Natalie Portman Says Having Kids Made Her "Calmer"

Movie star Natalie Portman has come a long way since making her acting debut as a child hitman-in-training in the 1994 film Léon: The Professional. Since then, the actress has shown that her talents are equally at home in small-budget indie movies and blockbuster franchise films and has won multiple awards for her work, including an Oscar for Black Swan.

But while fans may be familiar with Natalie’s extensive acting career, they don’t know much about the actress’s personal life, which she tends to keep quite private. Fans may be surprised to learn that in addition to her active career in Hollywood, Natalie is also a busy mom of two and a wife to her equally talented husband, Benjamin Millepied. Keep scrolling to learn more about Natalie’s home life.

It wasn’t long after meeting her now-husband, Benjamin Millepied, that Natalie became pregnant with her first child. The couple’s son, Aleph Portman-Millepied, was born on June 14, 2011, just a few days after Natalie turned 30.

Natalie and Benjamin welcomed their second child, a baby girl they named Amalia Millepied, on February 22, 2017. Natalie had to miss the 2017 Academy Awards due to Amalia’s birth, even though the actress was up for a best actress nomination for her role as the titular Jackie Kennedy in Jackie. 

Having children changed the way Natalie approached her career as she started to prioritize more of a work-life balance. In a 2015 Harper’s Bazaar interview, the actress told the publication that she'd asked fellow actress Cate Blanchett about how she juggled acting with being a mom. The advice was pretty simple. Cate told her, “You just do. Stressing about it doesn't help."

Since having kids, Natalie has said that becoming a parent has also affected her work on film sets in a positive way. “I think being a mother ... made me much calmer under stress,” she told The New York Times Style Magazine. “When things get really bad, your voice gets calm and your blood pressure slows, and you can make everything [OK] again. And things get bad and stressful easily on films.”

Natalie’s also said that after she had Amalia, she felt conflicted about the many “feminist baby book[s]” she received as gifts. This prompted her to write her own modern versions of classic children stories called Natalie Portman’s Fables, available through Macmillan Publishers.

And don't expect to see any photos of Amalia or Aleph any time soon, as the famous couple is extremely private.

Natalie and her husband met on the set of Black Swan in 2009. Benjamin was the choreographer for the movie and the two spent multiple hours a day in physically intense ballet training sessions. 

It was through their work on the movie that the couple became close and eventually started dating. Natalie even moved to Paris in 2014 after Benjamin was named director of the Paris Opera Ballet. These days, he works at the LA Dance Project.

The romantic partners and collaborators married in 2012, a year after Aleph was born. They wed at a private ceremony in Big Sur, Calif. with a number of close friends and family.