FREIDA PINTO on the family traditions she hopes to pass on as she welcomes her first child
SHARES HER CHRISTMAS WISH FOR NEWBORN SON RUMI-RAY
There was a double celebration for Hollywood actress Freida Pinto last week. First of all the Slumdog Millionaire star shared the exciting news that she has become a mum for the first time – then she told fans her baby boy, named Rumi-Ray, was born in the same week as husband Cory Tran’s birthday.
Posting photos of the newborn slumbering on her and Cory’s chests, 37-year-old Freida wrote: “Happy Birthday Dada Cory! I celebrate you my husband, friend and partner in life. To see you become not just a Dad but Super-Dad makes me so emotional and fills me with joy. Rumi-Ray you are one lucky boy!”
In return, her photographer love of four years said: “Best birthday gift you could ever ask for. Thank you for our sweet boy. I’m in awe of you more and more every day. Watching you give birth to Rumi-Ray was truly a miracle, you are such a warrior.”
Now Freida, who stars in new romcom A Christmas No. 1, is looking forward to celebrating the festive season with her little one. “It’s going to be fun,” she exclusively tells hello!. “A different Christmas with a lot of the same traditions and with our new addition.
“I’m very excited to start this new phase in my life. It’s already teaching me so much and is really going to alter my world. It’s taught me to live in the moment.
“I’ve always wanted to be a mum and my family are thrilled,” adds the Mumbai-born actress. “What’s most important is the bond you share with your child, like the one my family has with me.
“It’s the creation of family and the passing on of traditions. This baby is too tiny to understand what they are, but what my mum did with me is what I’m going to do now. Every Christmas, instead of putting gifts under
the tree, every member of the family would write a letter from the heart to each other. I still carry those letters with me everywhere.
“Stuff like that matters most to me. It’s about making meaningful memories.”
A LIFE FULL OF EXPERIENCES
While Freida longed for a white Christmas as a child in India, she wants Rumi-Ray to experience every climate as he grows up.
“I love colder weather and used to imagine what it would be like to have snow,” she says. “I’ve experienced snow now – it’s magical and beautiful, but also messy – and I want snow, but also rain and sunshine to be part of my child’s life.”
She certainly experienced extreme temperatures filming A Christmas No. 1 in London and New York. “We were shooting a Christmas movie in jackets and scarves at the height of summer,” she says, laughing.
Freida plays music manager Meg, who flees New York for London to escape the embarrassment of being the subject of an album of songs. Tasked with managing a boyband and finding them a Christmas No. 1, she discovers a track written by a desperately ill teenage girl, but clashes with the girl’s uncle, played by Game of Thrones star Iwan Rheon. “They’re at loggerheads and don’t even like each other to begin with,” says Freida.
“But that’s how all romances begin – at least in the movies.”
Freida was pregnant with Rumi- Ray while filming so her bump had to be concealed: “The genius costume design helped with that.”
She’s glad, too, that loose-fitting Regency outfits are the order of the day in next year’s Mr Malcolm’s
List. “I love the period costumes, but don’t think corsets are my go-to,” she says.
With her passion for sweet treats, it’s just as well. “When I was a child, we didn’t have a Westernstyle Christmas dinner, but since then I’ve had Christmas feasts with all the trimmings and enjoy it. What I like most are the desserts.
“During my pregnancy, my craving for sugar disappeared. I wanted the flavours I grew up with, Indian food, which was easy to find in London.”
As for Yuletide music, it has to be Mariah Carey’s festive hits, she says. But this year, there is really only one Christmas No. 1 for Freida – little Rumi-Ray.
‘Every Christmas, instead of gifts, we would write a letter from the heart to each other’