Another Reason I Love This Woman

Thompson: 'Motherhood Outweighs Acting Success'
4 October 2008 7:24 AM, PDT

British actress Emma Thompson regards "giving birth without painkillers" as her biggest accomplishment in life, despite scooping two Oscars for her film work.

The Love Actually star, 49, went through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment to have her only daughter Gaia, nine, with actor husband Greg Wise.

And she admits that she is more proud of going into labour without the need for drugs than she is about her career success.

She tells Britain's Easy Living magazine that her happiest moment was "just after giving birth without painkillers".

However, she confesses to harbouring an unfulfilled ambition - to expand her family.

When asked what her biggest regret was, she told the publication: "Not having been able to have more children."

Thompson turned to adoption in 2003 when she informally took in then 16-year-old Rwandan refugee Tindyebwa Agaba, who she refers to as "my son".



I know a lot of women who have done just what she has done (myself included-except the adopting a Rwandan refugee--it's on my to-do list)and don't get a write up in a magazine, but she's always been on my cool people list (I have a lot of lists)and now she can stay there.

Did I ever tell you about the time in college when my rommies and I invented the "Every Woman Club?" (Y'know, like "I'm every woman, it's all in me!")We did and on the wave of her receiving an Academy Award in screenwriting for Sense and Sensibility, I wrote a letter to Emma Thompson (C/o her management firm) asking her to be the Patron Saint of our club. I'm sure if she new me, she would have understood the tone of the letter and would have realized that I wasn't just some psycho fan asking for a handout. Yes, were she to really know me, we would be best friends and the response from her manager would have been different. I'm sure of it!