Congratulations are in order for Milla Jovovich. The 43-year-old star announced on Instagram Wednesday that she is expecting her third child — a girl — with husband Paul W.S. Anderson.
The happy news about this rainbow baby comes just months after Jovovich revealed she had a “horrific” emergency abortion during her second trimester in 2017.
“Knocked up again,” Jovovich began in Wednesday’s post, which shows her in a tight black dress cradling her baby bump. “After I found out I was pregnant 13 weeks ago, I had a mixture of feelings ranging between complete joy and utter terror. Because of my age and losing the last pregnancy I didn’t want to get attached to this potential baby too quickly.”
But after undergoing a “slew” of tests, Jovovich said she is “in the clear.”
The Ukrainian-born actress and Anderson, who is a director, are already parents of daughters Ever, 11, and Dashiel, 4.
Two years ago, Jovovich was shooting a film in Eastern Europe when she went into labor at four and a half months pregnant. The emergency abortion that followed turned Jovovich’s life upside down.
“I still have nightmares about it,” Jovovich wrote on Instagram in May. “I spilled into one of the worst depressions of my life and had to work extremely hard to find my way out.”
Julia Bueno, author of the “The Brink of Being: Talking About Miscarriage,” says many women who experience pregnancy loss feel isolated in their grief and trauma.
“When a friend’s father dies, you ask questions like, ‘How is your mom getting on?’ ’What will you miss most about him?’” Bueno told TODAY Parents. “When it’s a baby that no one knew, it makes the conversation more difficult."
But there are conversation tracks that can provide comfort, Bueno said.
“If you know someone who had a miscarriage, you can start by saying, ‘Tell me your story. Start wherever you want,’” Bueno suggested. “That is what people want to do. The miscarriage doesn’t end when you stop bleeding.”