Celebrities Who Have Welcomed Rainbow Babies
For anyone who suffers any type of pregnancy loss, the next steps of family planning are scary because of the fear of the unknown and the emotions tied to losing a baby. But many celebrities are openly talking about how it impacted them — and how that beautiful next stage of having a rainbow baby overwhelmed them with joy — and sometimes lingering worries.
After having several miscarriages during her marriage to Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman talked about her heart being more fragile after giving birth to her daughter Sunday in 2008, calling it a “painful love” to ELLE magazine. “I look at that little girl and I’m like, ‘Oh, no, what’s going to happen?’ It’s almost like my heart is stretching; I’m feeling all the muscles stretch with emotion,” she explained. “It’s a beautiful love, but there’s a lot of fear and pain for her life.”
In Gabrielle Union’s long journey to becoming a parent, she had to reconcile that she was not going to be able to carry her rainbow baby, telling Today, “It’s OK to bring your child into the world in a way that is not through your body. The world will not consider you a failure. Every route to parenthood is perfect, worthwhile and amazing.”
Learn more about the celebrities, who are sharing their stories on the road to parenthood — some will make you cry. But others confirm that hope and joy is just around the corner once that gorgeous rainbow baby arrives.
A version of this article was previously published in October 2021.
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Jeanne Mai Jenkins
Jeanne Mai Jenkins welcomed daughter Monaco, whom she shares with husband Jeezy Jenkins, in January 2022. But Monaco wasn’t Jenkins’ first pregnancy; a week before the couple’s wedding, she found out she was expecting, but miscarried soon after. And like most moms who experience child loss, she felt a level of guilt.
“I wondered if I was being punished. I wondered if I’d jinxed myself or cursed myself,” she told Women’s Health, noting that she had never wanted to be a parent before meeting Jeezy. Thankfully, one week after their wedding, she found out she was pregnant again — and this one “stuck”.
“It was the most beautiful sign that anything’s possible, that you’re not in control, and God has a plan,” she said.
Meghan Markle
The ups and downs of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s exit from their senior royal roles were also marked by a miscarriage in July 2020 that Markle shared in a heartbreaking New York Times op-ed. “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second,” she wrote.
The couple had their rainbow baby, Lilibet Diana, in June, but a source close to the royals revealed to People that the pregnancy made them “nervous” because “it took them a while before they could relax and fully enjoy this pregnancy.”
Nicole Kidman
During her marriage to Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman suffered two pregnancy losses. The first time was an ectopic pregnancy, where the fertilized egg implants outside the womb. After that loss, the couple went on to adopt daughter Isabella and son Connor. She then suffered a miscarriage as their marriage was crumbling and said both events caused her “massive grief.”
She later went on to welcome daughters, Sunday in 2008, and Faith, via surrogate, in 2010, with second husband Keith Urban, but the Oscar winner understands all too well the heartache that comes with parenthood. “There’s an enormous amount of pain and an enormous amount of joy on the other side of it,” Kidman explained in an interview with Tatler magazine. “The flipside of going through so much yearning and pain to get there is the feeling of ‘Ahhhh!’ when you have the child.”
Michelle Obama
Former First Lady Michelle Obama got real about her fertility struggles in her mid-30s in her memoir, Becoming, because she felt “lost and alone” after she miscarried. “I felt like I failed, because I didn’t know how common miscarriages were because we don’t talk about them,” she told Good Morning America.
She then had to deal with the realization that she and Barack Obama “had to do IVF” because of her age and struggles to get pregnant — that is how they conceived daughters Malia and Sasha. “I think it’s the worst thing that we do to each other as women, not share the truth about our bodies and how they work,” she shared.
Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy Teigen hasn’t ever shied away from her pregnancy struggles back when she and husband John Legend started their fertility journey with 20 embryos, three of which they were able to proceed with. While “the first little girl didn’t work,” the couple was blessed with daughter Luna in 2016, per InStyle. The third embryo was son Miles, who was born in 2018.
Teigen became pregnant naturally in 2020, but lost their son, Jack, in September after suffering a partial placental abruption. The couple shared their grief through moving black-and-white images as they said goodbye to their baby boy.
