‘It is just sinking in’

Radhika Apte reveals how her pregnancy journey has been so far

On October 16, actress Radhika Apte appeared at the BFI London Film Festival flaunting her baby bump. While other celebs often choose creative Instagram posts to announce their pregnancy, Radhika decided to walk the red carpet. “I thought maybe they wouldn’t notice the bump, but it was too big,” Radhika quips. She adds, “If there were no premier, you would probably have never known. I was never going to post saying, ‘Oh, I’m pregnant’. I was never going to post saying, ‘Oh, we had a child’. It’s private.”

Radhika sits down to chat with us from London over a Zoom call and is candid to admit the challenges of pregnancy. Ask her how pregnancy is treating her, and she replies, “Not very good, actually. I haven’t slept for five nights. The third-trimester insomnia has kicked in, and I just don’t get any sleep, so it’s been quite bad.”

‘Never planned kids’

Talking about her pregnancy journey so far, the Sacred Games actress shares, “I never had any plans to have children. So, this has been quite a twist and quite a big turning point. It was a lot to process. I never really intended to or wanted children. (So) I also never looked into what pregnancy means or what happens when you’re pregnant. What are the changes that the body goes through? There’s so much sacredness attached to pregnancy that nobody tells you the truth because pregnancy is very hard. Pregnancy is not fun. Some people have a better pregnancy; for some, it’s easier than other people.

But it’s a very subjective case. Pregnancy is very hard, and bodies constantly go through very big changes. So, it’s been a hard journey. I do not wish to lie about it. It’s been very hard to prepare yourself psychologically and physically for what is coming, especially if you’re a very active person.” She adds, “The first trimester I was having such a hard time. I had terrible bloating. I was terribly constipated. I had nausea. I was filming at 40 degrees for three months straight. I was having a meltdown all the time. And people were telling me you need to be happy because you’re having a child. I wanted to punch them.”

The Andhadhun actress admits she and her London-based, musician husband Benedict Taylor “didn’t really want to have children”. “We were shocked and in denial till about two weeks ago. We don’t even know how to dress a baby. Finally, it’s sinking in now.”