All About Julia Fox's Son Valentino

Julia Fox welcomed son Valentino with ex-husband Peter Artemiev in 2021

Julia Fox's son Valentino has given her a love like no other. Born to the Uncut Gems actress and her ex-husband Peter Artemiev on Jan. 17, 2021, Valentino’s arrival brought a whole new lease on life.

Julia opened up about becoming a mother to Interview in 2021, saying, “It’s like taking a comb through your whole life and anything extra and unnecessary falls to the wayside. It’s really, really nice.”

The model also wrote about the bond she shares with her child in her 2023 memoir, Down the Drain. “It’s the kind of love that claws its way out of your gut, rips you apart and puts you back together again,” she wrote in a chapter outlining his birth. “He is worth all the blood and pain, all the tears and all the sleepless nights.”

She added: “He’s absolutely perfect. He is the most beautiful little boy I have ever laid my eyes on. When I see him using every bit of strength to inch his body close to mine, I am filled with a love so visceral, it could shatter the earth. I am his. And he is mine.”

Now, all that’s missing is a little brother or sister: “I would like to have more children. I think he's ready for siblings,” she told PEOPLE in June 2022.

Here’s everything to know about Julia Fox’s son Valentino.

Julia kept her pregnancy a secret

Fans were shocked when Julia, who kept her pregnancy under wraps for the full nine months she was with child, announced the birth of her son on Valentine’s Day 2021.

“I kept it a secret,” she explained in a joint interview for Document. “I just think it’s so annoying when girls get pregnant and then that’s all they post about. Like, ‘Okay, we’re happy for you.’ I didn’t want to do that to people.”

The author even kept her pregnancy from her castmates and the crew on the set of 2021’s No Sudden Move, which she shot while she was six months along. “I found out I was pregnant right as I was up for this role in No Sudden Move,” she told the outlet. “My manager was like, ‘So when do we tell them you’re pregnant?’ I was like, ‘Alan, we don’t.’ ”

As she revealed to Interview, she was also pregnant during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when public appearances were few, making it easy to keep her secret. “I was pregnant when people were still really scared, and no one was leaving the house,” she said.

Valentino’s dad is a pilot

Julia tied the knot with Valentino’s dad, Artemiev, in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day in 2018. "At the Little White Wedding Chapel, nobody knew, I was dressed like a cowgirl,” she said on a January 2022 episode of her podcast, Forbidden Fruits. “We were so in love,” she added. “We pretty much [started dating], and then a month later we were married.”

Unlike her famous ex-boyfriend Ye (previously known as Kanye West), whom she dated for a short period in early 2022, Artemiev, a pilot, is a private citizen. “He just so is not about this life,” Julia revealed on the podcast. “He doesn’t give a f--- about it. He’s, like, the most chillest, down-to-earth, authentic guy,” she said.

Julia and Artemiev reportedly called it quits on their relationship sometime in 2020. Still, she said she feels their union was destined: “I feel like he was kind of meant to deliver me my son, in a weird way.”

Valentino was born early

Valentino arrived three weeks ahead of schedule. Julia detailed the experience in her memoir, explaining that her doctors recommended she be induced nearly a month before she was expected to give birth due to high blood pressure. “I begin to panic. I don’t have diapers or a crib. I don’t even have a car seat or a stroller!” she recalled in her book.

She also hadn’t taken her maternity photos. Rather than forgo the keepsakes, Julia briefly headed home to meet her friends, who helped her get ready to quickly take a few pregnancy shots. “Within an hour I have my maternity photos and am on my way to the hospital to give birth,” she wrote.

When the moment came for Valentino to enter the world on Jan. 17, 2021, Julia told The New Yorker that it “was better than any drug,” and a moment she would love to relive forever. “If I could live in those ten seconds on a loop, of him coming out, me holding him, I would,” she said.

Julia announced Valentino’s birth with a nude maternity photoshoot

Julia announced her son’s arrival to fans on Valentine’s Day in 2021, with a series of nude maternity photos that she took just hours before he was born. “Right after the shoot I went to the hospital and had my precious baby boy,” she captioned one shot, with another reading, “190 pounds of MILF.”

In both pics, the former fashion designer’s body was on full display, showing off the side of her chest and legs as well as her baby bump as she covered her breasts with long black opera gloves. Her only other accessories were a simple pair of black Giuseppe Zanotti heels and a gold necklace that read “Daddy.”

Julia initially wanted to have a girl

Though the model loves her son fiercely, she told The New Yorker in September 2023 that she initially wanted a daughter. “When I found out I was having a boy, I was a little disappointed — I’d wanted a girl,” she said.

Another part of her, however, was relieved. “Like, OK, I don’t have to warn her about all these things,” she thought.

Valentino helped to repair Julia’s relationship with her dad

Julia has a complex relationship with her father, Thomas Fox, whom she has alleged had an affair with her best friend’s mom when Julia was a child. “[It] went on for years, and that really just pulled the rug out from under me,” the actress told The New Yorker in September 2023.

