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Teenage actress Keisha Castle-Hughes said she was made to feel guilty about her pregnancy, spoiling what should have been a celebratory time.
Giving her first formal interview in two years, Castle-Hughes told TV1's Sunday programme she was shocked when she found out at 16 that she was pregnant.
However, although now only 17, she felt ready to have a baby, she said.
"If it wasn't meant to happen now, it wouldn't have happened now."
Castle-Hughes, now in the latter stages of her pregnancy, said the public controversy surrounding her being pregnant so young hurt as it left her feeling she had to hide at a time that should have been a huge celebration.
"I felt like it was bad for me to be happy about it."
Castle-Hughes starred in the New Zealand film Whale Rider three years ago and was the youngest ever Oscar nominee for best actress.
She described the Oscars as surreal with people everywhere screaming her name.
The Hollywood gifts stunned her as they were "insanely expensive", she said.
But the attention all became too much for Castle-Hughes, who planned to just "go back to school" after the Oscars and then decided to quit acting.
But already well in the public eye, she found not all the attention was positive.
"An example was only two years ago at the Pacifica Festival some girls came up behind me and they had a stick and they whacked me over the back with it."
Castle-Hughes said she stumbled and the girls punched her then she dropped to the ground and then they kicked her.
"It was just a bunch of girls who decided they didn't like Keisha Castle-Hughes."
She said she has also been scared by paparazzi hiding in the bushes outside her house, wanting to capture the first photo of her "bump".
Her partner, high school sweetheart, Bradley Hull, 19, has been more successful at shunning publicity.
A man of few words, his response was "oh yeah? oh yeah, okay," when she told him she was pregnant, Castle-Hughes laughed.
Despite a decision to quit acting after the Oscars, Castle-Hughes went on to star in Prince's controversial music video banned after its first USA screening. She also had a role in Star Wars 3 and starred as the Virgin Mary in The Nativity Story.
- NZPA
