What's in the water? Twins also on the way for Marcia Cross!

Update: Our post has been made into a feature on TMZ.

US Weekly reports this week that there’s multiple mania going on in Hollywood! We’ve learned that even more stars who recently announced pregnancies are expecting not one, but two babies this spring!

Desperate Housewives star Marcia Cross, 44, made no bones about wanting children soon after her June wedding to Tom Mahoney. She recently announced that she was expecting a baby in April, but now we know she’s actually expecting two!

The actress underwent in-vitro fertilization to achieve the pregnancy, and has spoken in the past about the need for older women to be aware of challenges to their fertility, saying, "I don’t like the average woman being misled into thinking that fertility is something that goes on forever. When a woman gets older, they get a donor egg, which doesn’t make the baby any less beautiful or perfect. One’s own eggs only last so long, and sometimes at 43 or 44 you can have your own baby, but statistically it’s very difficult and expensive. You don’t want to wait that long.

Additionally, we just announced that Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey and his wife Jillian, are expecting twin boys, although a due date is not known. The TV doc and his wife already have a daughter, Tallulah Fyfe, who is 4 1/2.

These two are just the latest addition to our celebrities expecting multiples category – we’re also awaiting twin girls from P. Diddy and longtime girlfriend Kim, a set of boy/girl twins from Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels this fall, a pair of rock and roller twins from singer/songwriters Elvis Costello and Diana Krall in December, and one more set from Stroke’s guitarist Nick Valensi and his wife Amanda de Cadenet, supposedly due any time.

Comments

Oh my!!! Congrats to Marcia!!! I can’t believe how many twins are coming in HOllywood soon!! Congrats to all the expecting parents!!

- tink1217 on September 20th, 2006

Wow! Marcia works fast. She was married in June & must have had the invitro & donor eggs already lined up before the wedding.

She’s wanted to be a mom for a long time so I’m very happy for her.

Does anyone know what percentage of twins are conceived through fertility treatments these days?

- giadana on September 20th, 2006

Twins! That is very cool!! Congrats to them.

- Ana on September 20th, 2006

Ha ha! I was just saying last night (After hearing Patrick Dempsey’s news) that every pregnancy in Hollywood is going to turn out to be twins. It was just a joke, but maybe it’s true!

- Candice on September 20th, 2006

Wow that’s cool that she & her husband are having twins, though not a tremendous surprise given her age.

Her comments about donor eggs makes me wonder if she had to go through that option (which wouldn’t make the kids hers biologically, but she still gets to be pregnant) or not? I suppose only Marcia & her husband Tom know the truth themelves.

- Autumn on September 20th, 2006

Wow! That is quite a few twins. Congrats to all!!!

- anon on September 20th, 2006

that’s wonderful news for Marcia! love her!

yeah there are alot of twins being born – I too can have twins and when I was younger wanted them so bad but now that I am older and understand how hard it is to take care of kids and the expense I’d rather not have them.

- joy on September 20th, 2006

Many, if not most, IVF clinics will not use a woman’s own eggs after the age of 40 or 41, because they just aren’t viable. So, I think based on her comments about donor eggs that it’s an extremely likely scenario for her, and for the other celebrities that are pregnant in their mid-to-late 40′s and early 50′s.

I’m really happy for her & her husband, and I also think it’s been great she’s been so open about using IVF and donor eggs.

I wonder if any of the other couples listed are having IVF twins, based on their ages as well??

- Christina on September 20th, 2006

I am so glad that Marcia made those comments. When Geena Davis went on TV and said she’s so glad she waited until her 40′s to have kids but wouldn’t reveal whether it was easy or difficult to get pregnant, several women I know (we’re in our 40′s) said “well she did it, I can wait.” The reality is that it’s possible to get pregnant later but it can be tough, and it’s nice to have someone admit it rather than leading other women to believe that the “fertility goes down after 35″ story is a myth.