After the birth of her son, however, the father and daughter were able to reconnect. “My dad and I did not really have a relationship before Valentino was born,” Julia revealed to Debi Mazar in a joint 2021 interview for Document. “Now I feel so much closer to him,” she said. “I understand him more, and I forgive him.”

She continued: “At the end of the day, my dad raised me. We’re very similar in personality, but we had such a big disconnect. I had a lot of resentment and anger. Now I feel so at peace.”

Thomas also has a great relationship with Valentino, according to the fashion designer. “My dad has stepped up,” she told The New Yorker. “He’s the best grandpa to my son, and my son is always so happy to see him, and I’m going to celebrate that.”

Julia experienced postpartum depression

Over a year after Valentino was born, Julia opened up about her struggles with postpartum depression in a September 2022 TikTok video. While speaking about women who experienced the medical condition, she raised her hand to indicate she was one of them and offered a theory for why it occurs. “It’s because literally since little girls we’re told that, like, having a baby is like, the end goal,” she postulated. “It’s the best thing we’re ever gonna do. Our lives will be meaningless if we don’t have babies, and like, it’s gonna fix all of our problems and blah blah blah."

She continued: “I think it’s, like, just such a reality check when we finally have a kid, and we’re like, ‘Holy f---,’ this has just drastically made my entire life worse. This is not at all the fairy tale that I was f------ promised. But how do we say that out loud?” she asked.

Julia is raising Valentino to be a “protector of women”

Julia told The New Yorker in September 2023 that she’s raising Valentino to be an ally to women. “I can’t have him becoming an abuser in any type of way,” she told the outlet. “I can’t have him becoming incompetent and eventually making a female counterpart pay for that."

Instead, Julia said that she wants her son to be a champion of the opposite sex. “I want my son to really step up and be a protector of women, someone who allows women the space and agency to feel safe and taken care of,” she explained.

To help him do that, the entertainer is working to make sure he’s self-sufficient as early as humanly possible. “I make sure that he knows how to do things for himself, even though he’s still just a baby,” she told The New Yorker. “I don’t want him to become super dependent on women.”

Julia and Valentino live in New York City

Julia went viral in January 2023 when she gave fans an “underwhelming” tour of her and Valentino’s New York City apartment, which featured a living room-turned-playroom for Valentino, complete with a mini jungle gym.

While the toddler’s room was well-equipped with a loft, a train set, a bookshelf and toys (something the model said she “put the most effort into),” critics were surprised at the apartment’s modesty. Julia later defended their living arrangement in a video posted on social media, saying, “This just happens to be the apartment that I took my son home from the hospital ... It’s his home. It really is Valentino's apartment," she said with a laugh. "It's like a sentimental thing.”

Julia also said she embraces their pared-down lifestyle. “Even though I could probably afford a bigger place ... it's about having that sense of normalcy for Valentino,” she said. “I don’t want him to grow up and be, like, a f------ prick. ... I want him to be in touch with the f------ real world."

In addition to their smaller living quarters, Julia told The New Yorker that she also forwent a nanny in his early days, both out of financial necessity (“I didn’t really have the means,” she said), and out of desire. “I think I was also coming from a place where I don’t think I was properly cared for. I wanted my son to know that mommy’s there, and she’s there all the time,” she said. “He was born, and I thought, ‘I don’t want to miss one moment.’ ”

Valentino has already been to fashion week

Despite being a toddler, Valentino has already attended his very first New York Fashion Week, showing up to the Elena Velez show on Sept. 10, 2022, on his mom’s hip. The little boy wore a sleek black ensemble to match his mom’s own dark and shiny outfit.

Several months later, the fashionable duo twinned once more for Milan Fashion Week, where they wore coordinating denim looks at the Diesel show.

Valentino made Julia more confident

According to Julia, her confidence has only grown since becoming a mother.

“I had a moment of like, ‘Oh my god ... What if my life is over?’ she confessed to Interview magazine in 2021. “One thing I was so afraid of was, ‘I’m not going to be an artist anymore. I’m only going to care about my child and that’s it.’ That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

In fact, the muse told the publication that Valentino’s presence has strengthened her dedication to her craft — and herself. “If anything, I’m much more focused because of my child,” she explained. “He’s only reinforced who I already am. He didn’t take anything away from me. He just made me more comfortable being me.”

She is more selective about the things she puts her effort into, however, as her time is limited. “It’s very humbling ... that this little baby is the boss of me,” she joked. “He decides what we do.”

Julia has called Valentino “her greatest accomplishment”

While celebrating Valentino’s first birthday, Julia penned a sweet tribute to her toddler, calling him her “greatest accomplishment.”

“Thank you so much for showing me what love is,” she wrote. “Thank you for humbling me and teaching me patience and hard work. Thank you for being my biggest blessing.”

She finished by saying, “I don’t deserve you but … I promise to love you unconditionally and accept you for who you are.”

In the post, Julia included several photos of herself and her son, including one that showed the little boy’s head covered in pink lipstick from her apparent kisses. She also included several family photos with her ex, which showed the pilot kissing Valentino on the head in one and the trio dressed up for Halloween as Star Wars characters in another.

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