Alicia Vikander has shared rare insight into co-parenting with husband Michael Fassbender as well as opening up about her battles with ‘mum guilt’.
The Swedish actress, 36, who shares two young sons with the Irish star, 48, made the rare comments during a stylish shoot for British Vogue ahead of her West End debut.
While Alicia admitted both her and her husband’s schedules can be gruelling, she said they make sure never to work at the same time in order for one parent to always be at home with the kids.
‘It can be very long days, and a lot of the time you will leave before the kids get up and then maybe not be back before they sleep. So knowing that one parent is always home. With all the parent and mum guilt that you already carry with you constantly – I am battling that a lot, all the time’.
She also spoke about life in Lisbon following the family’s move to Portugal: ‘My husband said he wanted to surf every day. We’re on the beach with the kids every weekend we are there’.
In the shoot Alicia looked nothing short of sensational as she flaunted her long toned legs in a figure-hugging silk dressed before posing seductivly on a bed wrapped in a fur stole.
Alicia Vikander has shared rare insight into co-parenting with husband Michael Fassbender as well as opening up about her battles with ‘mum guilt’
The Swedish actress, 36, who shares two young sons with the Irish star, 48, made the rare comments during a stylish shoot for British Vogue (pictured together 2024)
Elsewhere in the interview she revealed about how motherhood had changed her and despite loving it now, had previously been terrified to have children.
I wasn’t really very maternal until I had my own children. But maybe even more after the second one arrived, I started to feel like: “OK, I know this a little bit now”. I’m a bit kinder to myself too’.
Alicia will be starring in The Lady from the Sea alongside Andrew Lincoln at the Bridge Theatre from 10 Sep – 8 Nov 2025.
Last year Alicia revealed that she and husband Michael had secretly welcomed a second child, a son whose name has not been made public.
In am interview for ELLE UK, co-star Taylor Russell praised the Oscar winner, saying she was ‘so impressed’ by Alicia’s physical work on their upcoming movie Hope, especially since she had ‘literally just had (her) second baby.’
The Swedish star replied, ‘All women have such different experiences, and going through it a second time was definitely harder for me.’
She continued: ‘But I think training made it easier. Going through those nine months is like a marathon, so it does help if you’re strong going into it.
‘It’s so physically demanding, and I have so much admiration for any woman who has done it’.
While Alicia admitted both her and her husband’s schedules can be gruelling, she said they make sure never to work at the same time in order for one parent to always be at home
In the shoot Alicia looked nothing short of sensational as she flaunted her long toned legs in a figure-hugging silk dressed before posing seductivly on a bed wrapped in a fur stole
Alicia went on to say that she had portrayed childbirth on-screen four times before experiencing it in real life, adding, ‘Your job is to pretend as an actor, but every time I had to give birth, I said to every woman on set, “I’m sorry.” I felt like such an imposter.’
She kept further details about the couple’s second child private. They quietly welcomed their first child, a son, in 2021 after marrying in 2017.
See the full feature in the September issue of British Vogue available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday 19th August
On finding a balance between her career and personal life, Alicia added: ‘I am preparing for two jobs at the moment, and I have come to a point where I’m finding the balance between work and having a family.
‘I narrow it down to two things now – the people I really want to work with, and the projects that I feel are going to be a creative, joyous time. I am privileged that I have the choice of whether I work on these big things.
‘I always have the blues when I finish a job. Especially if it has been one of those good ones, which as I get older is what I’m seeking.
‘I had it on Firebrand. It was a very tough subject, but we had a great time. So, there is a sadness that it’s over, but it’s also like having done a sprint. I’m tired, and by the end of the job I’ve already started to look at something else.’
‘You have to let go. You can’t be in control of your own work, which is a really strange feeling. But then you realise that’s actually what it’s like to be an actor. That can be really hard sometimes. Obviously, working with people and directors you trust really helps.’
Alicia and her husband Michael first began dating in late 2014, after they met on the set of their film The Light Between Oceans.
Michael and Alicia first began dating in late 2014, after they met on the set of their film The Light Between Oceans (pictured in film)
The couple tied the knot in a romantic ceremony three years later, in Ibiza, Spain in October 2017 (pictured in The Light Between Oceans)
The couple tied the knot in a romantic ceremony three years later, in Ibiza, Spain in October 2017.
The Swedish actress revealed in September 2021 that she had quietly welcomed a baby son with Michael, earlier that year.
In 2023, Alicia opened up about the pain she went through after suffering an ‘extreme’ miscarriage before getting pregnant with her first child.
She spoke out about the ‘painful’ struggles she faced on her journey to becoming a mother, admitting to The Times that ‘it took time’ for the couple to conceive their first baby together.
‘We have a child now, but it took us time,’ she said, before revealing that she had suffered a ‘painful, extreme’ miscarriage before she got pregnant with her son.
She also compared her experiences to her 2016 movie The Light Between Oceans in which she and Michael played a childless couple who experience two miscarriages and ultimately adopt a baby girl who is lost at sea.
Alicia added: ‘[The miscarriage] was so extreme, painful to go through and, of course, it made me recall making that film [The Light Between Oceans]. That film has another meaning now.’
The Danish Girl star added: ‘Sometimes you go through things that are tough in life and if you have an office job you can step away for a bit.
See the full feature in the September issue of British Vogue available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday 19th August.