Joker Star Joaquin Phoenix And Rooney Mara Reportedly Expecting First Child

Joker star Joaquin Phoenix and his fiancee, actress Rooney Mara, are reportedly pregnant and expecting their first child. Page Six claims to have sources close to the couple, who have been “keeping a low profile during the pandemic and have been quarantining at their home in Los Angeles.” Speculation is that Mara could be as far along as six months pregnant at this point, and has been reportedly seen wearing baggy clothes to possibly hide the baby bump. Officially, representatives for the pair actors are refusing to comment, so no official announcement has been made yet. That’s not surprising, given how private Phoenix and Mara are.

Phoenix and Mara met while filming the 2013 Spike Jonze film, Her, in which Mara ironically played the lost love of Phoenix’s character, Theodore. That heartbreak affects Theo so deeply that he seeks love from an A.I. operating system (Scarlett Johansson), kicking off the movie’s premise. The two actors would reunite for the 2018 biblical pic, Mary Magdalene, in which Mara starred as the legendary female apostle to Phoenix’s Jesus Christ. It was during that second pairing that they started to date in 2018, and have remained together since, officially getting engaged in 2019. If those two onscreen pairings aren’t a fitting backdrop to a Hollywood love story, what is?

Both Mara and Phoenix have had successful careers as “actor’s actors”; Mara has numerous acclaimed roles and two Oscar-nominations for her playing the Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and as the object Cate Blanchett’s forbidden love in the 1950s period drama Carol (2015). Phoenix is of courses one of the most lauded actors of his generation, with four Oscar noms (one win for Joker this year), and 6 Golden Globe noms (two wins for Joker and the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line in 2005). Together, Phoenix and Mara are a bonafide acting institution – though those talents nearly kept them from finding one another.

As Phoenix explained to Vanity Fair, both he and Mara were far too shy in real life, to make the first move: “She’s the only girl I ever looked up on the internet. We were just friends, email friends. I’d never done that. Never looked up a girl online.” Mara has also admitted that she was painfully shy about approaching Phoenix – but hey, it’s all worked out.

We wish Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara the best – if they are truly caring for a pregnancy during this time.