. Her performance was a huge hit, and she won a Golden Globe for best actress as well as an Oscar for best original song in 1997. In October 1996, she gave birth to her only daughter, Lourdes Leon, whose father was fitness trainer Carlos Leon. The combination of motherhood and critical acclaim ushered in a new era of “adult” Madonna -- a tough businesswoman who pushed strollers in track suits. Photo: Ron Galella, Ltd./1996 Ron Galella, Ltd.
Jourdan Dunn, Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring 2010 Runway, October 2009 Gaultier is no stranger to creative casting – his runway has featured everyon...
Jourdan Dunn, Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring 2010 Runway, October 2009 Gaultier is no stranger to creative casting – his runway has featured everyone from Beth Ditto to Andrej Pejic to a gang of ninjas – but when he sent pregnant 19-year-old model Jourdan Dunn down his runway with a custom-made pad over her belly, it was groundbreaking. A runway model’s pregnancy was previously considered a career-ender, but in Dunn’s case, it enhanced her profile.
Photo: Imaxtree
Angelina Jolie, 2006 The first time Jolie publicly commented on her relationship with Brad Pitt coincided with her first pregnancy: She confirmed...
Angelina Jolie, 2006 The first time Jolie publicly commented on her relationship with Brad Pitt coincided with her first pregnancy: She confirmed to People magazine that she was pregnant with his child in 2006. (She had previously adopted two other children, Maddox and Zahara; Pitt gained joint adoptive custody in December 2005.) Hoping to avoid the media frenzy surrounding the birth, Jolie gave birth to daughter Shiloh in Namibia, and then sold the first baby pictures for a reported $7.6 million total, to People and Hello! magazines. The couple donated all the profits to charity.
Photo: Mike Marsland/Getty Images
Getty Images
M.I.A., February 2008 The pop singer wore this remarkable Henry Holland dress to perform her hit song, “Paper Planes,” at the 2008 Grammy Awards,...
M.I.A., February 2008 The pop singer wore this remarkable Henry Holland dress to perform her hit song, “Paper Planes,” at the 2008 Grammy Awards, which fell on her actual due date. (She gave birth three days later.) She was also scheduled to perform at the Oscars later the same month, but had to back out for maternity reasons. She shared this message with fans, via MTV: “I got engaged first, then I got pregnant, kids.” She broke up with her fiancé, Benjamin Bronfman, in 2012. Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Venus of Willendorf, 24,000 – 22,000 B.C.E. Discovered in 1908 by archeologists at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, Austria, this small statue...
Venus of Willendorf, 24,000 – 22,000 B.C.E. Discovered in 1908 by archeologists at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, Austria, this small statue is still the subject of much speculation by historians, particularly as it’s carved from a type of limestone that isn’t native to the region. Given the size of its breasts and abdomen and the detailed carving of the vaginal area, it is widely believed to be a fertility symbol, although other scholars have hypothesized that it may be a self-portrait.
Photo: Imagno/Gerhard Trumler/Getty Images
Beyoncé, August 2011 When it comes to dramatic pregnancy announcements, Beyoncé’s wins: She cupped her round belly on the red carpe...
Beyoncé, August 2011 When it comes to dramatic pregnancy announcements, Beyoncé’s wins: She cupped her round belly on the red carpet of the 2011 MTV Music Awards, unleashing an immediate media frenzy, and then referenced the “love growing inside of me” before performing “Love on Top” during the show. Her daughter Blue Ivy Carter was born with much fanfare in 2012, and her pregnancy was documented in her subsequent autobiographical film, “Life Is But a Dream.” Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
Brooke Shields,
Vogue, April 2003 One of the few major pregnant celebrities to pose for a fashion magazine actually wearing clothes and not just...
