Miley Cyrus, Sarah Paulson, Ava DuVernay, And 14 Other Famous Women Who Shared The Reasons Why They're Proudly Childfree
As someone who's chosen to remain childfree, I love finding out which famous people don't have kids. And since it's Women's History Month, I thought it'd be fun to take a look at some of the female celebs who've spoken up about the different reasons why they're childfree:
Disclaimer: This doesn't mean that moms shouldn't be celebrated, too! They have the hardest job in the world and deserve so much love and respect. But I think it's also important to highlight women who've chosen a path that's been traditionally shamed and frowned upon.
1.Miley Cyrus
During a 2019 interview with Elle, the singer voiced concerns about the state of the environment. "We’re getting handed a piece-of-sh*t planet, and I refuse to hand that down to my child. Until I feel like my kid would live on an earth with fish in the water, I’m not bringing in another person to deal with that. We [millennials] don’t want to reproduce because we know that the earth can’t handle it."
2.Mary J. Blige
Last year, the singer told E! Daily Pop, "I have nieces and nephews forever, and I’m always watching how people are scrambling around for babysitters. I don’t want to go through that. I like my freedom. I like being able to get up and go and move and do what I want to do. I don’t want to have to tend to someone all the time."
3.Dolly Parton
During an episode of The Oprah Conversation, the singer shared that not having children actually enabled her to help more kids. "I didn't have children because I believed that God didn't mean for me to have kids so everybody's kids could be mine, so I could do things like Imagination Library because if I hadn't had the freedom to work, I wouldn't have done all the things I've done. I wouldn't be in a position to do all of the things I'm doing now," she said.
4.Zoë Kravitz
Last year, the actor told Elle, "I don't feel pressured to have kids by a certain time, if I ever have kids...I still want to go on adventures, have fun nights, and see the sunrise. It's been an interesting journey of remembering that there's no finish line that I have to get to by a certain time. Playful, mischievous behavior is something I always hope to have, even when I'm 70 years old. The point of being alive is to experience life and play with it. There's still so much fun to be had."
During a 2022 interview with GQ, she said, "It’s a hard question to ask yourself: 'Maybe I don’t want the thing that I’m supposed to want, a marriage, children, any of it. I don’t know if I want that at all.' That’s an uncomfortable question, especially for a woman to ask herself."
5.Dame Helen Mirren
In an interview with British Vogue, the actor said, "It was not my destiny. I kept thinking it would be, waiting for it to happen, but it never did, and I didn't care what people thought. It was only boring old men [who would ask me]. And whenever they went, 'What? No children? Well, you'd better get on with it, old girl,' I'd say, 'No! F*ck off!'"
6.Oprah
Though the TV personality cares deeply for the students and alumni of her school in South Africa, she has no regrets about not having children of her own. "If I had kids, my kids would hate me," she told the Hollywood Reporter in 2013. "They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer, and it would’ve probably been them.”
7.Margaret Cho
In No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood, the comedian wrote, "Babies scare me more than anything. They’re tiny and fragile and impressionable — and someone else’s! As much as I hate borrowing stuff, that is how much I hate holding other people’s babies. It’s too much responsibility. Of course, they are lovely and warm and adorable, and it’s so funny when they decide they like you and hold you in return, but I am frightened of doing something wrong that will alter them forever. Give them a weird look, and they might be talking to their therapist about me 50 years later."
She continued, "My fear of having children is that, frankly, I just don’t want to love anyone that much. I have my own problems with love, and I have processed and played the same games for a lifetime, but what if I had to do that with someone I actually MADE?! I don’t know if I could stand that kind of commitment, or, if I am really honest, I don’t think I could handle being that vulnerable to someone else."
8.Chelsea Handler
For many years, the comedian has been outspoken about being childfree. A couple months ago, she told Today, "As a woman, I’m so sick — and have been so sick — of being asked that question [about having kids] repeatedly when I’ve made my views so clear to people." She's noticed a lack of representation for "people in this world that just want to be living their lives and live out loud and loving hard without a family and without that kind of societal construct."
She also said that having kids is something people should "seriously consider" before doing. "I think that a lot of people just think, 'Oh, I have to do that. That’s the next step.' And it’s so annoying because it’s not what you have to do."