Mike Huckabee Slams Natalie Portman's Out-of-Wedlock Pregnancy

Celebrity Moms March 3, 2011 AT 6:53PM
Mike Huckabee Slams Natalie Portman's Out-of-Wedlock Pregnancy Credit: Alex Wong/Getty; Lester Cohen/WireImage

She won over the Academy, but Natalie Portman doesn't have a fan in presidential prospect Mike Huckabee.

The former Arkansas governor and Fox News Channel host attacked the best actress winner, 29, who's currently expecting her first child with fiance Benjamin Millepied.

PHOTOS: Natalie and other pregnant stars at the Oscars

"People see a Natalie Portman who boasts, 'We're not married but we're having these children and they're doing just fine," Huckabee told radio host Michael Medved on his show Monday. "I think it gives a distorted image. It's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out-of- wedlock children."

VIDEO: Oscars best and worst looks

Calling Portman's pregnancy "troubling," Huckabee went on to say that many single parents don't have the resources to hire help, the way someone like the Black Swan star would.

PHOTOS: How Natalie and other stars celebrated after the Academy Awards

"Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care," he said. "And that's the story that we're not seeing."

PHOTOS: Catch up on Natalie's dating history

In her acceptance speech Sunday night, Portman thanked Millepied, saying he gave her "the most important role" in her life.

Medved quipped back that Millepied "didn't give her the most wonderful gift, which would be a wedding ring!"

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  • March 10, 2011 - 8:48am Liz Villasenor

    I rarely agree with Huckabee, seeing that I'm a "godless liberal." But in this case I've got to. Single parenthood is a huge contributor to childhood poverty. This isn't a slam against women or my defense of "traditional marriage." But single motherhood isn't glamorous when you're having to decide between food and the electric bill. The answer is access to birth control across the board. We should be giving rubbers, birth control pills, and Norplant shots out like candy, all day long, every day. Srsly, we need to stop making parenthood a punishment and start thinking of it as a goal you work toward when you are ready.

  • March 09, 2011 - 7:48am Chris Palmer

    Huckabee, do you know what will stem the tide of single mothers? No, it's not marriage, it's comprehensive sex education. You know, that thing that Republicans fought so valiantly to keep out of schools?

  • March 09, 2011 - 1:16am Laura St. Peter

    @Jane Johnson: Nothing is ironclad, and you are naive if you think so. One parent ups and leaves and never pays child support, or dies, or people lose their jobs, or their are layoffs. And there would be less teen moms if parents did their jobs in teaching their children, and if there was more to sex ed other than "It's bad! Don't do it!"

  • March 08, 2011 - 9:31am Jane Johnson

    I agree with Huckabee. He isn't slamming moms who get divorced or cheated on. He's slamming moms who purposely get pregnant with no ironclad legal agreement that keeps the dad from straying. He is 100% right. The rest of us end up paying for all these "Teen Moms" kids. Turn on Maury some day. The state of this country is pathetic.

  • March 07, 2011 - 8:31pm Jenelle DeRita Simeoni

    So much wrong with this. I guess I would ask Mike Huckabee, since when does getting married save you from poverty? Is there some kind of magical marriage=secure life formula I haven't heard of? Many single parents didn't start that way.

  • March 07, 2011 - 2:55pm Laura St. Peter

    @Jay Ken - It's not refusal, it's lack of knowledge of birth control. Not only that, but your tax payer dollars? Yeah, they don't pay for my birth control, I do. @Bradley BRanch - Maybe parents should be doing something to teach these 14 year olds. Whatever happened to parents teaching their children?

  • March 07, 2011 - 1:58pm Heaven Cheuvront

    This is insulting, to all women and not just single mothers!

  • March 06, 2011 - 5:26pm Ronald Bruce Robinson

    Check out my answer to Huckabee in the article I published on Open Salon: "Chris Matthews Slams Huckabee's Racist Rants Against Obama" by Ron Robinson

  • March 06, 2011 - 5:16pm Rudy Davidge

    And in a single bigoted interview, Huckabee succeeds in trashing any hopes he had of a successful 2012 presidential bid. Kudoes to Medved though, for blind-siding an idiot into revealing his idiocy. But Michael, if I were you, I'd leave town. Huckabee's "enforcer" is Chuck Norris, in case you didn't get the memo.

