When Hilary Swank announced to the world that she was pregnant with twins at 48 years old, some wondered what had made the actor wait so long to start a family.

While speaking to Extra, Swank confessed her life just wasn’t in the right place before this moment. The right moment, the right partner — it all needed to be there in order for Swank to move forward.

“I was having a career and not having the right relationship until … four years ago, and all the elements needed to come together and be right,” she explained.

Swank noted that being pregnant and having children has always been in the back of her mind, even as a young girl, but work and other life events just seemed to keep pushing the life event farther off her radar.

“It’s just something I thought about even as a young girl,” she continued. “It’s something that was on my mind, so it’s nice to be here and just be pregnant.”

Earlier this month, the Alaska Daily star announced on The Drew Barrymore Show that she and husband, Philip Schneider, were pregnant with twins. Swank and Schneider married in 2018.

She also spread the news on Instagram with a cute film-related play on words. “Coming soon… DOUBLE feature,” she posted, along with a GIF of her pointing to her belly.

Swank confessed that the pregnancy has had some challenges, including “double” the amount of morning sickness. Though she told Extra that she’s “feeling better” now, she revealed that for a while she “was having some bouts of morning sickness.”

“My friends tell me when you have double, it doubles the hormones, double the sickness, double the everything,” she explained.

One of the factors that went into Swank holding off on having children was her dad. The P.S. I Love You star revealed to Health Magazine in 2020 that she took a few years to help him recover from a lung transplant.

“It was supposed to be a year, because it takes a year to see if an organ transplant takes. A lung transplant is the most difficult of all, as it’s an incredibly delicate organ,” said Swank. “The plan was to take off a year. I became my dad’s health advocate. One year quickly turned into two and then three. And, thank God, prayers were answered. He is healthy and doing really well five-plus years later.”

He sadly passed away in October 2021.

However, in a bright spot, Swank revealed to Extra that her twins are due on her late father’s birthday. She said, “It’s beautiful. It’s all aligning, and my dad, he was one of my favorite people in the world, so it is kind of like… this tribute of life with them being born on this birthday.”

Hilary lamented that her dad would be over the moon for her and her pregnancy, saying, “He would be happy, elated for me. He just wanted me to have everything I wanted in my life, so I know it would be something that would bring him a lot of joy to see me in so much joy.”