Brooke Shields,
Vogue, April 2003 One of the few major pregnant celebrities to pose for a fashion magazine actually wearing clothes and not just her hands, Shields’s childbearing became the focus of a national debate when she spoke out about her own experience with postpartum depression. When Tom Cruise spoke out against her choice to take antidepressants, she wrote an op-ed defending her decision in the New York Times. Cruise later apologized for his comments.
Photo: Vogue
Gwen Stefani, 2006 Stefani confirmed her first pregnancy with husband Gavin Rossdale by shouting onstage in Fort Lauderdale, “I want to sing so l...
Gwen Stefani, 2006 Stefani confirmed her first pregnancy with husband Gavin Rossdale by shouting onstage in Fort Lauderdale, “I want to sing so loud that the baby hears it!” Just days earlier, her press agent had just officially denied pregnancy rumors. She gave birth to her first son, Kingston, in May 2006.
Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Tina Fey, 2011 In her 2011 memoir, Bossypants, Fey wrote about how she often considered having a second child and worried she was getting too old...
Tina Fey, 2011 In her 2011 memoir, Bossypants, Fey wrote about how she often considered having a second child and worried she was getting too old: “To hell with everybody! Maybe I’ll just wait until I’m fifty and give birth to a ball of fingers! ‘Merry Christmas from Tina, Jeff, Alice, and Ball of Fingers,’ the card will say. (‘Happy Holidays’ on the ones I send to my agents.)” She gave birth to a healthy daughter soon after her book’s publication.
Photo: Marcel Thomas/Getty Images
Britney Spears,
Harper’s Bazaar, August 2006 Pme year before her public head-shaving episode, Spears was photographed nude for Harper’s Bazaar w...
Britney Spears,
Harper’s Bazaar, August 2006 Pme year before her public head-shaving episode, Spears was photographed nude for Harper’s Bazaar while six months pregnant with her second son, Jayden James. In the accompanying spread, she posed in provocative outfits with her older son Sean Preston. The images now serve as a reminder of her Kevin Federline days, and the ensuing mental breakdown.
Photo: Harper’s Bazaar
Amy Poehler, 2008 Poehler’s riveting impressions of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primaries made history, particularly since she did them while...
Amy Poehler, 2008 Poehler’s riveting impressions of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 primaries made history, particularly since she did them while eight months pregnant. (See, not only can women be funny, they can be funny and about to give birth.) She took two months off when her baby, Archibald Arnett, was born that October, although she did star in pre-taped segments that aired during her maternity leave.
Photo: Jean-Paul Aussenard/Getty Images
Kim Kardashian, Met Gala, May 2013 Say what you will about Kim Kardashian, but her attendance at the 2013 Met Gala as Kanye West’s date was one o...
Kim Kardashian, Met Gala, May 2013 Say what you will about Kim Kardashian, but her attendance at the 2013 Met Gala as Kanye West’s date was one of the most widely discussed topics that night. She wore a tight floral dress with attached glove-sleeves designed by the evening’s co-chair, Riccardo Tisci, who later defended her outfit to WWD: “To me, pregnancy is the most beautiful thing in the world, and when you celebrate something, you give people flowers. I think she looked amazing. She was the most beautiful pregnant woman I dressed in my career.”
Photo: Randy Brooke/Getty Images
Julia Restoin-Roitfeld,
i-D magazine, 2012 Restoin-Roitfeld was styled by her own mom, editor Carine Roitfeld, for this sexy shoot when she was ...
Julia Restoin-Roitfeld,
i-D magazine, 2012 Restoin-Roitfeld was styled by her own mom, editor Carine Roitfeld, for this sexy shoot when she was seven months pregnant. “This shoot was such a nice way to spend time with my mother,” Julia said in the accompanying interview. ”Pregnancy’s a moment in a woman’s life when it’s really important to still feel seductive. I loved that my mum dressed me sexy like that.” She later went on to start a website for mothers, Romy and the Bunnies.
Photo: i-D
Marie Antoinette, 1781 Between the birth of her first daughter and second son, Marie Antoinette popularized the muslin dress, which had looser sk...
