A-listers who are battling empty-nest syndrome

While it’s not a clinical condition, being an empty nester can leave parents feeling bereft. According to BACP-accredited therapist, Billie Dunlevy, parents can feel a “loss of purpose, an identity crisis and an increase in anxiety and depression” when their children move out. All of a sudden, their days are not filled with busy school calendars, endless washing and requests for lifts. The house is quiet and they wonder, what will I do with my quieter evenings?

And it’s no different for celebs. Reece Witherspoon admitted to Ellen De Generes that she laid on her daughter Ava’s bed and sobbed when she left home. It’s not all doom and gloom, however – Kelly Ripa’s husband Marc Consuelos says the pair now have more time to go on vacations together.

Be warned – you may need to grab the tissues for a few of these bittersweet stories of A-Listers watching their talented babies fly…

Courteney Cox found the second year of watching her daughter Coco return to college was unexpectedly harder than the first.

The 60-year-old star is extremely close to her daughter, whom she welcomed with ex-husband David Arquette in 2004. Coco is actually named after her mother – her name is made up the first two letters of Courtney’s first and last names. “It’s sort of an abbreviation of ‘Courteney Cox’ … ‘CoCo’,” David told George Lopez on Lopez Tonight in 2010.

The mother-daughter team have matching tattoos and even collaborate on beauty campaigns together.

When the actress spoke at the Inc. 5000 45th Annual Conference in Gala in Palm Desert, she admitted she didn’t think her daughter leaving home was a “big deal”. The Friends actress jested that Coco “doesn’t talk to me anyway, she’s always in her room”.

However, when the now 20-year-old returned from her first year at college to spend the summer at home, Courteney noticed her daughter had become “more mature.” This left Courteney feeling sad about her not-so-little girl returning to college, with the second year being harder to watch her go.

Former US President Barack Obama has some great tips for any parents sending their kids off to college. “Cry in the car”, and “bribe them with holidays” to make them come home, he told Today host Al Roker.

Since his and Michelle Obama’s daughters Malia and Sasha had both left for college, Barack was asked for advice by Al – who was about to go through the same thing himself with his son Nick.

“Well, first tip is you are going to weep copiously when you drop Nick off at college, but you can’t let him see you cry, so you drop him off and then you quickly leave, and then you cry in the car,” said the former US President.

“Tip number two is you try to bribe them with like nice trips – ‘Hey, we’re going to Hawaii, you guys want to come?’ – So that they show up,” he added.

“Oh, my husband,” she said “He was weeping and … he still is like, ‘They left me!”’ She has some theories as to why. ”That’s because I spent all the time with them,” she explained of raising their girls. ”He was president.”

She joked: “I was like, ‘Kick them out the door.”’

When the time came to fly the nest, the siblings attended separate universities – Malia went to Harvard and Sasha attended Michigan University. However, the pair became roommates in California due to their universities being situated near each other.

With both of her girls now making their way in the world (Malia as a writer, Sasha as a sociology graduate) Michelle’s role as a mom has changed. She opened up on her podcast We Can Do Hard Things about the transitional period in “moving from mom-in-chief to advisor-in-chief”. Whilst missing her girls, Michelle said it was a relief to watch them both do well and that she would always be there to support them.

Gwyneth Paltrow found her daughter leaving home to be very emotionally challenging. The Goop founder told People in 2022 that when she dropped her mini-me off at college she felt “sick to her stomach” and was “bursting into tears”.

Gywneth confided in her pal Victoria Beckham, telling the former Spice Girl on The Goop Podcast that she didn’t know what was in store for her as an empty-nester parent. “I feel like I’m on the precipice of change, I can feel it coming,” she lamented, before telling Victoria: “You’re lucky you’ve still got a little one, you’ve got some years left.”

Comforting her friend, Victoria reassured Gwyneth the best is yet to come, telling her: “You’ll have some wild parties, Gwyneth, when you’ve got an empty house you’ll have a lot of fun doing all those things you couldn’t do.”