  • March 05, 2011 - 7:42pm Rose Sabia

    I am so thrilled someone feels as I do. All these stars running around saying that they are engaged and expecting babies. what does this say to our young girls of today. What is the name of that other new show. Pregnant at 16. Need I say more?

  • March 05, 2011 - 6:58pm Karla Craig Dishon

    I'm sure he is thinking about all the celebrities that are doing this but Natalie is a boaster (anyone can see that). It's Natalie, Bristol, Angie, Kardashian girl, Hudson and more. These people have money and when they get tired of the kids and they do, they hire a nanny. A poor girl or women for that fact can't and she is lucky to find a job right now, and is HUD/WIC and food stamps paid for by yours truly (you and I). If they want to keep the baby they should sign a doc. saying that their will be no assistance for them after the baby is born, only assistance for the baby (food and med. assistance). If they don't have $$ help they will stop doing this Dahhhhhhhhh stuff. I'm just sayin.

  • March 05, 2011 - 5:20pm Gastric Distress

    Go back to sleep, Huckabuck. I'm sure someone will wake you in time for the primaries.

  • March 05, 2011 - 11:51am Tricia Didier Norene

    I think this was a back handed slam on Bristol and her mother who may be running against him in 012.. in any case no man has the right to dis- respect women in this way and I call it verbal abuse....

  • March 05, 2011 - 10:35am Christine Tyler

    Natalie is a talking point soundbite but Bristol isn't? He needs to focus on Bristol. People like her brought about shows like Teen Mom which DOES glamorize motherhood like that. Those girls are getting PAID to do that reality show. They "show" them struggling yet they're making bank because ALL reality stars get paid to be on TV. Duh. Hush Huckabee.

  • March 05, 2011 - 10:27am Mark Olmsted

    Clearly, Huckabee thinks a single, poor mother who get's accidentally pregnant should have an abortion if the baby's father will not marry her. Nice to have you on the side of pro-choice, Mike.

  • March 05, 2011 - 3:39am Mindi Lazear-Gibson

    HMMMMM so when ya gonna comment about Sarah Palins 18 year old butt getting preggo??????

  • March 05, 2011 - 12:23am Kimberly Paric

    Mike Huckabee is a piece of garbage. Why anyone listens to his holier-than-thou rants is beyond me. God forbid anyone doesn't believe the same way he does... A$$!

  • March 04, 2011 - 8:18pm Shorty Stuff

    It's too bad that people today are brought to have no respect or morals. Their entitlement mentality are going to destroy this great country. But it is their own future they are destroying. You know what they say about making your own bed.

  • March 04, 2011 - 6:57pm Jessica B. Burstrem

    Jay Ken, I wish taxpayer dollars did support birth control, but it's being classed as abortion by hypocrites like Huckabee these days. Maybe there would be fewer abortions and births to poor/under-educated/unemployed/young/otherwise unprepared parents if there was more public support for birth control, both social and financial. And did it occur to anyone that the reason that single moms are often under-educated/under-employed/poor might in fact have nothing to do with them and rather be due to the fact that our education/employment/even social welfare system in this country is not at all family-friendly? It's not just single parents who are poorer than the rest of us -- it's parents in general.

  • March 04, 2011 - 6:50pm Aquila Rogers

    On what planet are most single mom's jobless, uneducated and on welfare? so because Natalie is rich, then it isn't real? Now I don't agree with having children outside of marriage, but to make that assumption that the majority of women are on welfare, stupid, and the like is absolutely asinine!!! My sister in law, has had a job all of her adult life and raised two kids while NOT ON WELFARE! Sorry, but that statement just rubbed me the wrong way? How would he know? Has he been on welfare? UGHHHHH!!!!!!!

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