Hannah Waddingham has two movies out in theaters: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and the live action remake of Lilo & Stitch. She just got back from Cannes and she’s been busy! Mr. Rosie and I saw M:I-FR and Hannah’s role is small, but important. She does a fantastic job in it. The rest of the movie had some absolutely wild stunt scenes. I’ve seen the behind-the-scenes stuff with that final action sequence (IYKYK), and holy sh-t, Tom Cruise really does think that he cannot die.
Along with being an in-demand actress, Hannah is a single mother to a 10-year-old daughter. She recently sat down with The Sunday Times. They talk about filming Mission: Impossible, her fertility struggles and parenthood.
“Thank God she is the utter joy of my life because it is unyielding responsibility,” Waddingham, 50, told The Sunday Times of her 10-year-old daughter in an interview published on Saturday, June 7.
“I feel like more people should talk about how exhausting it is,” she added, chuckling. “Not only physically showing up for them but being the best version of yourself, because they respond to actions far more than words.”
Waddingham, who does not name her daughter publicly, told the outlet that she decided she wanted to have a child when she was single in her 30s — but that the path to parenthood was a difficult one.
“I was told I couldn’t have children and then I went down the eastern medicine route, had my body balanced out,” she explained. On her 40th birthday, after conceiving her daughter without any medical intervention, she took her baby girl home.
Later, Waddingham separated from her daughter’s father, Gianluca Cugnetto, an Italian businessman. At 50, she’s raising her daughter as a single mother, telling the outlet that after her daughter suffered a health scare when she was 3 she only picks jobs that work with and for her life as a single mom.
“[She’s] my greatest champion and my most horrific critic,” Waddingham said of her daughter, who is now also showing an interest in the entertainment business after starring in a school production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
”[Motherhood] is an unyielding responsibility. I feel like more people should talk about how exhausting it is.” Amen, sister. We moms work hard and carry so much weight – physical, emotional, mental, etc. There are also so many threats to their safety – in school or out with friends – that even on the good days, you’re worrying. Now that I am a parent, I often compare myself to my mother and grandmother. I think about how I react to things vs. how my mother did and wonder if I’m doing better. I knew motherhood was going to be exhausting, but I wasn’t prepared for how emotionally taxing it would be to also have to be the “best version” of myself when I feel anything but. There are definitely times when I find myself ducking into another room to take slow, deep breaths to not lose my temper. Some days, it feels like you’re all learning and growing together.
photos credit: Justin Ng/Avalon, Jimmy James/Avalon, Getty
