Joshua Jackson has explained why his partner, Jodie Turner-Smith, chose to give birth at home.
The pair welcomed daughter Janie into the world last April, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but their decision to avoid hospitals was not due to the virus, but instead because they feared discrimination.
Turner-Smith is Black and, as Jackson pointed out to Esquire in a new interview, "the American medical system has a horrendous track record with Black women."
"She wanted to be in a place where she was as comfortable as possible, understandably," Jackson recalled. "And I wanted her to be in a place where she felt like she was being heard at every step along the way, rather than having to go through that filter of being a Black woman interfacing with the American medical system."
At the time, hospitals desperate to reduce the spread of COVID-19 were weighing making women give birth alone, without their partners. Jackson said he was happy to be a part of their daughter's birth.
"[Labor] is lonely at times, and scary at times, and also transcendental and beautiful, and you want to have your partner there," Jackson said. "I’m grateful for every second I got to be a part of bringing our daughter into this world. It’s a magical experience — we don’t talk enough about the positives."
Jackson and Turner-Smith were first linked in November 2018, when they were spotted out holding hands together. They were married the following year. During an appearance on "The Tonight Show" on Monday, Jackson revealed that it was Turner-Smith who proposed to him, according to People.
"She asked me, yeah, on New Year's Eve," the Dawsons Creek alum said. "We were in Nicaragua. It was very beautiful, incredibly romantic. We were walking down the beach, and she asked me to marry her."
Responding to Fallon's questions about whether the proposal was planned, Jackson responded, "There was like a preamble. There was a lead-up to it. I did not know [about it beforehand], but she was quite adamant, and she was right. This is the best choice I ever made."
Turner-Smith previously opened up about her relationship with Jackson, who she said was "so supportive and so loving."
"We're so similar in so many ways. We're like mirrors for each other. And I just really love that human being," she told People.
"We high-five each other all the time about how great we chose," the actress added with a laugh. "We're like, 'You did a great job choosing,' and then we're like, 'Yeah, you too.'"
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