33-year-old Oscar winner Alicia Vikander shares a 17-month-old son with fellow actor Michael Fassbender. And while they have greatly enjoyed their parenting journey together so far, it didn’t come without a lot of pain and heartbreak.
During an emotional conversation with The Sunday Times, the ‘Ex Machina,’ star revealed she previously experienced an “extreme and painful” miscarriage. She remembers meeting Fassbender on the set of the romance drama film, The Light Between Oceans, back in 2014.
In the film, Vikander’s character suffered two miscarriages, “Talk about meta,” Vikander told the Times.
[The miscarriage] was so extreme, painful to go through and, of course, it made me recall making that film. Sometimes you go through things that are tough in life and if you have an office job you can step away for a bit. But there are times that myself or colleagues have been through something and, well, I can’t understand how they went on to the red carpet afterwards. To be met by people asking, ‘How are you doing?’ Given what they had just been through? Most people would not be able to step out of their house.
Ignoring the fact that she seems to believe a woman working an “office job” has the luxury to just take time off whenever she needs, Vikander makes a valid point in general. Women are expected to perform at such high levels, no matter what might be happening behind closed doors.
So how do Fassbender and Vikander manage their home life? After all, they’re both working actors, and they’re trying to raise a kid together. How do they find the time? Vikander says they do “every second job,” and that while one of them works, the other one stays at home.
Back in September of 2021, Vikander talked with PEOPLE about becoming a mom for the first time.
I now have a whole new understanding of life in general. That’s pretty beautiful, and obviously will give a lot to any of my work in the future.