Marie Antoinette, 1781 Between the birth of her first daughter and second son, Marie Antoinette popularized the muslin dress, which had looser skirts than the structured gowns with panniers that had been worn in court before that point. Previously considered only appropriate for pregnant women, the look was scandalous at first, and then wildly fashionable.
Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd/Corbis
Padma Lakshmi, 2009 After believing that she was infertile due to her diagnosis of endometriosis, Lakshmi became pregnant at the age of 39. The f...
Padma Lakshmi, 2009 After believing that she was infertile due to her diagnosis of endometriosis, Lakshmi became pregnant at the age of 39. The father’s identity was kept secret until after the baby was born; it was eventually revealed to be venture capitalist Adam Dell. He sued for parental rights in 2011, and they settled out of court in 2012. One of the provisions of their agreement was that their daughter’s legal name be officially changed to Krishna Lakshmi-Dell.
Photo: Joe Kohen/Getty Images
Linda Evangelista,
Vogue, August 2006 While pregnant with son Augustin James in 2006, Evangelista posed – fully clothed – for the cover of Vogue...
Linda Evangelista,
Vogue, August 2006 While pregnant with son Augustin James in 2006, Evangelista posed – fully clothed – for the cover of Vogue. The accompanying article mostly ignored her pregnancy, probably because the child's father turned out to be French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, the CEO of luxury goods company Kering (then PPR), who was dating actress Salma Hayek at the time. Evangelista revealed the identity of Augustin’s father in 2011, when she took Pinault to court and demanded $46,000 per month in child support. They settled the case in 2012 over the phone. Photo: Vogue
Carla Bruni, 2011 At age 43, Bruni got pregnant while her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, was in office. She famously refused to discuss it, ...
Carla Bruni, 2011 At age 43, Bruni got pregnant while her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, was in office. She famously refused to discuss it, explaining that she didn’t want to distract attention from her spouse: “My lips are sealed. Not out of arrogance or for a taste for secrecy ... [but] to protect all of the work [my husband] does,” she told French newspaper La Parisien in May 2011. Nevertheless, the world remained rapt, particularly when photos like these surfaced on the internet. She gave birth to daughter Giulia in October 2012.
Photo: Peer Grimm/Corbis
Grace Kelly, 1956 Kelly became pregnant within a week after her marriage to Prince Ranier III of Monaco (the baby, Princess Caroline, was born ni...
Grace Kelly, 1956 Kelly became pregnant within a week after her marriage to Prince Ranier III of Monaco (the baby, Princess Caroline, was born nine months and four days after their lavish wedding), and her tummy quickly became a topic of international gossip. When she was photographed covering her growing midsection with a large Hermès purse, originally called the Constance bag, the brand renamed it the Kelly bag; it remains one of their most iconic products to this day. Photo: Corbis
Claudia Schiffer, German
Vogue, June 2010 Schiffer was literally nine months pregnant when Karl Lagerfeld photographed her for the cover of Ger...
Claudia Schiffer, German
Vogue, June 2010 Schiffer was literally nine months pregnant when Karl Lagerfeld photographed her for the cover of German Vogue. It was her thirteenth time covering the magazine.
Photo: Vogue Deutsch
Princess Diana, 1982 During both of her pregnancies, Diana’s maternity-wear consisted mostly of rather sad, sack-like dresses, but the public rem...
Princess Diana, 1982 During both of her pregnancies, Diana’s maternity-wear consisted mostly of rather sad, sack-like dresses, but the public remained fascinated nonetheless. In one of the rare instances that she went to a formal evening event while expecting, she wore this very princessy-looking maternity gown by David Sassoon to the Barbican Centre in London.
Photo: Tim Graham/Getty Images
Paula Patton,
Ebony, May 2010 Ebony was one of the first magazines to do two versions of a pregnancy cover, one less clothed than the other. Pa...