- Jessica Bird on September 20th, 2006

Again, if the season hasn’t finished for Desperate Housewives, how do you think they will approach her pregnancy in later episodes? Or, if they begin taping for the next season when she’s late in her pregnancy, do you think they will try to hide it from the camera? Will Bree have a kid on the show? How do you think they will approach this?

- J. on September 20th, 2006

Congrats to Marcia! I think there is a trend towards more twins/multiples in the general population as well. Obviously there is always an increased chance w/ IVF, but there seems to be an increase in twins among those conceiving naturally too. I’ve heard theories about it having to do w/ increased estrogens in what we eat/drink but haven’t seen an actual medical study that supports that. Got to be honest, I’m really glad I’m only having one right now! Two would be too much for me to handle at once!

Anyway, I think it was really proactive and smart of her to be all set to do IVF right after her wedding since she really wanted kids and was in her mid-40s. And props to her for being so upfront about using IVF. One more reason to like Marcia.

About Desperate Housewives, I heard they were working the pregnancy into the script…but who knows?

- Marigold on September 20th, 2006

Wow! I wonder if Marcia Cross used donor eggs? Not that it matters, I’m very happy for her! I’m not surprised she is pregnant as she did IVF, same with Melissa E. and Tammy Lynn, but I am curious about all the other ones — coincidence, or IVF? It seems there are lots of celeb twin babies, but few identical!

- Jessie on September 20th, 2006

Kudos to Marcia for being so candid about using ART to achieve pg.

Chances are she indeed used donor egg given her age, which is a wonderful option to grow one’s family.

Best to her and her expanding family!

- Principesa on September 20th, 2006

FYI, Patrick Dempsey is having twin boys, he announced on Regis & Kelly this morning

- Christine on September 20th, 2006

Whats a donor egg -will the babies have marcia’s DNA?

- Maddi on September 20th, 2006

Chances are that they are donor eggs.
Like a previous poster said, Most IVF clinics will not even attempt IVF after 41
or so because the chance of getting 1 or more embryos and a pregnancy is less than 5%.

Then you have the increased risk of miscarriage as well as chromosonal errors @ that age.
It does appear that most celebs that infact have twins are older moms.

I myself am a new mom of twin’s and did IVF.
It’s a LONG,hard,expensive route but well worth it. Congrats to all the fellow twin parents to be.

- Twinsmommy2006 on September 21st, 2006

A donor egg is someone else’s egg being used. So Marcia’s eggs may not have been used, instead she might have been implanted with another woman’s egg. So her babies will not be her’s genically but she will raise them (If this is the case – She may have concived naturally)

- Jane on September 21st, 2006

No they wont. A donor egg is an egg from a different woman that was inseminated with her husbands sperm and then (I don’t know the correct terms in english) put into Marcias body, so she is now pregnant, but not with her biological children. Though in my own personal opinion, being pregnant with and giving birth to those babies DOES make her the biological mother somehow, though the kids won’t have her genes.

- Anna on September 21st, 2006

Kudos to Marcia Cross! Thanks for the tip – you guys showed up on my little handy dandy news alert. I was able to post about this because of your blog. Thank you!

- Angela on September 21st, 2006

It’s so refreshing that a celebrity is this candid about fertility post 40 and the unlikelihood of achieving a live birth with your own eggs at this point. When famous women in their 40′s lead the public to believe that they easily achieved natural pregnancy or used their own eggs in IVF, many women in the general public are misled to believe this is simple or likely. But it’s no wonder Hollywood women are cagey about using donor eggs; can’t you just imagine the National Enquirer or the like trying to track down the donor down the line? Ugh. Or worse, referring the children as “donor egg children” much as many of the magazines offensively still say “so and so’s “adopted child…?” Everyone has a right to privacy but on the same hand, women need to know the truth about the finality of fertility. Famous women have the same biology issues as the rest of us!

- Beth on September 22nd, 2006

E! Hollywood just said that she is NOT pregnant with twins.

- Melanie on September 25th, 2006

Whether or not Marcia Cross used donor eggs, is her own business. She is not obligated to discuss her private medical issues with the public.

- Carol Lane on July 17th, 2007