The parenting secrets of Hollywood stars revealed

Parenting as a celebrity brings a set of unique challenges that most “normal” parents couldn’t even imagine. 

The demands of a fast-paced lifestyle and an unstable schedule with filming and promotional commitments can cause issues – not to mention the extra pressure of the intense interest which comes from being the child of a public figure.

It’s true that with a disposable income higher than most, stars are available to afford childcare and nannies. But, as Kim Kardashian puts it – “no matter how much help you have, your babies want their mommy”.

So how do A-listers go about raising their children in the spotlight?

From the “chaos” of Blake Lively’s home life with Ryan Reyolds, to Will Smith and Jada’s”“no punishment” rule and the failsafe decision-making rule Eddie Murphy follows every time – read on for the successful parenting secrets of Hollywood stars…

The acting power-couple are parents to four children – James, nine, Inez, eight, Betty, five, and one-year-old Olin.

With four children under ten, there are undoubtedly a lot of stressful moments – but Ryan is doing his best to live in the moment, following the excellent advice of his wife.

Speaking on the Not Skinny but Not Fat podcast, he said: “Blake always says that they’re all under our roof right now. We have them all and that is a fleeting thing. It is not an infinite resource. So, embrace the chaos of it all.”

He added that despite the messy house, poor sleep and challenge of keeping the family going, he said: “just think about what you would give in 40 years or 30 years to come back and enjoy this one moment.”

For the duo, being good parents means having no worries about embarrassing your kids. Fun fact – the baby you hear at the start of Taylor Swift’s song ‘Gorgeous’ is actually Blake and Ryan’s eldest, James. Blake revealed on Good Morning America that when the two parents heard the recording of their daughter’s voice being played at a Taylor Swift concert, they couldn’t contain their excitement and began filming – and a clip of the incident filmed by another concertgoer went viral. She said: “We were very embarrassing. This is the true, unfiltered version of our terrible stage-parent pride.”

For Blake, her kids come first. Colleen Hoover, the writer of the story behind the star mom’s most recent film It Ends with Us, told Vogue: “She could be on a phone call with, it doesn’t matter, the freaking Pope, and if her kid walks into the room, she’s going to give one hundred percent of her attention to her children. As a mom, I just really fell in love with that part of her.”

It has always been important for Blake to protect her family’s privacy. When pregnant with her fourth child, Olin, she took to Instagram to share pictures of her pregnancy – but made it clear that the paparazzi had forced her hand.

She wrote: “Here are photos of me pregnant in real life so the 11 guys waiting outside my home for a sighting will leave me alone. You freak me and my kids out.”

The birth of his fourth child was quoted as the inspiration for Ryan to create Bedtime Stories – his 15-part TV series in which he reads classic and new tales to help children fall asleep.

He has said his parenting style is very different to what he experienced growing up. “Parents today are so different. We’re so soft. I don’t yell. I grew up with like — it was nuts, it was an improvised militia,” he said at HubSpot’s INBOUND tech conference.

“Now it’s like, I can go look at all my resources for parenting and remind myself how to be perfectly compassionate,” Ryan shared.

Ryan has no plans to stop with just four children – he wants more. Speaking to E! News, he said: “The more the merrier. As many as possible. As many little heartbeats as possible, just running around, wrecking stuff in the house. I love it. Let’s have more!”

Helena and Tim met while filming The Planet of the Apes in 2000, and were confirmed to be dating in October 2001. The duo never married but were together for 13 years and famously lived in two separate houses, connected by a corridor.

The couple welcomed a son, Billy Raymond, in October 2003, named after both Tim and Helena’s fathers.

Speaking to The Guardian shortly after welcoming Billy when she was 40, Helena told of her joy: “On the day Billy was born, it was like walking through a mirror and everything was Technicolor. My life had been very work-orientated, and all in close-up. Once I had the family it went into sudden widescreen.”

It wasn’t until 2007 that the couple announced that Helena was pregnant with a second child, after two years of fertility struggles. Nell was born in December 2007.

Helena opened up to The Telegraph about the fertility treatment and alternative therapies she had tried in order to conceive. Then she fell pregnant while filming Sweeney Todd: “I was working so hard at the time. The first three months being pregnant while filming, I felt totally spaced out,” she said.

