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Is Barbie’s Margot Robbie Ready to Start a Family With Husband Tom Ackerley? ‘It Was a Matter of Timing’
Margot Robbie looked chic as ever as she hit L.A.’s trendy eatery The Ivy for lunch with a group of girlfriends September 9. Dressed in denim shorts, a white button-down shirt and red Chanel platform sandals, the Barbie star was in great spirits as she showed off her maternal side, cooing over a pal’s baby snuggled into a car seat as the group chatted and waited outside for their ride.
It’s a good thing she’s getting some parenting practice in. A source tells In Touch the 33-year-old is telling friends she’s ready to become a mom! Since tying the knot with assistant director Tom Ackerley in 2016, the Aussie native has been working nonstop – but after the record-breaking success of Barbie (which she starred in and produced alongside Tom), Margot wants to take a break and focus on starting a family. “Margot’s always wanted kids with Tom, but it was a matter of timing,” says the source. “She reached her peak with Barbie and feels like she can step back a bit. She wants to have a baby and she’s really looking forward to this next phase of her life.”
GEARING UP
The Oscar nominee has been sticking to her own timeline for years. She and her husband, Tom, also 33, famously bunked with a group of six pals in a modest three-bedroom home in London until well after they got married. “Our roommates told us: ‘You guys had a wedding. You have to live on your own now.’ It honestly hadn’t occurred to us,” she once admitted. One of three siblings, she liked living in a full house, says the source. “It reminded her of the house she grew up in.” When she and Tom eventually bought their first home together, it was time. “We feel like grown-ups now,” she said in 2017.
The couple started their production company, LuckyChap Entertainment, in 2014, and they’ve been too busy working on projects like 2017’s I, Tonya and the 2020 film Promising Young Woman to slow down. “She was having so much fun working with Tom and doing everything she said they wanted to do,” says the source, “and she also worried that if she got pregnant she’d feel torn between work and her kids.” Now she’s reading baby books. “Margot wants to experience pregnancy,” says the source. (Ironically, the last scene of Barbie featured the living doll’s first trip to the gynecologist!)
The source says she first started getting baby fever while on the Barbie set with her costar, Ryan Gosling, who shares daughters Esmeralda and Amada, with partner Eva Mendes. “Ryan would talk about his kids all the time when they were filming,” reveals the source. “Watching how he and Eva interact with their kids really got the baby pangs going for Margot. It made her think, ‘Why wait?’”
Aside from a few people in her inner circle, Margot’s keeping the news to herself for now. “She’ll want to keep the pregnancy a secret as long as possible,” notes the source. Indeed, she’s been vocal about her displeasure at being asked by reporters if she planned on having children. “I got married and the first question in almost every interview is ‘Babies? When are you having one?’” she’s said. “I’m so angry that there’s this social contract: You’re married, now have a baby. Don’t presume. I’ll do what I’m going to do.”
HER SOULMATE
After seven years of marriage, Margot’s thrilled to be embarking on this journey with Tom. They were friends for a long time before things turned romantic. “I was always in love with him, but I thought, ‘Oh, he would never love me back,’” she said in 2016. “And then it happened, and I was like, ‘Of course, we’re together. This makes so much sense, the way nothing has ever made sense before.’”
The pair couldn’t keep their hands off each other during a loved-up trip to Greece in August. “They booked a suite in a romantic hotel overlooking the sea and enjoyed the peace and quiet and beauty of the island of Sifnos,” says the source. “They spent their days swimming and sunbathing and cuddling.”
They always have each other’s backs. “Margot looks at her success as their success and something they did together, and they’ve been doing it that way for a long time,” says the source of the pair, now worth an estimated $100 million. They have a rule to never spend more than three weeks apart. “Even if we both have to fly to a country in between where we both are for one night, we’ll do it and then fly back to work the next day,” she’s said. “And we speak all day, every day on the phone.”
NESTING MODE
Back in 2021, they started construction on their $8 million dream home in Venice Beach, California. “It’s going to be contemporary in style, and light and airy with an open living plan and lots of bedrooms,” says the source. Of course, they’ll need a nursery. “Margot’s really into it,” says the source. “She’s excited.”
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