Happily, Teigen and Legend are currently expecting another rainbow baby, due in winter 2023!
Halsey
Halsey’s miscarriage story happened very publicly — the singer was onstage in 2015 when the realization hit that they were “miscarrying in the middle of my concert.” A very private moment unfolded in front of fans. “The sensation of looking a hundred couple teenagers in the face while you’re bleeding through your clothes and still having to do the show,” they heartbreakingly shared on The Doctors.
But Halsey announced their pregnancy in 2021 in the most colorful way: A crocheted rainbow bikini top. It was their way of celebrating their rainbow baby, son Ender Ridley, with boyfriend Alev Aydin.
Beyoncé
Beyoncé and Jay-Z have three rainbow babies: Daughter Blue Ivy and twins Rumi and Sir. Fans first heard about her miscarriages in the 2013 documentary, Life Is But a Dream, but she revealed to Oprah Winfrey how private she was when she was pregnant with Blue Ivy because she “didn’t know what’s going to happen.”
“It was hard,” the pop star shared on Oprah’s Next Chapter. “I’m not the only person who goes through this. So many people go through this and in the end, I have my daughter, and there is hope and I feel so fortunate.”
Lisa Ling
In 2010, former View co-host, Lisa Ling, returned to the daytime talk show to share her experience of having a miscarriage 10 weeks into her pregnancy. She described the experience as “a knife through the heart.”
Ling and husband Paul Song went on to have their rainbow baby three years later with daughter Jett. You could almost feel the sigh of relief in their public statement once they knew their firstborn had safely arrived. “We feel so blessed that this day has arrived,” Ling shared with US Weekly. “We’re nervously excited to begin this next chapter in our lives with our little Jett.” Jett’s little sis Ray arrived in 2016.
Courteney Cox
Courteney Cox told her infertility story and multiple miscarriages years before it was common to share such an intimate news publicly. “No one ever taught me that lesson,” the former Friends star told Entertainment Tonight. “I didn’t know you were supposed to be private. I just don’t think like that. … If I can share any light or give any wisdom to somebody, or hope, I would share anything I can.”
She and former husband David Arquette welcomed their rainbow baby, Coco, in 2004.
Gabrielle Union
1Gabrielle Union opened up about her “eight or nine miscarriages” and three years of IVF in her memoir, We’re Going to Need More Wine. She and husband Dwyane Wade turned to surrogacy and welcomed daughter Kaavia James Wade in November 2018.
“I’ve cried so many times today for so many reasons, mainly because I’d gotten accustomed to heartbreak and disappointment. I think a lot of us live in that space. I set up shop there,” the actress wrote on Instagram, celebrating her first Mother’s Day. “This moment reminded me that miracles do happen.”
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood suffered from secondary infertility after she and husband Michael Fisher had their first son, Isaiah, in 2015. Underwood had three miscarriages before conceiving her second son, Jacob.
She still thinks about the babies she lost before Jacob’s 2018 birth, but she found a silver lining in her rainbow baby. “I will always mourn those children, those lives that were a shooting star, a breath of smoke,” she told The Guardian, “but I have Jacob, and he is incredible, he is the sweetest little baby. At the time it was awful, and it still hurts, but it’s kind of like OK, I have this.”
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey’s first pregnancy with then-husband Nick Cannon was the source of much speculation by the press (including that awkward interview with Ellen DeGeneres). Just as they were ready to share the exciting news with family and friends, they found out the devastating news that the “pregnancy [was] not successful,” per Access Hollywood, via MTV News.
The couple went on to conceive twins, Monroe and Moroccan, two years later, but their loss still affected them in the aftermath. “I’m actually dealing with this, and it’s been a long journey but it’s been tough,” she shared. “Well, it’s still early. We’re expecting in the spring.”
Hilaria Baldwin
Hilaria Baldwin suffered two miscarriages in 2019, sharing to her Instagram followers that she and husband Alec Baldwin were “not ok right now, we will be.” They still were grateful for their “4 healthy babies” and promised that they “will never lose sight of this.”
The couple went on to have three rainbow babies, son Eduardo “Edu” Pao Lucas, who was born in September 2020, daughter María Lucía Victoria, who arrived via surrogate six months later, and daugher Ilaria Catalina Irena in September 2022. The duo’s roller-coaster journey to expand their family still resonates with Hilaria.