“You do need to multi-task with acting. You’ve got to remember your marks, your lines, singing, everything, and actually — you have no brain! Suddenly your own brain is growing another person’s brain, so yours goes defunct. It wasn’t ideal, but then I was so happy to be pregnant.”

While Tim and Helena separated in 2014, they remained friends and dedicated co-parents, even going on a course to learn about descriptive praise and reflective listening with children.

As far as unconventional families go, the Kardashian-Jenner clan are right up there

Kris married Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner – then known as Bruce Jenner – in 1991, bringing with her four children – Rob, Kim, Khloé and Kourtney – from her previous marriage to attorney Robert Kardashian. The couple welcomed two more girls, Kendall and Kylie, before divorcing in 2015 after 24 years of marriage.

Managing six kids was no mean feat – and Kim herself acknowledges they were not easy kids. In an interview with Vogue Italia, Kim said: “I constantly ask [Kris],’How did you do it? Six kids, six big personalities. We’re all so different, how did you really handle it?’ She is just like, ‘Why do you think I had my vodka at 5:00 o’clock every day?'”

Caitlyn, meanwhile, has shared some vulnerabilities about parenting, writing via Instagram for Khloé’s birthday: “Being your stepfather was, and is, one of the best things that I was ever blessed with by your mother. I promised your father that I would do my best to always be there for you kids and I know I haven’t been perfect but I will always love you and you are forever in my heart.”

She also shared how brilliant it was to be able to work with her family on Keeping Up with the Kardashians for so many years.

As a high-profile mother-of-four in the spotlight, Kim has had her fair share of parenting tribulations with North, 11, Saint, eight, Chicago, six, and five-year-old Psalm.

The Skims founder admits she falls into the trap of comparing herself to other mothers. “I look at a lot of my friends and their kids are perfect and I don’t know how to do it and I don’t understand it and I’m envious and it’s amazing all at the same time,” she told Vogue Italia.

“There’s a lot in a household with four, four different personalities. I feel so lucky and blessed to have help, but no matter how much help you have, your babies want their mommy, you have to be the one to solve every problem and act like you have it all together. I have so much respect for parents and now I can’t believe what my mom went through.”

It hasn’t been easy for the reality star, who shares her four children with rapper Kanye West, whom she legally separated from in 2022.

She told the magazine how she puts her children first when navigating co-parenting. “If it’s something concerning my kids’ dad and I’m upset, I try not to show as much emotion. I have to be ready to explain why I’m upset and it might not be appropriate for them to know.”

Ye has been the subject of much recent controversy over anti-Semitic comments and legal disputes with his ex-employees, but Kim has worked hard to shield her children from it.

“I definitely protected him, and I still will in the eyes of my kids, for my kids. So, in my home, my kids don’t know anything that goes on in the outside world,” she said during an appearance on the Angie Martinez IRL podcast, acknowledging she doesn’t know how long she can keep it up.  “I’m holding on by a thread. I know I’m so close to that not happening. While that’s still happening, I will protect that to the ends of the earth, as long as I can.

“If we’re riding to school, and they want to listen to their dad’s music — no matter what we’re going through and no matter what’s happening in the world, I have to have that smile on my face and blast his music and sing along with my kids and act like nothing’s wrong,” she added. “As soon as I drop them off I can have a good cry.”

The 44-year-old has also shared how it is important for her to set a good example to her children.

The Sex and the City star has three children with Ferris Bueller’s Day off actor Matthew Broderick, whom she wed in 1997.

Sarah and Matthew are parents to James Wilkie, 21, and 13-year-old twin daughters Tabitha Hodge and Marion Loretta Elwell, who they welcomed via a surrogate.

The mum-of-three has been open about what she’s learned about parenting over the years.

Speaking exclusively to HELLO!, Sarah said: “I’m a mother of three children and I’ve discovered that they don’t need you less as they get older – they need you more. That’s a dominant, joyful part of my life but it’s also the thing that’s most important.”

The Hocus Pocus actress also shared with HELLO! the invaluable life advice she gives her children: “I think staying too long in things that are upsetting hasn’t been helpful for me.

“I say this to my kids, too. You should feel upset if you have an unpleasant or disappointing experience: feel it, but what are the ways in which you can resurface? Where do you find your resilience?