Paula Patton,
Ebony, May 2010 Ebony was one of the first magazines to do two versions of a pregnancy cover, one less clothed than the other. Patton gave birth to a son with her husband, musician Robin Thicke, in April 2010.
Photo: Ebony
Jackie Kennedy, 1960 The first lady had five pregnancies in total, but only two of her children survived (she had one miscarriage, one stillbirth...
Jackie Kennedy, 1960 The first lady had five pregnancies in total, but only two of her children survived (she had one miscarriage, one stillbirth, and one infant that died when he was only two days old). Her youngest child, known as John-John, was born just three weeks after her husband, John F. Kennedy, won the 1960 presidential election. Due to her history of difficult pregnancies, she was advised to stay home in Georgetown during the campaign; in addition to the rare personal appearance, she participated in her husband’s cause by giving televised and printed interviews, writing letters, and publishing a syndicated weekly newspaper column called Campaign Wife.
Photo: Corbis
Jessica Simpson,
Elle, April 2012 While pregnant with fiancé Eric Johnson’s baby, Simpson posed nude for the cover of Elle (an alternate ...
Jessica Simpson,
Elle, April 2012 While pregnant with fiancé Eric Johnson’s baby, Simpson posed nude for the cover of Elle (an alternate newsstand cover featured her in a tight red dress). Johnson was featured in the accompanying spread kissing Simpson’s belly. The cover made news, but otherwise bombed – the issue was one of the magazine’s lowest-selling editions of the year. Photo: Elle
Samantha Cameron, 2010 Nicknamed “SamCam” by the British press, the wife of Britain’s Prime Minister announced that she was pregnant with her fou...
Samantha Cameron, 2010 Nicknamed “SamCam” by the British press, the wife of Britain’s Prime Minister announced that she was pregnant with her fourth child two days after her husband took office in May 2010. The news was viewed as bittersweet, as the couple’s youngest son Ivan, who had suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, died the year prior. When their daughter Florence was born in August 2010, the Prime Minister took paternity leave to help his wife, a decision that was widely considered progressive, even groundbreaking.
Photo: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images
Jennifer Lopez, February 2008 Lopez got pregnant with twins at 39, and toured until she was six months along. She later said she consid...
Jennifer Lopez, February 2008 Lopez got pregnant with twins at 39, and toured until she was six months along. She later said she considered finishing the tour a “superwoman thing.” She also denied rumors that she needed artificial help getting pregnant, saying she just hadn’t been in a hurry to have kids: "We knew nothing was wrong with either one of us – I had been checked, and he had kids already ... I knew [that] something’s not ready here, in my head or in my life, and when it is, I know it’s going to happen.”
Photo: Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic
Katie Holmes, February 2006 Like many other aspects of TomKat’s marriage, Holmes’s pregnancy was more about Cruise; many believed their coupledom...
Katie Holmes, February 2006 Like many other aspects of TomKat’s marriage, Holmes’s pregnancy was more about Cruise; many believed their coupledom was some kind of conspiracy, and her pregnancy helped debunk some of the rumors (at least for a little while). But Cruise didn't help matters when he boasted that he’d bought a sonogram machine to monitor his wife’s fetus. When the pair announced baby Suri’s name, they claimed it was the Hebrew word for “princess,” except it wasn’t -- according to Hebrew linguists, it meant both "a person from Syria," and “go away” when addressing a female. The couple split in 2012.
Photo: GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images
Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, 2012 The Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy got off to a dramatic start: In December 2012, the palace announc...
Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, 2012 The Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy got off to a dramatic start: In December 2012, the palace announced her pregnancy when she was hospitalized for a condition known as hyperemesis gravidarum – best described as severe morning sickness. A few weeks later, one of her nurses committed suicide after falling victim to a prank call. But as Kate’s health improved, the world giddily watched. Her child, when it is born (ANY DAY NOW!), will be third in line to the throne after Prince Charles and Prince William.
Photo: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
1
/
50