Julia Stiles secretly welcomed baby No. 3 with husband Preston Cook.
“I’m kind of like a bundle of emotions, because I have a 5-month-old baby and I went into directing my first movie,” Stiles, 43, shared in a profile for The New York Times, published on Wednesday, April 3.
Stiles dropped the baby bombshell while reflecting on her iconic role as Kat Stratford in 10 Things I Hate About You, 25 years after the movie premiered.
“I didn’t really talk about it,” Stiles said of her third pregnancy, not revealing the newborn’s sex. (She and Cook are already parents to sons Strummer, 6, and Arlo, 2.)
“I think that actually being a mom is really great training for being a director,” the actress continued, referring to her behind-the-camera role for Wish You Were Here, which doesn’t have a release date just yet. “You have to think 10 steps ahead but also be in the present moment. You have to be good at time management. You have to be sensitive to people’s needs and guide them, but also hold a boundary.”
Stiles is no stranger to keeping details of her private life under wraps. She and Cook kicked off their low-key romance in 2014 after meeting on the set of her film Blackway. By December 2015, the couple had gotten engaged.
“It was a total surprise,” Stiles said of the proposal during a July 2016 talk show appearance. “Mostly because I talked myself out of it.”
She recalled going on vacation with Cook’s family for the holidays and hoping that he had an engagement on the brain.
“We went on a trip to Colombia with his entire family over Christmas and New Year’s,” the actress shared. “So, because I’m a lady, I was like, ‘Do not ruin a perfectly good vacation by getting your hopes up. Just let it go. Be in the present moment.’”
However, Cook was unable to play it cool. “We had had a conversation waiting for an elevator one day, where he was randomly like, out of nowhere, ‘With jewelry, you don’t really wear silver or platinum. You’re more into gold,’” Stiles said. “And then I went, ‘What is up with this conversation?’”
The eventual proposal took place “on a tropical island.” As for the wedding, the couple shared their vows in September 2017.
Since they met on a movie set, it’s no surprise that Stiles and Cook have continued to work together over the years. He was a crew member of her show Riviera, which aired from 2017 to 2020.
“We were so lucky because you often don’t get to [work together], and if you’re away from each other it can be hard on your relationship,” Stiles said in a 2017 interview, admitting she “panicked” thinking they would be separated for months. “But they hired him because he has a great resume and they needed someone bilingual. It turned into the most romantic experience ever.”