“There’s danger in sitting in the saddle of blue. For me, I have to say: ‘Okay, that happened – now what?'”

Sarah’s advice doesn’t stop there. In an appearance on iHeartRadio’s Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi, the star revealed that she is teaching her children about the value of money.

She said: “You want your children to understand what it means to earn money, what it takes to earn money, the value of it. They [should know] the expectations will be the same for them.

“I think it’s a great way of living for children, that their needs are met — to be fed, safe and loved. The important things in life: books and food and interesting experiences, and they’re warm in the winter and cool in summer,” she continued.

“But they should pine for things, they should want things. And we should also be interested in, how do they contribute to the things, at a certain point?”

Sarah has also been open about how her own upbringing has shaped her parenting approach to food.

“In our house, we have cookies, we have cake. We have everything,” she told Ruthie Rogers on the Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast. “And I think as a result, you have a healthier relationship.”

She explained: “When I had girls, I didn’t want them to have a relationship with food that was antagonistic, or they felt like this was their enemy and that they were going to stake out a position with food.”

As a result of this more relaxed approach to what her children eat, her perspective is a lot more balanced.

“My daughters will have the figures they have and hopefully they’ll be healthy,” she said. “They’re athletes and they enjoy food and they have different palates, and you can’t make someone like something they don’t like or want.”

She added: “I hope that they can maintain their affection for the experience and their delight in taste and find their own ways to have that be healthy for them.”

Comedian and actor Eddie Murphy has had plenty of parenting experience, with an impressive brood of ten children.

Speaking to Marc Maron on the WTF podcast, Eddie opened up about his biggest realisation as a father.

He said: “I am going to be 60 in April and I have all these babies. I love fatherhood.

“The whole idea of being out there and doing three movies a year, that s— is over… I found over and over again and along the way I realised that if you put your children first you never make a bad decision.

“When you hit a crossroads moment or you have got some s—, you think, ‘Well, what is best for my children?’ If you go that route then you never make a bad decision,” he continued.

Eddie’s fifth child, Shayne, has been very open about the role her father has played in her life.

She told PEOPLE: “He was just very supportive of me and everything that I decide to do. He’s very trusting of my judgement.”

Shayne sweetly shared that Eddie’s “favourite thing is to just be around his kids”.

The Quiet Place acting duo have both on-screen and off-screen chemistry – they’ve been happily married since 2010 and share two daughters, Hazel, ten, and Violet, seven.

Both John and Emily have opened up about experiencing “mum guilt” and “dad guilt” in the past as they are often required to be away from home during filming.

“Because even though they’re hardy, and they’re used to this strange life, it’s still rough on them when I have to go away,” the Mary Poppins Returns star explained in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “There are cornerstones of the girls’ day that I don’t want to compromise on – like, ‘Will you wake me up, take me to school, pick me up and put me to bed?’ And I just want to be able to say, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ It’s such an exhale for me to be able to do that.”

Emily’s children are her toughest critics. “They are usually disinterested in seeing me on screen, but they’re really into Jungle Cruise,” she said On Live with Kelly and Ryan, referencing the 2021 film she starred in opposite Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson based on the eponymous Disney theme park ride.

Speaking to TODAY, John said: “I think you realize first and foremost how it’s really hard to be a great parent and you’re just trying. There’s no perfection. There’s no school. There’s no defined way to go about it; you’re just learning.

“And I think that there’s such a long period of time when you’re a kid that you see your parents as superheroes; they can do no wrong. But you realize they figured everything out by trial and error too, and there’s something very humbling about that. I really connected to my parents even more, thinking of them as young parents, as I am now.”

Emily is well aware that It can be tough for celebrity kids to grow up in the spotlight. “I don’t want my kids to feel any more important or special or that there’s a glare on them any more than other kids,” she told The Sunday Times. “If they can remain oblivious for the longest time, I’d be thrilled. They don’t even want to see what I do. They don’t even like it when I put on makeup. They don’t like any of it! They just want me to be their mummy.”

Fatal Attraction actor Michael Douglas has become a father at two very different times in his life.

Once in 1978 when he welcomed Cameron – now 45 – with his ex-wife Diandra Luker, and a second time in the early 2000s with the birth of son Dylan and daughter Carys with Catherine Zeta-Jones.

