There are quite a number of reasons why women give birth at an older age, the average being 23 to 35. Some do so for natural reasons which are beyond their control. Others choose to do so on account of something they consider as being higher up on the list of priorities. More often than not, it’s either for education or a career. In this article, we’ll be looking at women in the entertainment industry who have decided to become (biological) moms after achieving a satisfactory level of fame.
Deola Art Alade
Christened Deola Ayeni, the serial entrepreneur and wife of award-winning music artist, Dare Art Alade, studied Graphics at the Obafemi Awolowo University. It’s quite glaring that she loves the business part of creative arts. She was the President/CEO of the record label called Soul Music, CEO of the classy interior design firm, Design Studio and now CEO of the integrated marketing communications company, Live spot.
Live-spot has been stamping its name on the brands/entertainment scene by putting together disruptive events and marketing campaigns for artists & brands alike. They were responsible for the headlining Love like a Movie, for the music act, Darey featuring celebrities like Kelly Rowland and Kim Kardashian. They were also the creative powerhouse behind the much-talked-about Falz’s 2017 concert.
The mother of two who is now in her early 40s got married to Darey in 2006 and gave birth to her daughter/second child in her late 30s, maybe 36 give or take. The lady is very guarded about her age.
Halle Berry
Yeah, we’ll start this off with the delectable Halle Berry, christened Maria Halle Berry. In 2002, the American actress who would be turning 56 this year won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the romantic movie, Monster’s Ball. It’s interesting to note that up until 2018, she’s the only African-American woman to have won the award.
This darling of the silver screen had her first child, daughter Ariela Aubry in 2008 at the young age of 41. Having been the 1st runner up in the 1986 Miss USA beauty pageant and one of the highest paid actresses in the 2000s, she must have felt satisfied with her achievement, believing it was time to become a mother. She also has a son, Maceo Olivier, whom she gave birth to at the age of 47.
Dakore Egbuson Akande
The Bayelsa born actress is the epitome of a beautiful go-getter. She knows what she wants and goes for it pushing away all distractions. She started her acting career in 1998 and got her first breakthrough seven years later. From there she has starred in over a hundred movies and received multiple nominations & awards along with it.
In 2011, Dakore and Olumide “Lou” Akande exchanged nuptial vows. Olumide is the son of the billionaire businessman and Ibadan political chieftain, Harry Akande. She is described as a humanitarian and so it is little wonder that she is an ambassador of Amnesty International. The intelligent and expressive actress gave birth to her second child, daughter in February 2014 when she was 36 years old. She is very conscious about work-life balance and places premium value on her family.
Janet Jackson
You must have been born under the earth if you don’t know Janet Jackson. On second thoughts, maybe you were also born within the last 5 years to claim ignorance of who Janet Jackson is. Youngest sister of the late and great Michael Jackson, Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an award-winning artist; a singer, songwriter, dancer and actress.
In the 90s, she signed a record-breaking multimillion-dollar recording contract with Virgin Records making her one of the highest paid artists. In ‘93, she starred alongside the late and great rapper, Tupac in the movie Poetic Justice. By the end of the 90s, she was named as the second most successful artist after Mariah Carey. Having sold over a hundred million records and being tagged as one of the world’s highest bestselling artists, Janet Jackson decided to have a child while she was married to her husband at the time, Wissam Al Mana, a business magnate from Qatar. In April 2016 she got pregnant through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) with donor eggs and in January 2017, she gave birth to her son, Eissa Al Mana at the age of 50.
She divorced Wissam a couple of months after giving birth.
Lola Omotayo Okoye
The beautiful lady born Titilola Loretta Omotayo, but now popularly called Lola Okoye, is the wife of music star Peter Okoye, member of the famed but now disbanded the twin-brother group, P Square. The former Business Development Director at a marketing communications firm called FKG2, met the star at a concert organized by her firm for a client, British American Tobacco. They dated for seven odd years and said their wedding vows in 2013. The mother of two is said to have given birth to her children after her mid-thirties.
Lola is presently the Executive Director at Silco Drilling and Completion Services, an oil & gas firm.
Iman
Next up is the Somalian supermodel Iman whose real name is Zara Mohamed Abdulmajid. Iman is a fashion model, actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist. She was married to the late English rock star, David Bowie. Since her first modelling assignment with popular fashion magazine, Vogue, she has gone on to grace the covers of other top-selling fashion magazines, working as a muse and model for famous photographers and designers like Gianni Versace, Issey Miyake, Calvin Klein, Yves Saint-Laurent and Donna Karan.
In 1994, she started her own cosmetics firm, Iman Cosmetics which focused on make-up colour shades that were hard to find and by 2010, the company was raking in $25 million US dollars. She has appeared in a couple of movies and hosted some fashion TV shows. She also received the Fashion Icon Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Before then though, in 2000 when she was 45 years old, Iman had her second child and daughter Alexandria Zahra Jones, from her third marriage to David Bowie. She is still very active in charity and philanthropic works with impacts in India, Africa and the United States.
Linda Ikeji
We all know the trailblazing blogger, don’t we? She’s envied by many and loved by most. The multibillionaire blogger who has now added a TV station to her media empire had to grind the streets of Lagos to get to where she is now. She started the blog in 2006 after she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English Language. Back then, the internet was still gaining grounds. Fast forward by say, six years and so impressive is her success that Forbes includes her name among Africa’s twenty most prominent women. Two years later in 2014, Linda Ikeji was the most searched for name in Nigeria by Google users.
In 2016, she set up Linda Ikeji TV along with an online radio station. Though still single, Linda gave birth to her first and only child -so far- in 2018 at the age of 37. Apparently, her baby’s daddy and herself had/have some irreconcilable differences so they never got around to signing the dotted line or solemnizing the union. Tut tut!
Mariah Carey
She’s recognized for her vocal range and skills and called Songbird Supreme by the Guinness World Records. Her EP album made its mark on the industry when it stayed on top of the US Billboard Top 200 chart for 11 consecutive weeks. Billboard named her the most successful artist throughout the 90s while World Music Award placed her as the world’s best selling artist in the same period. In 2000, she signed a $100 million contract with Virgin Records and in 2008 had the highest number of singles from a solo artist to reach No 1.
In 2011, the outstanding artist gave birth to unidentical twins Moroccan and Monroe, with her second husband, actor Nick Canon when she was 42 years old. She’s still looking hot, I must say.
Celine Dion
Celine Claudette Marie Dion is an award-winning, successful Canadian singer who has melted one too many hearts with her sweet and silky voice. She started her music career in the 80s with a couple of albums sung in her native language, French. She broke into the international scene when she won the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in 1982 and then the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988 where she represented Switzerland.
After learning English, she broke into the American music industry and has made her presence felt with a couple of commercially successful albums in French and English languages. Her French album D’eaux released in 1995 became the bestselling French album of all time while her concert residency tagged, A New Day held in the Las Vegas Strip between 2003 and 2007 remains the highest grossing concert residency ever.
In 1994, the Canadian singer got married to René Angélil, her manager and executive producer from the start who mortgaged his house to fund her first recording. In 2009 Celine went through a series of fertility treatments and in 2010 at the age of 42 she gave birth to a set of twin boys.
The trend of giving birth at an “older” age is gradually increasing. Although it may be more difficult to get pregnant as women advance in age, research results are showing that older moms tend to live longer than women who had their kids at a younger age. The claim hasn’t been proven beyond doubt but the evidence is there.
Older Motherhood has come to stay and if you happen to be one, we will be glad to have you in our community.
@momat4ty
