Rebecca Lim Is Expecting Baby #2: “This Pregnancy Wasn’t Planned At All”

For someone who never thought she would be a mum, Rebecca Lim sure is on a baby-making roll. The 39-year-old Mediacorp actress is now four months pregnant with her second baby with her husband of three years, Matthew Webster.

Their first kid, a boy, was born in January 2024.
 
“I never thought I would have one so to have two, is very… mind-blowing,” she laughs over the phone with 8days.sg this morning (Nov 11). “Sometimes I forget that I’m pregnant. I still have a lot energy to focus on my first kid and it’s only when I sit back and think, oh I have another way on the way (laughs).”

It's bright and early on a Monday morning and our phone conversation is peppered occasionally with her son’s infectious laughter in the background.

Having a second kid was not in the books for her and Matthew. P/S: They are stopping at two. ("I should think so," she laughs)

 “This wasn’t planned at all. We were very contented with one kid already,” she says. “We did have conversations about whether we are going to extend our family, and if we were going to, it may be a couple of years later. I always said that now is not the time ‘cos I’m just getting back to work and getting a glimpse of my old self again. I’m excited about the projects that have been planned for next year.”

According to Rebecca, there were projects to be shot overseas which she now has to turn down now as they wouldn’t wrap up before her baby’s arrival in May.

With a laugh, she shares shyly that the baby was probably conceived during a family trip to England — just like their son.

 “Isn’t this too TMI for the 8days audience?” she laughs. 100 points for consistency, though.

The baby’s gender remains a mystery for now, or at least until she and Matthew tell all their friends and family the good news before they head to the doc to find out.

“It’s the second kid, so the excitement is not as great [for everyone] unlike the first time,” she laughs.

She didn’t have morning sickness during her first pregnancy — “I only felt nauseous twice the whole time,” she recalls — but this time, she’s getting the full pregnancy package.

 “I have evening sickness now,” she laughs, adding that her friends think she might be having a girl because her symptoms are the total opposite of her first pregnancy.

No matter what the famously self-deprecating Becks says about “not having a nurturing bone” in her, she has clearly embraced motherhood.

“I feel like I’m more of practical mum than nurturing one,” she says. “But I’ve surprised myself. The stuff I’m willing to do for him. I think of him getting older and I can tear up (laughs). I feel so ashamed saying this but like going out to the park and being under the sun? I do that all for him. Or going to the beach. It’s his new word. [He’s always saying] Beach beach beach.”

Her life now, she says, revolves around her son — “I’ve become one of those people,” she jokes.

Showbusiness is a notoriously fickle industry, and Rebecca who hasn’t starred in a Mediacorp drama in three years — the last was 2022’s English thriller Third Rail — knows this all too well.

When asked how she feels about it, she pauses to collect her thoughts before saying: “My first drama back is an English drama, called Auntie Lee’s Deadly Delights, which will be out in January. I glad I did that if not it would be six years of [of no dramas]. I love what I do, I love acting. I guess such is life. You can’t have it all. All I can hope is after I have my baby, there’s a good role and I can continue to do what I love.”

She’s aware that by the time she returns to work after Baby #2, she could be coming back to a potentially different career.

“I know things will slow down. That is life and the nature of the industry,” she says. “The roles will be different, the landscape will be different. Just not being around for two years, there are already so many new faces. But I’ve always been ready for it. I’ve always strived to be a star in the sky and not a shooting star. To have an enduring career which is even more challenging.”

“Being a mum puts things into perspective. Work comes and goes but your family is forever here,” she says. “This whole journey has taught me not to be so anxious about work and I’m very grateful for everything I have.”