Rachel Bilson is speaking out about her heartbreaking experience with pregnancy loss before the birth of her daughter Briar Rose, 8, whom she shares with her ex, Hayden Christensen.
During Monday’s episode of her Broad Ideas podcast, the 42-year-old actress revealed that she’s experienced multiple miscarriages. “It’s one of the biggest things I talk about with pregnancy and having babies. I’ve had miscarriages so I’ve had losses,” she shared.
The O.C. alum added that she “never carried” the baby long before suffering her miscarriages, noting, “They were early on.”
Bilson tackled the heart-heavy subject with cohost Olivia Allen and their guest, author Libby Weintraub, who shares her story about experiencing a stillbirth and multiple miscarriages in her book, She Was Born: Words on Loss and Liberation.
During the discussion, Bilson said that she felt it was vital to “roll with the punches” during the birthing process because loss is a real possibility. “With birth, I even remember going into [it saying], ‘I’m open to whatever,'” Bilson shared, recalling how she “always knew I was going to go to a hospital” and would not try a home birth.
The Hart of Dixie alum spoke of “relinquishing control” while in the planning stages, pointing out how pregnancy can be a total unknown. “What plans can you make when it’s really not up to you?”
Bilson and Christensen welcomed Briar Rose in October 2014. The former couple were together for ten years, from 2007 to 2017.
Recently, Bilson shared that she took Briar to her first concert — Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.
“It was a really cool experience except that it was Briar’s first concert and I’m like, ‘Where do you go from here?'” Bilson marveled. “For my daughter to see this, I think it’s so rad. It’s one woman, she writes her own s**t, she’s really talented and she does it and, like, look at what she’s done.”
Bilson called the show “the most inspiring thing I’ve ever seen.”
Looking back on the opening moments of Swift’s show, the actress said she had “chills.”
“Just seeing it through my daughter’s eyes and how excited she got, it was just the best thing ever. I mean, I’ll have that forever, just that memory and it was so cool,” she gushed.
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