Carey Mulligan: ‘I have a crippling fear that I’ll die and leave my children behind’

Questions of mortality: Carey Mulligan is scared about dying
Richard Phibbs/Harper’s Bazaar UK
Alistair Foster29 November 2017
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Carey Mulligan says fear of her own mortality has “crippled” her at times since becoming a mother.

The actress has a two-year-old daughter, Evelyn Grace, and gave birth to her second child in August.

She opened up about parenthood in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, describing how it had given her a different perspective on life.

Mulligan, 32, who is married to musician Marcus Mumford, said of her fears since having children: “[I’ll] have a huge mortality crisis and get terribly upset that one day [I’ll have to] leave my children behind.

"That has crippled me a couple of times since I’ve had kids: the notion that one day they’ll have to be without me.”

The star had her big break in 2009, when she won a Bafta for An Education. She has since starred in The Great Gatsby, Suffragette and most recently Mudbound, about racism in Mississippi.

Read the full interview interview in this month's Harper's Bazaar
Richard Phibbs/Harper’s Bazaar UK

She said having children had given her a new perspective, telling the magazine: “It doesn’t matter if your dress looks bad or if you can see the outline of your Spanx … it’s just such small potatoes, you know?”

That attitude helped when her breastmilk leaked on to her couture dress at a fashion event.

“Back in the day, I would have been in the bathroom in tears,” she said. “I would have been trying to leave. But it was just kind of funny. It was so ridiculous. I thought, ‘If I’ve got breastmilk coming out of my dress, then that just shows what it’s like to be a working mother in the 21st century. Whatever.’”

Read the full interview in the January issue of Harper’s Bazaar, on sale on Friday

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT