Just Jenney

Has anyone ever noticed the number of celebrity couples in recent years who have children and then eventually get married??

There are celebrity couples who have been together forever, have publicly admitted to having no plans to marry and have children together. Susan Sarandon/Tim Robbins and Goldie Hawn/Kurt Russell come to mind. But these are not the celebrity couples I'm referring to.

I'm referring to celebrity couples who, in my opinion, got it backwards. Either they had their babies and then eventually married, became pregnant and then married before the child was born, or are currently pregnant and are engaged to be married. For instance...

Madonna and Guy Ritchie
Victoria and David Beckham
Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli
Sean Penn and Robin Wright
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin
Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams
Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner

And those are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head!

Am I completely out of touch with how things are done these days? It just always seemed to me that people capable of earning millions of dollars would be aware of birth control methods that actually WORK. I have a difficult time believing that so many famous people are getting pregnant "accidentally".

Is it a Hollywood thing to get pregnant and then put off marriage until "whenever"? Is it because they have more financial security that they don't see the need to be married before having children? Or is this the societal norm now and I just haven't a clue??

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not really an old-fashioned thinker. I'm fairly open-minded about things. But this just seems strange to me.

~ Jenney

paddingtongreen

I wonder if they have pre-non-nup agreements.

cutina

call it fashion....

Kate2112

I think they are just reflecting the trend in society today,to have children with or without marriage.

Personally I dont give a damn whether people have children and marry or not. As long as they stay together, bring up their children to be decent human beings it makes not a whit of difference. People have the choice to marry and many choose not to. Thats freedom of choice. Children are no longer labelled as bastards because they were born out of wedlock and that is a very welcome change. The superiority that some still feel in judging other peoples life arrangements is changing and hopefully it will only be the blinkered idealists who believe this is the right and only way...imo

Joey-SO

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bastard

It is society, any conservatives?

Celsius

No, not noticed and don't care. On the other hand, I do love a Hollywood style marriage breakup. Unfortunately, in those circumstances, the only winners are the divorce attorneys!

cutina

i agree, but she's saying that they DO get married afterwards on that list (or attempt to) so they obviously DO believe in it, unlike the others mentioned like Tim Robbins etc. who have it as a life choice.

Jerseygirl

If they get married they'll probably be divorced within the year.

Just Jenney

I just get the impression that many of these couples are already engaged when they get pregnant, which makes me wonder why they don't simply wait until after their wedding to start a family?

Take Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, for example. They met, got engaged two months later, and a couple of months after that became pregnant. If they had already planning on getting married, then why get pregnant so soon? What's the rush? Why not just wait until they're married -- which they were going to do anyway -- and THEN start a family?

Then you have the enigma couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. He's already adopted her two children, they've changed the children's names to Jolie-Pitt, and she is currently pregnant with his child -- but for some reason they won't even admit that they're in a relationship together! What's THAT about!??

The only logical explanation for this is that their birth control failed. Which is what I find so interesting, because if that's the case then it's happening to A LOT of celebrities!

~ Jenney

Just Jenney

Thanks, you've explained what I'm trying to say better than I have, I think!

~ Jenney

Kate2112

Some do, some don't. Goldie and Kurt haven't married either and have no plans to and that has been a choice rather than not being able to marry.

cutina

er... i don't think we're really disagreeing here

like i said and jenney said

i think my guy and i have decided not to marry (unless we move to italy for legal reasons), but we'll have kids.

but the ones who get pregant and then marry?

Just Jenney

... or the ones who get engaged, then get pregnant, THEN get married?

~ Jenney

cutina

... in a rush! i think it's for attention.

Kate2112

As I said before I dont think celebs are on their own in this. Many people these days have children, get engaged and then get married. Or some do/all or none of these things. Some have their children as pages/bridesmaids, which horrifies my mothers generation Celebs are in the public eye and their behaviour is perhaps more noticeable, depending on how interested you are in their goings on. Mostly I dont notice as they dont really do anything that unusual...just me or interest worthy