Celebrities: Baby Carriage Before Marriage?
Jan. 14, 2006 — -- From Brangelina to Tomkat, celebrity couples are shirking tradition and getting pregnant before getting married.
"Everyone in the world is talking about this," said Rachel Biermann, news editor of In Touch Weekly. "This Angie [Jolie] and Brad Pitt collaboration is going to be the most highly anticipated baby of 2006. Everybody's so excited. You're wondering: These are the two sexiest people on Earth, what is this child going to look like?"
In addition to Brangelina, as the union of Pitt and Jolie has been dubbed, and Tomkat, shorthand for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, a growing list of Hollywood couples have changed the rules of engagement. A wedding is no longer required before a couple becomes parents.
"Brokeback Mountain" star Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams welcomed their first child, Matilda, last fall.
Now, Mark Wahlberg and his girlfriend are expecting their second child. Beirmann said that celebrities are not very concerned with adhering to social norms.
"I think it's the most logical approach for these women," she said. "They're a certain type. The have strong careers. They don't need their husband's money to support them. They are very independent and strong and they can do it on their own."
Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn helped blaze the way for Hollywood actresses to have children out of wedlock and pushed unmarried motherhood into the mainstream.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin; Heidi Klum and Seal; and Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck all got married after the pregnancy, but the practice of skipping the church and going straight to the delivery room is gaining acceptance.
In an ABC News poll, more than half of all Americans said having a baby out of wedlock is morally acceptable.
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