“Wonder Woman” Star Gal Gadot Talks Openly About the Challenges of Being a Working Mom

For Gal Gadot, the glory and glamour of playing a heroine fades in comparison to the thrill of being a mother. Even though she might be a Wonder Woman on screen, she’s still a regular working mom who often struggles to balance her career and family life.

Gal is glad she was able to start her family before her career skyrocketed.

Gadot always wanted to be a young mother. But she revealed that she struggled to come up with a decision on whether she should wait to have children when her acting career will be more settled. Then she realized that if she’s more successful, she’ll have to work more, so that wouldn’t be the best time for her either. That’s why she went for it and got pregnant with her first daughter at 25.

Now Gal is 37 years old and a mother of 3 daughters, and she loves it. “I’m very happy being a mother, and as soon as you begin raising your child, you feel this incredible love and happiness that is different from anything else you’ve ever experienced.”

One of the biggest challenges for her is managing work and family life.

Gal believes that every working mom can relate to this, as it’s not a piece of cake to be in both places at once. She always feels guilty, either because she’s not doing enough at home or because she’s not committed enough to her work.

However, recently she had a revelation about how to eliminate the guilt from her life, and we believe her wisdom can come in handy for all the mothers out there.

“At the end of the day, your kids join your life, and you bring them here, and they join your life. You’re not supposed to change your life to accommodate the children. Now, of course, our children are always the very first up high priority, but I realized that it’s OK to have a different life. It’s OK not to have a routine and not to be like everyone else. And, it’s OK as long as the family’s together, and you’re happy, and you do it together, it’s great.”

For Gal, it’s always very important to be a good role model for her kids, and her husband encourages her to do it.

When her first daughter, Alma, was around 2 years old, she was very anxious about moving her child from one place to another in order for her to attend work. But it was her husband that gave her the utmost support and said to her, “Gal, think about what kind of a role model you want to be. If you want to show Alma that she can follow her dreams, that’s what you should do, and we will figure out the logistics.”

And, at the end of the day, that’s what helps her make decisions, of course, as long as her daughters are the first priority. And, whenever she chooses a movie role, she always thinks about whether her daughters can get something out of it when they watch the movie later after they’re grown up. Or even just to show them that their mother’s doing what their Mommy loves to do, and show them that they can do what they love and have a family at the same time.

But Gal admits that she couldn’t do it all without the support of her husband, Yaron Varsano. And in an interview when he was asked what he loves the most about her wife, his answer was touching. “In the roller-coaster life that we’re living, she manages to keep very balanced family life and work, and everything is just smooth. That’s a very impressive thing, to juggle everything at the same time and stay normal.”

Even though she plays a superhero on screen, she feels like a real Wonder Woman when she gives birth.

“When you deliver, you feel like you’re a god. Like, ’Oh my god, I made this.’ I love giving birth. I would do it once a week if I could. It’s so magical.” However, she revealed that she always gets epidurals, so the process is not that painful.

And even though she enjoys the moment she creates life, the pregnancies are hard for her — she feels sick, has migraines, and is not in her element.

And the most badass thing she’s ever done is shooting a movie while being pregnant and having kids.

“When you’re on set, you’re like a kite. You can fly so high and try to catch the air. Then you go back home to do your main shift as a mother. It’s not about me, it’s, ’OK, now I need to bathe Maya, feed Alma, put Daniella to bed.’ That is the badass thing I do: the juggling between my family life and my acting career.”

Even though she loves being a mother, she admits that having 3 kids is sometimes too much work. But, the hardest part of motherhood for her is learning how to let go when her daughters become independent.

Gal believes that her kids keep her grounded.

“I know this sounds really cheesy, but all moms are like Wonder Woman, they really are. Kids don’t know or care about box office records or blockbuster movies. They are like, ’Yep, you’re Wonder Woman... but what’s for dinner?’”

And even though fame, for her, means being organized, being a mother means getting up early in the morning even if she’s tired because that’s her responsibility. “I can have a sleepless night with a baby with colic and an early wake-up by my 5-year-old. But then I’m watching The Cat In The Hat with my daughter, and it amazes me how the simplest things are the ones to make us the happiest.”

What is the most badass thing you’ve done as a woman? Do you think that Gadot is right when she says that you shouldn’t change your life to accommodate the children?