Being pregnant is a feat in itself, as many women can attest to. It takes an enormous amount of energy to grow that baby, let alone if there are any pregnancy complications like gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, or nausea. Your body is changing rapidly, you are often uncomfortable, and your moods are all over the place. A pretty challenging time, indeed!
Can you imagine doing all this while in the spotlight? Many celebrities go through their pregnancies while remaining in the spotlight, either on stage, in film, or in their respective sports. This takes tremendous courage and strength to continue to work in an industry that can be rather unforgiving while growing a baby. Here are 10 working celebrities who absolutely rocked their pregnancy.
10 Ali Wong
Ali Wong is known for many things, not least of which is her candid description of pregnancy, motherhood, and parenting. During both of her pregnancies, Ali didn't slow down one little bit. In fact, she was busy filming her various Netlifx series and performing on her stand-up comedy tours.
This comedian may be small in stature, but her sense of humor is enormous, and so is her courage and tenacity. Celebrities like Chris Rock and Keanu Reeves commend Ali for her upfront and honest approach to her life and her profession, and there is certainly no shortage of actors wanting to work with her and see her performances. Anyone that can do a one-hour stand-up comedy show while heavily pregnant deserves the utmost respect!
9 Beyoncé
There are many reasons why Beyoncé has been given the nickname Queen Bey, and one of the reasons that cemented her deserving nickname was her incredible ability to perform while pregnant. Not only did Beyoncé perform at the Super Bowl while pregnant, but the singer also impressed viewers again when she performed at the 2017 Grammys while heavily pregnant with twins.
It was a beautiful performance and a true tribute to women everywhere. Beyoncé is an inspiration to many women with her ability to be a leader in a male-dominated industry and her willingness to highlight things like pregnancy that were, up until recently, scorned and censored.
8 Serena Williams
Serena Williams is well-known for her incredible talent on the tennis court. She has won numerous championships, and she has been a strong advocate for women of color in sports. She has fought hard to challenge the gender pay gap that is still inherent in industries around the world, and she has been an inspiration to many women.
Another incredible feat that Serena achieved was to win the Australian Open in 2017 while pregnant. The amazing athlete beat her sister, Venus, to claim the title. It would be a challenging accomplishment without being pregnant, but achieving such a victory while pregnant is just plain awesome.
7 Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker was pregnant with her first child when she was in the midst of filming season 5 of Sex and the City. Luckily, the show's costume department was one of the best, and they were able to hide her pregnancy using flowing tops and loose-fitting dresses, all while maintaining the fashionable styles that the show was known for.
The show did need to be cut down to eight episodes so that Sarah could begin her maternity leave, but she was able to make pregnancy look very stylish in those eight episodes. Even on the red carpet, Sarah managed to look stunning, dressed in beautiful maternity dresses that minimized her pregnancy bump.
6 Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner managed to keep up her work schedule while pregnant with her first daughter, Violet Affleck, in 2005. She successfully filmed season 5 of her popular show Alias while pregnant. The show's writers incorporated the pregnancy into the script, which made the situation easier.
Garner's character on the show, Sydney Bristow, gave birth to a daughter in that season. The father was none other than Garner's real-life ex-boyfriend's character Michael Vartan. The two dated briefly during the filming of seasons two and three before Garner married now ex-husband Ben Affleck.
5 Gal Gadot
If ever there was a symbol of female strength, it would be filming a superhero movie while pregnant. That is exactly what Gal Gadot did when filming the popular film Wonder Woman. The star managed to hide her pregnancy throughout the filming of this movie, and reports say that she even performed many of her own stunts.
As her pregnancy progressed throughout filming, costume designers had to get creative with how they hid her growing belly. Eventually, they resorted to using a green screen belly to hide her bump through digital technology. Pregnancy does require superhero strength, and this woman represented it well!
4 Alysia Montaño
Alysia Montaño became well-known when she completed an 800m track and field race at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in 2014. While she finished the race 35 seconds slower than her personal best, Montaño is to be commended for completing the event in the first place.
When interviewed afterward, Montaño said that she had been running and training throughout her pregnancy and that she was feeling really good. She felt that it would be beneficial for both her and her baby if she continued her exercise regime as long as she could.
3 Kate Winslet
The magic of an iPad! When Kate Winslet was filming the movie Divergent, she was five months pregnant at the time. The costume department on the set had to get creative in order to hide that she was expecting.
Although not overly noticeable at first, fans could easily notice that Winslet regularly had something in her hands throughout the film. This was done to hide the growing baby bump. Near the end of filming, though, the crew needed to resort to a stunt double for some of the scenes. But after birthing her baby boy, Winslet was back on set to wrap up filming, nursing her son between scenes. A dedicated actress!
2 Julia Roberts
When Julia Roberts rejoined her cast-mates in the filming of Ocean's 12, she was pregnant with her twins, Hazel and Phinnaeus. Luckily, because she was playing herself in the film, it was pretty easy for the writers to include her pregnancy in the script.
Roberts also had a cast of male friends who looked out for her throughout the filming, making sure she was doing ok. This was quite a change from how her co-stars—George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon—behaved in the previous movie. There was quite a prank competition on the set of Ocean's 11, and Roberts often found herself the victim of some of their pranks. Not this time around, though—nothing but respect for the expecting momma!
1 Lucille Ball
Probably one of the biggest trendsetters when it came to filming while pregnant would have to be Lucille Ball, who filmed the first season of her smash hit show I Love Lucy back in 1951. Thanks to loose-fitting shirts and aprons that hid her bump, Lucille was able to conceal her pregnancy throughout.
At a time when even the word "pregnant" was viewed as vulgar, women simply weren't shown on TV when they were expecting. But, in order to move forward with the launch of her new show, Lucille had to get creative along with the costume designers to keep her pregnancy quiet. The following year, however, when Lucille was expecting her second child, the show's writers decided to risk it and wrote in that she and Ricky were expecting a child. They still did not use the word "pregnant," though. They instead called the episode "Lucy is Enceinte."