Halle Berry is enjoying the liberation her pregnancy has brought from the constant pressure to be thin and sexy.

"It is true that I am three times the girl I usually am. I have to say there are some really wonderful things that come along with that," she told the audience at the Palm Springs International Film Festival at the weekend.

"This is the first red carpet that I've really walked down where I didn't have to think about holding in my stomach – because I can't," she says. 

Berry also freely enjoys eating for two. "It's the first time I've been to an awards show where they served a meal and I actually ate it – the whole thing," she said. "I was eating off everybody else's plate and that felt very liberating and good."

The 41-year-old actress is expecting her first child with boyfriend Gabriel Aubry. At the ceremony, she was presented with the Desert Palm Achievement Award.

[People]