Jimmy Fallon On The Heartbreak And Highs Of Trying To Become A Dad

Jimmy Fallon and his wife, producer Nancy Juvonen (she's Drew Barrymore's partner in Flower Films), tried in vain to have a baby before ultimately deciding to use a gestational surrogate.

Here, he candidly confides to YourTango about their emotional journey, from frustration to elation:

YourTango: Parenthood didn't come easily for you.
Jimmy Fallon: No. It's hard if you can't have children. We struggled for a good five years trying to have a kid.

YourTango: How did you remain strong during that period?
Jimmy Fallon: It's my wife. She's just tough. I couldn't even imagine. I'm there for her and she's there for me, and [we said], "We're just gonna do this. It's gonna be fine and work itself out." But it's really hard. People have struggled longer than we did, but there's shots involved and acupuncture and sleeping upside down. We tried everything. There's the embarrassment of telling people that we're having one and we're pregnant and then it's not working out. You have to go out and be funny every night and tell jokes and act like nothing's going wrong. But that's being a comedian, that's the job. Now I'm genuinely really happy.

YourTango: You kept quiet about the birth until Winnie was born?
Jimmy Fallon: Yeah. I just didn't even tell anyone. I didn't even tell my family. That's the only way to keep it real secret. Just don't tell anyone.

YourTango: How has having the baby changed your relationship?
Jimmy Fallon: If you're lucky enough to have kids, it's the greatest thing in the whole wide world. You experience it together and it's the whole reason you get married in the first place. You want to experience these things together. It's just a magical, fun thing and it makes marriage better. We always had a good marriage, but it's even stronger. It's just another fun thing we have in common now. So we're just loving it.

YourTango: What do you love most about fatherhood?
Jimmy Fallon: It's super fun. I heard a lot of advice about having a baby, but until you have one, I don't really know if it's that meaningful to you. Everything she does right now is perfect. I have a perfect child. She's just great. She's a good baby. I really, really lucked out. All my iPhone photos are now just all baby. We've got her some soundproof headphones; they make tiny ones for babies and they're really cute. 

YourTango: Speaking of music, do you sing to her?
Jimmy Fallon: I usually just noodle on guitar and just sing about her or whatever is going on. If I'm about to change her diaper, I'll sing to her about that.

YourTango: As busy as you are, when do you spend time with her?
Jimmy Fallon: Before I go to work, I hang out with her for a good couple hours. My wife tries to keep her awake as late as she can so I can come home and get to see her a good hour at nighttime. Either way, I go in to kiss her in the crib, but I don't want to wake her up. She's a pretty good sleeper. We have a place in upstate New York, that's our getaway — it's quiet, it's just the family. But it also gets you psyched to come back into the city and the hustle and the bustle.

YourTango: Have you thought about having another child, the same way or adopting?
Jimmy Fallon: Sure, I think we'd love to. If we're lucky with any of that stuff, absolutely.