Helen Hunt was 40 years old when her daughter, Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, was born. Hunt discussed her challenges getting pregnant in a 2008 article for Ladies' Home Journal:
"It turned out to be tougher to get pregnant than I thought it would be. I tried for a long time, and it just didn't happen, to the point where getting pregnant became the greatest wish — and the greatest challenge — of my life. My fate wasn't to jump into the backseat of a car and have a baby. My boyfriend and I were on our last big try, and if the baby hadn't come, we would have adopted. But then I did get pregnant — in 2003."