His Secret Daughter

Interviews with the Stark Family: Virginia Pepper Potts-Stark

I guess this is seventeen years late, but congratulations on your successful pregnancy and healthy baby girl, Mrs. Stark.

*Laughs* Thank you.

Let's start at the beginning. When did you find out you were pregnant?

May 5th, 2012. It was the night after the battle of New York memorial movie opened.

Wow, that must've been quite the weekend surprise!

It was.

How did Tony react?

He didn't for a good three minutes, all he could do was stare at me.

Then?

Then, I saw his eyes light up. I saw this realization in him. That "I'm going to be a dad" moment, and it was beautiful. We were so happy for hours and hours. Then baby proofing the tower was brought up, and he thought of how unsafe our lives had been.

So only hours after you found out you were pregnant you were planning on how to hide her?

No, that started the next day, after we sat up all night talking, like normal expecting parents.

Baby names?

Baby names, decorating the nursery, this and that. Out of the blue Tony brought up this absurd idea of hiding the pregnancy, then hiding the baby. I just sat there. Did he mean having someone else raise her? Who could we trust that wouldn't have the same problems we feared? What else could he mean? 

But he meant all of you hiding. Living double lives. How did you feel about that?

*sighs* I was conflicted. We talked about it for days. I honestly would have overruled it had I not just had my own "being near Iron Man is dangerous" experience. But I did, and what I went through...the thought of a child going through that was ultimately enough for both of us to agree it sounded perfect.

Was it?

I think it was the best option for us. There never really is a perfect option. Every parent has to make decisions, and wonder if they're the right ones. In the end you hope for the best and live with the outcome.

Was the outcome what you'd hoped for?

Toni has grown up in safe environments to be a fine young woman, so yes it is what we hoped. Even with the many obstacles.

Care to share a few?

There were the obvious ones, we couldn't go on dates when we were home with Toni, far past infant-hood since Tony couldn't be seen where ever we were living. That also meant he couldn't pick up the groceries or do midnight diaper runs. But there were somethings you could never forsee. We'd hoped she'd be able to handle the secret, and the fact that it meant no daddy daughter anything. Toni has always been incredibly intelligent. She understood she couldn't say "My dad is Iron Man" on career days. . . But kids like to brag, and Toni would try to brag without saying more than "My dad is cooler". Well, she got teased for not saying why, the other kids thought she was lying.

What did you do to help her?

Toni. . . she's her father's daughter, she didn't usually need me to make her feel better. She just needed me to pick her up from the principal's office. Fighting was a problem in her earlier years of school.

Not anymore I hope.

Well. . .*laughs* no, not usually.

How did you hide your pregnancy?

I integrated a lot of peplum shirts into my day to day wear throughout the first trimester, and I went out less and less so my vacation during the second and third trimesters would be less shocking. And while on that extended vacation i continued my work, continued interviews over skype with limited visibility. Rumors of pregnancy ran rampant through those months. And when I came back with no baby, rumors of miscarriage took their place. I--well no books can prepare you for...That.

I'm sorry. It must've been very hard. Would you say you suffered from postpartum depression?

I'd say that was one of many things I struggled with. And not being able to truly celebrate when she was first born, I think it made our lives very different in the beginning.

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Tony wasn't able to get out of the house, but you were. Did that make it easier for you?

Easier may not be the right word. Different, yes. We played hugely different roles in Toni's life that were furthered because of the situation. Since I was the one in the principal's office I was usually the one to carry out the groundings. So I was able to be with our baby girl in public, which I know Tony wanted, but he's always been the cool, relaxed parent we all wish we could be.

Has this affected your relationships with each other?

Probably. In many ways we've all grown closer because all we really had was each other. And one thing we always did was let Toni vent. If she didn't want to tell us how much she hated our decision at any point in time we'd call Clint, or Wanda, or Steve, the list obviously goes on. None of us could vent outside of that group, and we're closer for it.

Why wait almost seventeen years before telling the world?

Um... I don't know. I don't think we ever talked about it before. But in the back of our minds, I think we knew it had to happen eventually.

How do you think the world will react?

Well, I'm going to assume a while of mixed reactions. This is something that is going to be hard to gauge reactions before they happen.

And how will your lives change after this?

That's also hard to say... We'll just have to continue on however it does, like Starks do.

Well said. Thank you for speaking with us, Mrs. Stark.

It's always a pleasure.