Actress Kellee Stewart, known for her work in films like Guess Who and Soul Man, as well as series like Ava DuVernay’s Cherish the Day and the ever-popular All American, is expecting her first child. News that a celebrity is pregnant isn’t often a big surprise, but Stewart, nearing 50, has been on a journey that has made her baby news something everyone is ecstatic about.
“I feel fantastic,” she says, voice beaming through the phone. “To be pregnant at this beautiful age definitely can be something that one may worry about. But I’ve done all the necessary tests to make sure I was safe to carry. And I tell you, I have more energy just knowing this baby is on board than I’ve ever had before. I feel great.”
And despite having the title of a “geriatric pregnancy,” she won’t even think of using that term. Stewart is part of a growing number of women who are entering motherhood later in life, including in their 40s, allowing them to be better prepared for parenthood compared to mothers who may conceive earlier, including in their 20s and even as thirty-somethings.
“I feel so honored because there’s so much wisdom that I know now in life that I didn’t have before,” she says. “Every woman that I have spoken to in my peer group that has also mothered a child at a time where society would call it later in life, has always talked about the benefits of having lived long enough to gain the wisdom and the maturity emotionally, financially, and otherwise to pour into their child in a way that you just can’t do at a young age. That’s not to say being a young mother is not also a blissful, successful thing, but it is to highlight what benefits come with taking a little bit of time before you dedicate your life to raising a child.”
Some of those insightful peers were on hand as Stewart and Evite celebrated her baby shower, including her “sister” Niecy Nash-Betts, who co-hosted, along with actor Nico Annan, who plays Uncle Clifford on P-Valley, and will be the godfather. There was also actress Yvonne Orji, comedian Affion Crockett, actresses Rochelle Aytes and Edwina Finley, comedienne Gabrielle Dennis, All American reator Nkechi Carroll, singer Major,” and more. And “dear friend” Sherri Shepherd was on hand to not just celebrate, but to also pray for the baby, as she’d been doing long before Stewart had a little one in her womb.
“The times that I was fearful, or doubtful, or didn’t know if it was going to work out, Sherri would read through all my text messages and give me a call and say, ‘Uh-uh, I hear fear in your voice.’ And so, she would pray over me. So it was only fitting that she’d be at the shower praying over the baby’s womb.” There were more than 100 people who gathered in LA last week at Evite’s headquarters for the event. Organized by William P. Miller of WP Miller Special Events, Inc., a who’s who of Hollywood stars who make up the village in which Stewart will raise her daughter were present.
For those unfamiliar with Stewart’s journey, she has been an advocate for egg freezing after watching a seven-year relationship she hoped would lead to a happily ever after rapidly reduce her window to have a child. “I gave my best baby-making years away to the wrong man,” she says. By the time that connection concluded, she was 37, and she was clear that she had no more time to waste. “We broke up on a Sunday. And on a Wednesday, the following Wednesday, I was in the fertility clinic learning about my chances to preserve my potential fertility.”
With the support of her mother, Stewart froze her eggs. She would go on to hold out hope for Mr. Right’s arrival, which she said she waited “many years for.” In the midst of that, she found herself a part of a growing community of people on their own fertility journey, many with experiences with infertility, and her focus became on spreading the word to help other women better protect their chances to have a child, honoring their journeys in a new way.
“I discovered how isolating and lonely it can be when you are in the wait. And I wanted to change that narrative,” she says.
She started getting the word out about the idea of throwing an egg shower, a celebration of a woman’s decision to freeze her eggs, which she shared on Shepherd’s talk show, in The New York Times, and more. “I wanted to amplify the journey and not just the destination. And when I mentioned the idea of throwing an egg shower to help supplement the cost of freezing your eggs or an IVF shower to help celebrate the journey while you’re waiting for your baby to come, Evite saw that clip and they reached out to me via Twitter at the time. And from that moment, we had a phone call. And Olivia Pollock, and Karen Graham, David Yeom, and the entire team at Evite instantly, and I can’t stress that enough, instantly, said yes to creating a space for the millions of people that are on a pathway to parenthood.”
“They allowed us to not be in a baby shower category, but to have our own category called Parenthood Journey to be seen, to be heard, to be validated, and to be celebrated while we’re in the season of creating our family,” she adds.
After pouring into that work, Stewart decided to go forward with IVF to bring her family to fruition in March of 2024, following a health crisis faced by her mother. “It was now or never. My mom, as I mentioned earlier, froze my eggs with me. So, the full circle moment would be to try to conceive and carry now. As she was going through her treatment plan, I was going through all the tests to see if I could carry. And as she was finishing, I’m blessed to say that she was at that shower, dancing and celebrating.”
To make this journey all the more divinely timed, Stewart discovered that not only is she having a girl, but the baby’s due date coincides with her mother’s birthday. “It feels purpose-led. Now that I’m here carrying a girl child, my advocacy continues just by her presence in the womb. She had to be a girl. It made all the sense that she’s a girl because I walked a pathway that was paved by my mother, her mother, and all the ancestors before.”
For Stewart, she is doing something that her those women couldn’t: choosing when to enter into parenthood. “Assisted reproduction now gives us the chance to expand our options and our pathways to parenthood.” She’s also highlighting the importance of other Black women weighing their options sooner rather than later. We are more likely, three times she says, to deal with endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS, adenomyosis, and other conditions that can impact our fertility health. She educates people about the insurance companies, like Progeny Insurance who helped bring about the baby shower, and others that can help finance egg freezing, as well as the efforts our employers need to make to support egg-freezing journeys. She also speaks of the prevalence of male factor infertility in our community, the importance of having the right people in your corner to “speak into your future and not into your problem,” and the necessity of getting your fertility checked, no matter when you think you’ll be ready to have a child.
Now that she’s ready for her own next chapter, Stewart looks forward to watching her mom with her child, to continuing her advocacy work, telling the important stories through her show Warrior Wednesdays that centers Black infertility, and partnering with Evite to continue creating more ways to honor “the diverse pathways” that lead to a bundle of joy. As for nerves about parenting for the first time, there aren’t really any as she goes on this journey. Her tribe won’t allow it.
“Everyone there at that shower made a pledge to be the village for the baby,” Stewart says. “So, I have maybe some of the regular work of wondering, what’s the delivery going to be like? Will my daughter admire the work that I’ve done? Am I going to tell her the right thing? But all in all, those fears are quelled by the amazing village I share this child with already.”