Scarlett Johansson Reveals She Kept Her Pregnancies Private So She Didn't 'Feel Scrutinized'

Scarlett Johansson revealed the real reason she decided to keep details of her pregnancies away from the public eye.

The 37-year-old opened up about motherhood in a recent interview with Vanity Fair and talked about the kind of criticism and reactions she received to the news of her pregnancy.

The "Black Widow" star spoke about how becoming a mom served as a feeling of "reset" for her.

"Obviously having children is the biggest life-changing thing. I have two children, [and] after having my daughter [Rose], it took me a long time to have that kind of new-beginning feeling," the actor shared.

"I was so in it in that primary, preoccupied phase, where you're still connected to your baby. And then I went into work pretty quickly after that. I always felt like I was trying to keep up and create some sort of work-life balance, which I think is probably a lie," she told the outlet.

"It wasn't until my daughter was more independent of me, probably around two, where I rediscovered myself. I was like, 'What is most important to me in my life?' I felt like the work that I was doing and the choices that I was making personally should be intentional in a certain kind of way, where I didn't want to feel like life was happening to me. I knew more what I didn't want in my life and in my career," the actress continued.

Johansson is a mother to 7-year-old daughter Rose Dorothy, whom she shares with ex-husband Romain Dauriac, and son Cosmo, born in August 2021 with husband and "Saturday Night Live" head writer, Colin Jost.

The "Sing" actor explained why she chose to keep her pregnancies private to People. She was "so protective" of her two pregnancies because she didn't "[want] to feel scrutinized in the public eye."

"I wanted to be able to have my own feelings about my changing body without other people also telling me how they saw me, whether it was positive or negative," she added.

The "Avengers" actor added that it was when she was pregnant with Cosmo that she truly understood "how much stuff people put on you when you're pregnant — their hopes or their judgment or their desire, a lot of that is put on pregnant women. I would have a lot of people saying things to me immediately, like, 'How great, oh my God, that's wonderful.'"

Johansson went on to reveal that most of the criticism during her pregnancy came from other women. "While I was definitely excited to be pregnant in some ways, I also had a lot of not-great feelings about it, and that would be scrutinized by — I'm talking about, like, women that were close to me. You expect it from men, but from women, it's like, 'Come on, girl, you've been through it.'"

"One friend, when I told her that I was pregnant — she knew I was trying to get pregnant — she was just like, 'Oh s---. Great, but not great.' And I was like, 'You're a true friend,'" she said, with a laugh.

She then added that though the women empowerment movement has seen progress in recent years, "that thing remains sort of in the Dark Ages. So much judgment it's crazy."