“I’m not driven like I once was – these days I am consumed with being a father and with my responsibilities as a husband,” Michael told The Guardian on the subject of having children again in his 60s. “I never anticipated starting a family at my age. I’m genuinely happy to let Catherine work, while I stay at home with the children. I cherish this time.”

Micheal’s first marriage ended in 1995 and he had a strained relationship with his son Cameron, who had struggles with addiction and served prison time for drug related offences. After his release in 2016 the pair worked to get their relationship back on track and Micheal has been supportive of his son as he focuses on family, recovery and finding stability.

“During my first marriage, my career was the most important thing in my life. I clearly know I made mistakes. There were absences,” Michael has said of his first experience of fatherhood.

“Now that my own priorities are entirely different, I’m always encouraging people to wait to have a family – get yourself sorted career-wise first as much as you can.”

Bryce’s experiences growing up as the daughter director Ron Howard has shaped her approach to parenting. The star was the subject of kidnapping threats as a child, an experience which she says has made her “risk averse”.

She shares a son, Theodore, 17, and a daughter, Beatrice, 12, with Salem actor Seth Gabel.

“I’m not very strict as a parent, but I’ll ask my kids, ‘Do you think I’m strict?’,” she told PEOPLE,  “And they’re like, ‘No, you’re not. Except when it comes to safety.’”

She admits to being particularly hard on her son in that respect. “The poor boy, what I put him through. He basically can be a race car driver at this point because I’m like, ‘You’re not allowed to get your licence until you know how to do every defensive driving move imaginable.'”

Will Smith and his wife of 27 years, Jada Pinkett-Smith “don’t do punishment” when it comes to kids Jaden, 26, and 23-year-old Willow.

In a father-son interview with Metro, Will revealed: “The way that we deal with our kids is, they are responsible for their lives. Our concept is, as young as possible, give them as much control over their lives as possible and the concept of punishment, our experience has been—it has a little too much of a negative quality.

“So when they do things—and you know, Jaden, he’s done things—you can do anything you want as long as you can explain to me why that was the right thing to do for your life.”

Jaden appeared to approve of his parents’ methods, saying: “Other teenagers go to parties and sometimes I be like, ‘Why am I here right now?’ And most of the time, I just leave right then and there. Some things I don’t like to do, that other teenagers do.”

The couple feel strongly about motivating their children to be artistic. “There’s a really powerful internal quality as an artist that as parents we encourage,” Will told BBC Radio One. “You gotta get out on the edge, you have to try things, you have to be comfortable doing things that people don’t agree with, and you have to be comfortable doing things that you could fail.”

He continued, “Jaden is 100 percent fearless, he will do anything. As a parent it’s scary, it’s really terrifying, but he is completely willing to live and die by his artistic decisions and he doesn’t concern himself with what people think.”

The Hollywood couple also have a “circle of safety” – meaning their children can tell them anything, and they won’t get in trouble.

The Thor actor has said becoming a parent has made him “less selfish”. He explained to E! News: “It’s no longer about you. It can’t be. It’s about someone else, which is refreshing. It’s nice to not spend all your time thinking about your own problems and garbage up there and I just have so much fun doing it. It’s the best.”

The Australian actor shares three children, daughter India Rose and twin sons Sasha and Tristan with Spanish-born actress Elsa Pataky. Since becoming a dad, he says his attitude to work has changed.

“Now I’m a bit more choosy, I think, with when I work and how I work because it better be worthwhile to take me away from them,” he said.

Above all, parenthood is about appreciating the little moments, according to Chris.

“Last week, we were in the car driving somewhere, and my little girl was in the back seat with me,” he told Parade. “I was really tired, and I leaned over and I put my head on her lap, without even thinking about it. I just wanted to lie down a little bit and sleep because it was a 40-minute drive. And she started patting my head and singing a song through her pacifier. I don’t even know what song it was. I looked at my wife, who was in the front seat, and she had tears in her eyes.

“There’s the idea that we as parents spend all this time protecting our children. No, I think they’re protecting us. Sitting in the car with my head on her lap and her singing to me, there was this understanding of, ‘Wow, she’s looking after Dad, and that’s her job.’ You know? And that was such a joy. Oh, there’s nothing better! It was the happiest moment of my life.”