Husband-and-wife presenter duo Mark Consuelos and Kelly Rip warned their viewers that empty-nest syndrome can end marriages – but thankfully, not in their case.

The pair – who have been married for 28 years – have three children: Mark, Lola and Joaquin Consuelos who they raised in New York City. On the American morning show, Live with Kelly and Mark, which they’ve co-hosted for two seasons, the couple joked about “gray divorces” – which are couples who split up in their fifties or afterwards.

“They say empty nest syndrome can contribute to that,” Kelly said, to which Mark agreed: “That’s a real thing.”

“Relationships are so built upon the children that once the children leave, the couple find they no longer have anything in common,” Kelly continued. The audience then started to laugh as Mark pulled a face, and the All My Children alum reassured them: “We still have a lot in common,” as her husband smiled and nodded.

Despite Mark, 53, telling People that he felt a type of “loss” when his only daughter moved out; there was a newfound sense of freedom for him and his wife, whom he met on the set of All My Children in 1996. He described their dreamy, new lifestyle  – watching sunsets, eating when they want, hiking together and going rock climbing.

That’s not to say the kids haven’t been missed, and the family enjoy reuniting during the holiday season. Mark told People that his children now bring their partners over on Christmas and he feels “honoured” that his kids aren’t “embarrassed” to hang out with him with their significant others

Jada Pinkett-Smith had to deal with an empty nest earlier than most moms. Kids Jaden and Willow – who she shares with Will Smith – were away from home a lot as teens thanks to their music and screen careers.

The experience was made easier by the duo checking in often, however. “It’s funny — they’re not around, but they are!” Jada told Yahoo in 2017. “I don’t even have time to miss them! Willow loves to call me every day, and even Jaden, when he’s away on set, still needs to see Will and I when he gets homesick.”

Willow has often spoken about her upbringing as a testimony to her independence. She told Pharrell Williams that growing up, she admired her parents for “trying to be the best people they could be” and always giving back to others.

The Hairspray star revealed it was actually her two children that prompted her to take on more work projects again. “So I remember actually it was my kids,” she said during an appearance on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast in 2023. “They said, ‘Mom, are you ever gonna go back to work?’ I said, ‘What do you mean? Isn’t it great that I’m home?’ “

The star returned from her Hollywood hiatus in 2017 in full force and gained her eighth Golden Globe nomination for French Exit the following year.

The two boys have followed in her footsteps to become models and her daughter is pursuing music. Christine told Parade of her creative children: “I have three real individuals. They all find magic in different places, and I feel so fortunate to experience that.”

“It’s shocking for parents when their kids get older. Suddenly they’re 18 and doing things on their own. Childhood seems to last forever, but adolescence goes by in a flash,” she told the Daily Mail. “I was looking at my son’s room and I was, like, ‘He’s never going to be back here.’ And my husband said, ‘He’ll be back, but not in the same way.’ College is a halfway house – they’re on their own and responsible, but obviously not entirely responsible.”

When the kids were younger – Liv is now 22 years old and Caleb is 26 – the Oscar winner made sure to maintain flexibility in her work schedule to accommodate family life. In 2010 she told The Guardian about of trying to balance it all: ”Just like every other working parent I’m trying to figure out: ‘How do I work, how am I available for soccer games, how can I make sure that I’m home when everybody’s doing their homework?’ So if I come to do press in London, I come for two days, and I get right back home.”

When the time came for her daughter to move out she told Italian IO she felt a ”flood of emotions” and she was preparing for the ”inevitable moments of nostalgia for when they were young” to resurface.

Reece Witherspoon was not prepared for the flood of emotions when her oldest child left home. Her lookalike daughter Ava Phillipe left to study at University of California, Berkeley, and Reese reflected on the experience during an appearance on pal Ellen Degeneres’ talk show in 2019.

During an interview with Gayle King for InStyle, Reese said her kids were her ”first, most important priority.” She shares Ava, 26, and her 21-year-old brother Deacon with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe and 12-year-old Tennesse Jameswith Jim Toth, whom she divorced in 2023.