Anne Hathaway Flaunts Baby Bump at ‘Verity’ NYC Premiere With Dakota Johnson

Anne Hathaway has never been one to share a red carpet with anyone, not even — especially not — a headline. But on Tuesday night, inside AMC Lincoln Square 13 in Manhattan, she did exactly that. The Oscar winner walked the New York City premiere of Verity alongside co-stars Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, and the look she chose made sure there was no missing the news: she’s pregnant with her third child, and she has never looked more at home on a red carpet in her life.

It was the kind of entrance that settles an argument before anyone can start it. Anne didn’t do the loose black cape or the strategically billowy sleeve, the usual third-trimester celebrity sleight of hand. She went form-fitting. The message wasn’t subtle and it wasn’t supposed to be — here’s the bump, here’s the actress, and yes, she can do both at once. The crowd of photographers outside the theater responded the way photographers do: with a noise that sounded less like camera shutters and more like a small roar.

And it matters that this was the moment she chose. Verity, the big-screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2018 novel, lands in theaters on Friday, October 2. This wasn’t some random gala. This was her movie’s night, the final bow of a press tour she hasn’t fully been able to enjoy — she stayed stateside while her co-stars did the London leg — and she showed up like someone determined to make the most of the one she’s got. Word is she’ll be taking a work break once the film is out. If this is her exit for a while, she picked one hell of an exit outfit.

Anne’s Custom Prabal Gurung Gown Did All the Talking

Let’s get into the details, because they deserve it. The gown was custom Atelier Prabal Gurung — black, with a sweetheart neckline, embroidered with floral crystal beads and shredded chiffon. The skirt and train were pleated tulle with embroidered sequins, cut close through the body so the silhouette did exactly what she’d clearly decided she wanted it to do: show, don’t hide.

What made it work wasn’t just the fit. It was the attitude. There’s a particular confidence that comes with a third pregnancy — this is Anne’s third child — where the actress isn’t asking permission anymore. First baby, the industry still treats you like you might vanish. Second, you’re negotiating. Third? Third time around, Anne Hathaway walks into a movie premiere in a shredded-chiffon crystal gown and dares the internet to say something. It didn’t. It just sighed, collectively, and started zooming in on the beadwork.

The gown also did something smart on camera: the black base with the sequins and tulle texture photographed beautifully under the Lincoln Square lights, all sparkle and depth, while the sweetheart neckline kept the whole thing romantic rather than severe. It was glamorous in the old-fashioned sense — the kind of look that makes you remember why movie premieres exist at all.

Dakota Johnson’s Calvin Klein Moment Held Its Own

Standing next to a glowing pregnant Anne Hathaway is a thankless job, but Dakota Johnson has never exactly been a shrinking violet. She showed up in custom Calvin Klein Collection: a white iridescent sequin-embroidered top with a high-slit column skirt, finished with crystal fringe that created a waterfall effect as she moved, plus matching square-toed leather sandals.

It was a sharp, clean look — all shine and structure, very Dakota. Where Anne’s gown was soft romance and texture, Dakota’s was precision. The iridescence caught the light differently with every step, which is either a stylist’s dream or a nightmare depending on your tolerance for photos that all look slightly different from each other. In Dakota’s case, it worked. She knows how to wear a look that photographs instead of just wearing well in person; there’s a difference, and veterans of the carpet know it.

The two of them together — Anne in black, Dakota in white — made for the kind of contrasting-pair photo that editors love and publicists dream about. Black-and-white, dark-and-light, the pregnant star and her co-star: you could practically hear the gallery captions writing themselves. And in a way, it echoed the film itself. Verity is a story about two women circling each other, one of them holding secrets the other is desperate to find. The carpet gave the cameras the same dynamic, dressed up and smiling.

A Premiere in Two Acts: New York Picks Up Where London Left Off

The New York premiere wasn’t the first celebration for Verity. Last week, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett flew to London for the film’s UK premiere while Anne stayed in New York to keep doing press from home. The reason was simple: the pregnancy. International travel wasn’t on the cards, so she worked the phones and the morning shows from Manhattan while her co-stars handled the overseas glam.

