Elizabeth Banks Reveals She Went Through Nearly 10 Rounds of IVF Before Welcoming Her Sons
Elizabeth Banks Reveals She Went Through Nearly 10 Rounds of IVF Before Welcoming Her Sons
Kayla GrantWed, April 15, 2026 at 4:50 PM UTC
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Elizabeth Banks with her kids.Credit: Elizabeth Banks/instagram -
Elizabeth Banks opened up about her journey to motherhood
The Miniature Wife star revealed she underwent nine IVF procedures to welcome her two sons during the latest episode of the Modern Love podcast
Banks shares her two sons with husband Max Handelman
Elizabeth Banks is opening up about her journey to motherhood.
During the latest episode of the Modern Love podcast, The Miniature Wife actress, 52, spoke about the path that led her to welcome her sons Magnus, 13 and Felix, 15, through surrogacy. Banks, who shares her sons with husband Max Handelman, revealed the moment she realized something might not be "totally right."
"My husband and I had to use gestational surrogacy to have our kids, which basically means we make a baby cake and then we bake it in another woman's oven," she explained. "I've never been pregnant, which is funny because when we were having trouble getting pregnant, the very first thing that the fertility doctor asked me was, 'Have you ever been pregnant?' And I thought '[what] a weird question.'"
"And he said, ... 'when did you start having sex?' " she continued. "And I was like 15 or something. I was 16. And he's like, 'Well, so in the 20 years you've been having sex, like you never had a scare?' And you're like, right, wow. Yeah. Like, women get pregnant when they have sex for 20 years pretty consistently. And so, it was my first wake-up call of like, yeah, maybe something's not totally right here."
Max Handelman with kids Magnus and Felix.Credit: Elizabeth Banks/Instagram
She went on to share that she went through nine in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures as part of her surrogacy journey."And he told me in that very first meeting, he was like, 'I think surrogacy is gonna be for you,' but we can go through IVF and do all the things. And we did. I did," she said. "We undertook nine procedures to have our two sons."
Although the Pitch Perfect star keeps her children out of the spotlight and does not share photos of their faces on social media, she does talk about them during interviews and shares small tidbits of her life as a mom. Speaking with PEOPLE at the premiere of her television series The Better Sister, the actress was asked if she'd ever want her two sons to play her kids in a movie.
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"If my kids decide to get into acting, which they have currently no interest in, then I would be thrilled to ever do anything with them if they would deign to hang out with me," said Banks. "It's unlikely. In fact, it would have to be a paying job for them to actually want to hang out with me."
Max Handleman with kids Magnus and Felix.Credit: Elizabeth Banks/Instagram
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Although her sons might not be interested in acting yet, there's another way Banks bonds with her kids. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly about her movie Skincare, the actress shared that while making the movie, she learned how to do facials from a variety of different experts and has even applied that knowledge to her son, Magnus.
"He'll come to me and probably, I would say once a month, just be like, 'Mommy, can I have a facial tonight before bed?' And it becomes our bedtime routine, and I'm really loving having that experience with him," Banks said.
"For sure, giving facials to my kid is the number one thing I'm taking away from the film," she joked.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