“When I lost my babies in 2019, I will always remember thinking my tears would never stop,” she wrote on Instagram. “I will always be sad, they still flow from time to time, and I hold this sadness written permanently in the pages of my life’s book. I also welcome and rejoice in my rainbow babies, feeling that I am such a lucky mama. “
Shawn Johnson East
Former Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson and her husband, Andrew East, chronicled her miscarriage for their YouTube channel in 2017. But after getting pregnant with her rainbow baby, daughter Drew, she found the experience “absolutely terrifying” — the grief from the first pregnancy affected her second pregnancy.
“[Learning about the first pregnancy] was, like, the greatest day of my life,” she explained to E! News. “The second time I found out I was pregnant, I was so afraid that I couldn’t celebrate it because it wouldn’t last that it almost stripped all the joy out of it for me for a while.”
Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields has been open about her family planning journey — from her struggles to get pregnant to her postpartum depression. She had a miscarriage after her very first round of IVF, which made her feel like she “really wasn’t meant to have kids.”
“I didn’t want to be happy anymore for the many other people who were having kids,” Shields admitted to Fertility Today. “I knew that their blessing had nothing to do with me, but it felt like a slap in the face.”
She and husband Chris Henchy become pregnant on the next round of IVF with daughter Rowan in 2002 — their second daughter, Grier, followed three years later.
Pink
Pink had her first miscarriage at the age of 17 and she told USA Today that even in her late teens, it felt like “your body hates you and like your body is broken.” She would go on to have several more miscarriages trying to start a family with husband Carey Hart.
They were thrilled to welcome daughter Willow in 2011 and son Jameson in 2016, but Pink sought therapy to talk about the prior losses. “I think it’s important to talk about what you’re ashamed of, who you really are and the painful (expletive),” she said.
Celine Dion
Celine Dion and her late husband, René Angélil, were thrilled to have their first son together, René-Charles, in 2001, after struggling to get pregnant. When she wanted to expand her family, it took six rounds of IVF and a miscarriage before she was blessed with twins Nelson and Eddy in 2010.
What makes her most proud in her lifetime of incredible accomplishments is motherhood. “I have three magnificent kids, that through them, I see my husband and I have the strength today to keep dressing up,” she told Extra a year after her husband’s death.
Kimberly Van Der Beek
James Van Der Beek and his beloved wife Kimberly revealed on November 22, 2021, that they welcomed their sixth child together after two pregnancy losses. “After experiencing late-term #pregnancyloss twice in a row (both at 17+ weeks), we kept this one quiet. Truthfully, I was terrified when I found out,” the actor captioned the Instagram announcement he posted.
“Each child brings their own energy, their own manifestation of consciousness, their own lessons. The ones we lost each gifted us with different pieces of the puzzle… leaving us that much more grateful for the ongoing master class we get to enjoy with this sweet, wise little one.”
Jana Kramer
Jana Kramer and then-husband Mike Caussin were hoping to expand their family after reconciling after a brief separation. Their journey was met with multiple miscarriages that left Kramer “suffering silently” in 2017. In June of 2018, the couple had reason to celebrate because their daughter Jolie was going to be a big sister.
“Surprise! We have a rainbow baby on the way & couldn’t be more excited! Jolie is going to be a big sister & we’re becoming a family of 4,” she wrote on Twitter. Son Jace was welcomed into the family later that year.
Laura Prepon
While pregnant with her second child in her second trimester, Laura Prepon and husband Ben Foster received news from that doctor that no parent wants to hear: “The pregnancy would not go to full term.” The Orange Is the New Black star revealed that the baby had cystic hygroma, a group of cysts in the lymphatic vascular system, and had to “terminate the pregnancy,” according to People.
The couple still wanted to expand their family after their loss, but Prepon was understandably nervous when they found out they were pregnant again. “I couldn’t fathom going through it again,” she said. “I was also ecstatic. I mean, it’s magical.”
Their rainbow baby son joined big sis Ella in February 2020. “It made me so thankful for the blessing we have now,” she explained. “It put into perspective what a blessing it is to have a healthy child.”
