Denigrating traditional family roles is so popular in Hollywood that any praise for them is both shocking and refreshing by comparison. During Sunday’s Academy Awards, motherhood received some overdue applause. Jessie Buckley, an Irish actress, won for her role in the critically acclaimed movie Hamnet. She played Anne Hathaway, William Shakespeare’s wife. The story revolves around the couple and how they deal with the loss of their 11-year-old son.
During her acceptance speech for Best Actress, Buckley praised motherhood and all its intricacies. Buckley is a new mom to her little girl, 8-month-old Isla. In her speech, she mentioned her daughter and also acknowledged her husband, saying, “Fred, I love you, man. I love you; you’re the most incredible dad. You’re my best friend, and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you, I do. I do!” She also thanked the movie’s female screenwriters: “To get to know this incandescent woman and journey to understand the capacity of a mother’s love is the greatest collision of my life.” The end of her brief speech was beautiful: “It’s Mother’s Day in the U.K. today, so I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.”
I dare say, any mother who listened to or has read Buckley’s words can fully relate to the lovely phrase “the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.” The words somehow perfectly encapsulate what goes on inside each of us as we carry, raise, and love our children.
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Preparing for parenthood is one thing. But experiencing it firsthand is another thing entirely. We can understand the practicalities, but going through them in real time gives our existence a whole new meaning. As our time becomes dominated by a new, little life, our hearts expand in indescribable ways. We experience love in a breathtakingly selfless form. Parenthood requires that we focus on someone else. Through that process, we are transformed.
In a CBS interview in November 2025, Buckley said that motherhood “wakes you up to life. It’s a new thing. She’s a new thing. I’m a new thing. Your perspective of the world is a new thing. Your relationship is new. Everything’s new, and you get reminded of how fragile and strong life is, and it just makes me want to live.” Contrast this sharply with actress Michelle Williams. In January 2020, at the Golden Globe Awards, Williams accepted an award for Best Actress and used the moment to praise abortion. She said, “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without employing a woman’s right to choose. To choose when to have my children, and with whom. I am grateful to live in a moment in our society where choice exists, because as girls and women, things can happen to our bodies that are not our choice.”
Buckley’s speech was ebullient and joyful. As she held that coveted golden statue, you could still sense that her greatest accomplishment was being a wife and mother. In comparison, Williams gave off the impression that career success mattered more than the child (or children) she chose to abort. Buckley’s joy was evident and full. Williams’s speech was empty. And while the media seem to have enjoyed Buckley’s display of love, most of them were also complimentary toward Williams in her speech praising abortion.
Motherhood is tiring and also beautiful. It is chaotic and a delight. As Elizabeth Stone said, having a child “is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” By every conceivable measure, motherhood is the role of a lifetime.
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I’m under no illusion that Hollywood and the media that support it will suddenly become overwhelmingly pro-natalist in nature. The majority opinion of the entertainment elite is still that of Williams. It’s one that seems to prize motherhood only when it’s convenient and assumes women need abortions to thrive.
I am not very familiar with Buckley, but I’m happy for her. She is at the top of her game in terms of her career. It doesn’t get bigger than an Oscar. But it’s quite clear that her greatest success lies in being a wife to a man she desperately loves and a mother to her infant daughter. Her priorities are in order. That lesson is needed not only in Hollywood but in society at large.