Elizabeth Banks revealed she underwent almost ten rounds of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) before welcoming her sons, Felix, 15, and Magnus, 13, with husband Max Handelman, through surrogacy.
The actress recalled on Wednesday’s episode of the “Modern Love” podcast that her doctor suggested surrogacy right off the bat, but said they could also “go through IVF and do all the things.”
“And we did. I did,” Banks, 52, recounted. “We undertook nine procedures to have our two sons.”
However, the “Miniature Wife” star ended up going a different route in the end.
“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,” Banks explained.
The “Hunger Games” actress shared that she has never been pregnant — which might have been a telltale sign from the start.
“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,’” Banks continued.
The “30 Rock” alum added that while she started having sex at 15 she had never “had a scare.”
“Women get pregnant when they have sex for 20 years pretty consistently,” she mused. “And so, it was my first wake-up call of like, yeah, maybe something’s not totally right here.”
In 2011, Banks opened up about her fertility struggles while announcing Felix’s birth in a blog post on her website.
“The one true hurdle I’ve faced in life is that I have a broken belly,” the “Pitch Perfect” star penned. “After years of trying to get pregnant, exploring the range of fertility treatments, all unsuccessful, our journey led us to gestational surrogacy.”
Banks called her now-teenager a “miracle” baby — which is where his moniker comes from.
“Felix means ‘happy’ and ‘lucky’ in Latin,” she gushed. “And true to his name, Felix is a very happy baby and a blessing on our life.”
Just a year later, Banks took to her blog for a second time to welcome Magnus into the world.
“I have much for which to be thankful – personal, professional, and Presidential,” she wrote. “However, nothing can match the joy and excitement my husband and I felt when we recently welcomed our second baby boy.”
In the years since, Banks — who tied the knot with Handelman, 52, in 2003 — has largely kept her kids out of the spotlight.
In 2023, the Emmy nominee opened up about navigating motherhood and her on-screen career.
“I’m not sure that balance is, there’s no balance achievable,” Banks told People at the time. “For me, what I’ve come to is letting go of guilt. It’s societal. But you let go of it. And I trust my husband. My husband — just being like, ‘You got it.’”