There’s something kind of sweet about how that played out, actually. No drama, no stories about one star overshadowing another, no passive-aggressive scheduling — just logistics, handled like adults. And it gave the New York premiere its own special charge. This was the night the full cast finally stood together on the carpet at the same time, and you could feel the relief of it. Josh Hartnett arrived with his wife, Tamsin Egerton, in tow. Also there: co-star Ismael Cruz Cordova, director Michael Showalter, screenwriter Nick Antosca, and the woman without whom none of it exists — Colleen Hoover herself.

Hoover, for what it’s worth, has had quite the run. The author went from self-published Texas writer to the single most powerful force in publishing’s romance aisle, largely because BookTok found her and never let go. Verity is one of her darker books — a romantic thriller with a nasty little twist that readers still argue about in comment sections — and the film version has been one of the more anticipated literary adaptations of the year. Watching her walk a New York premiere carpet for it, years after the book’s 2018 release, is its own kind of full-circle moment. Hollywood spent a decade figuring out what to do with her; now it’s just adapting them one after another.

The Film Itself: Secrets, Manuscripts, and One Very Unreliable Narrator

For anyone who hasn’t read the book — and judging by the BookTok discourse, that’s a shrinking group — here’s the setup. Dakota Johnson plays Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer hired by Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett) to ghostwrite the remaining books in a bestselling series. The series belongs to Jeremy’s wife, Verity Crawford, played by Anne Hathaway — a star author who can’t finish her own books after a mysterious accident leaves her incapacitated.

Lowen moves into the Crawford home to work through Verity’s notes and outlines, and that’s where things curdle. Tucked away, she finds an unpublished manuscript — Verity’s autobiography, apparently — and what she reads in it changes everything about how she sees the woman lying upstairs. The book asks, with genuinely queasy commitment, whether the person you think you know is the person you’ve actually been living with. Readers have been fighting about the ending since 2018. The film, directed by Michael Showalter, has a real shot at reviving every one of those arguments.

Showalter is an interesting pick for this, by the way. He directed The Big Sick and the Dropout limited series — a filmmaker who’s good with tones that don’t quite sit still. Verity needs that. It’s a story that has to seduce you and unsettle you at the same time, and the casting backs it up. Anne as the unreadable, possibly dangerous Verity; Dakota as the curious, possibly-too-curious Lowen; Josh as Jeremy, the grieving husband caught between them. On paper, it’s a thriller cast that actually understands the assignment.

The film hits theaters October 2, which puts it squarely in that early-October window where studios send their grown-up thrillers to die or thrive. Verity feels built for a different lane than the summer blockbusters, though — it’s the kind of mid-budget, star-driven, book-club-fueled movie that can quietly do enormous business if the word of mouth catches. Hoover’s readers alone are an army. Add Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett, and you’ve got a marketing department’s dream.

A Farewell Bow Before the Break

There’s a small detail from the night that keeps sticking with me. Just Jared’s own TikTok from the carpet mentioned that Anne will be taking a break from work after this movie’s release on Friday. Which means Tuesday night at Lincoln Square wasn’t just a premiere — it was a goodbye, at least for now. One more gown, one more carpet, one more night of being the story, before she steps back to be a person again for a while.

She’s earned it. Look at the arc: Anne Hathaway started as the awkward princess with the pre-makeover curls, became the rom-com fixture, then did the hard thing and rebuilt herself into a serious actress with an Oscar on the shelf. She survived the internet’s weird hate-era, outlasted it, and came out the other side as one of the few stars of her generation who feels genuinely beloved — not just respected, not just admired, but liked. There’s a warmth to how people talk about her now that you can’t fake and can’t buy.

And if you want proof of where she is in her career, look at the choice she made on Tuesday. A pregnant actress could easily have done the safe thing — the flowing empire waist, the elegant cape, the look that says “I’m still working” without drawing attention to the condition. Anne did the opposite. She drew the attention, on purpose, and looked incredible doing it. That’s not vanity. That’s a woman who’s done apologizing for the fact that actresses have bodies and lives and children, and who knows the red carpet is one of the few places where you get to say it out loud.

So: Verity opens Friday. Go see it for the thriller, stay for the arguments about the ending, and give Anne Hathaway’s gown a moment of silence — the good kind. She’ll be back. And when she is, you can bet the carpet will be waiting.

Source: Just Jared