18 Celebs Who Have Talked About Why They Keep Their Children As Far Away From The Spotlight As Possible
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These days, it's not just the paparazzi that celebrity parents have to worry about. On social media, even *their own parents* may overshare, despite a celeb's best efforts and boundaries. (And yes, I am 100% talking about Emma Roberts's mom.)
So, here are 18 celebrity parents who have opened up about keeping their children off of social media and out of the public eye:
1.Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas have been upfront about shielding their daughter, Willa, from the spotlight since day one. So much so, in fact, that after she accidentally posted a video on Instagram where the 2-year-old appeared for a moment, Turner posted a follow-up in her stories, stating, "If I ever were to post anything of our kids, know that it is unquestionably a mistake."
Turner went on to ask fans to delete the video, calling her blunder an "honest mistake." "We have always advocated for our kids’ rights to privacy, so sharing this publicly is something that is against anything I stand for," she wrote. "Our children deserve the right to grow up out of the public eye, to learn and grow in private."
2.Another JoBro couple who are extremely serious about the privacy of their child: Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas. The couple waited a full year to show even a little bit of daughter Malti's face on social media. "I've been really protective of this chapter of my life with my daughter," Chopra shared with Vogue. "Because it’s not about my life only. It’s hers, too."
Chopra's Vogue cover shoot in February 2023 did include baby Malti, though her face was turned toward the actor, revealing just the back of her head. According to People, the first glimpse of their child's full, unobstructed face on social media happened the same month.
3.Celebrities who want to keep their children's faces off of social media not only have to manage their own posts but the posts of those in their immediate orbit as well. For example, Emma Roberts has had to do damage control twice thanks to her own mom. Most recently, Roberts's mom posted a snap of her and ex Garrett Hedlund's son Rhodes on Instagram.
Roberts's mom also shared that the couple was expecting back in 2020 after mistaking an unconfirmed tabloid report for an official announcement. Roberts told Jimmy Kimmel at the time, "I blocked her at one point. It was my only weapon," demonstrating just how seriously she takes their child's privacy.
Roberts took the more recent photo slip-up, however, in stride. The Scream Queens star re-posted the photo to her Instagram stories with the caption, "When your mom posts your son’s face without asking but you love them both, so whatever."
4.Mindy Kaling is also a fan of keeping her kids out of the spotlight. Her reasons aren't just that of a celebrity, either. First and foremost, she's concerned about her children's ability to consent to their faces being plastered across the internet. "I have no judgment for people in the public eye who share photos and videos of their children," the actor told People in an interview, "My sense is that [my kids] have no real consent right now to do that. … I feel like I might as well wait until they get old enough so they can tell me if they want to be part of my social media or not."
"Sometimes, it's just a safety thing. I don't want to be at the airport and have someone be like, 'Spencer, Katherine,' and have them look to the people as though they know them or they're friends. I think that could be really confusing as a kid," she continues in the People interview. "So, that's the reason I'm doing it, but it's hard because they're such a huge part of my life. And I'm like any parent where I'm proud of the things they do. I think they're so cute, and of course, I want other people to see it!"
5.John Krasinski is another member of The Office cast who aims to avoid the spotlight with his kids. He and wife Emily Blunt don't believe photos of daughters Hazel and Violet should be shared by the press. "Pics of kids should only come direct from parents," Krasinski posted to Twitter with a snapshot of newborn Hazel along with #NoKidsPolicy. Blunt herself is not on social media, and the couple also famously delayed sharing the entirety of their careers with their daughters in order to keep them further shielded from the spotlight.
During a 2022 interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Krasinski shared that their girls — ages 6 and 8 at the time — had seen Blunt's starring performance in Mary Poppins Returns, but were just starting to grasp their dad's fame. "My 6-year-old kept asking, 'Is that you?' And I said, 'Yeah, it is,'" Krasinski shared, laughing. "I said, 'That’s me, I’m just playing a character,' and she said, 'That’s not you.'"
6.Like Blunt, Mila Kunis also chooses to stay off social media, but she and husband Ashton Kutcher have been extremely open about their reasons for keeping their children's lives private. "We don't share any photos of our kids publicly because we actually feel like being public is a personal choice," Kutcher said on the Thrive Global Podcast, explaining their decision. "My wife and I have chosen a career where we’re in the public light, but my kids have not."
Kutcher went on to say: "So, I think they should have the right to choose that, and I actually don't think that they should have images of them as children that are out there, that somebody could potentially blackmail them with or do whatever — you know. It's their private life; it's not mine to give away."
7.Kerry Washington and Nnamdi Asomugha don't share many details publicly about their children. You won't find publicly-released photos on the internet of daughter Isabelle, son Caleb, or Asomugha's teenage daughter from a previous relationship.
Washington opened up about keeping this privacy intact, speaking about her youngest daughter during a SXSW panel, "I want her to be able to make those decisions in her time. She already has a lot to navigate in life as the daughter of an actor and a former football player. She should be able to enter this world when it feels right for her, and not [have me] make that decision for her. Who knows what the next generation of Snapchat will be when she’s allowed to have a phone."
8.In their now infamous sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duke and Dutchess of Sussex, aka Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, addressed several issues related to their personal privacy. With regard to their two children, the couple expressed a desire to share only what they were "comfortable" with instead of an unfettered media circus.
"There's no one who's on Instagram or social media that would say, 'Because I shared this one picture, that entitles you to have my entire camera roll. Go ahead and look through it,'" Markle said during the interview. "No one would want that. So, it's about boundaries. And it's about respect."
9.Ever the superstar that she is, Rihanna called out paparazzi for sharing images of her first-born son with A$AP Rocky before they did. "We get to decide as parents when and how we do that. End of story," she told British Vogue about the ordeal.
"Throw me to the wolves. Do what you want with me. But he doesn’t have a say in any of this," Rihanna goes on to say in the interview. "We’ve been protecting him thus far, and you don’t have any consent to be posting photos or selling photos of my child, a minor. Get the hell out of here with that." The couple is now expecting their second child together.
10.Another singer in the spotlight who wants to keep her son firmly out of it? Adele. Opening up during a Vogue interview on the topic back in 2016, the Grammy winner said, "We need to have some privacy."
"I think it's really hard being a famous person's child," Adele told Vogue. "What if he wants to smoke weed or drink underage, or what if he's gay and doesn't want to tell me, and then he's photographed and that's how I find out?"
11.Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have never been shy about sharing their own lives with the public, but when it comes to their kids, they have a strict no-photos policy. "My feeling is that I chose a career in the public eye. I chose to be quoted, I chose to have my picture taken. I don’t know them yet. I don’t know if they will want that. So, I really don’t have the right to choose for them," Bell shared in an interview with Romper.
The Good Place star's hubby is also a staunch supporter of their children's privacy, going so far as to share that Delta, 7, and Lincoln, 9, don't have access to their own screens. On The Endless Honeymoon podcast, Shepard recently opened up about the couple’s rules around screen usage, saying, "We don't have a phone problem 'cause they're not in the mix. And iPods aren't, iPads aren't in the mix and video games."
12.Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling are another superstar couple who — famously quiet as a couple themselves — like to keep their children's private lives under wraps. In addition to not posting photos or information online about their two daughters, Esmerelda and Amada, Mendes has also shared that she's more selective about which roles she takes on in an effort to protect her girls.
"What I try to emphasize is that I don’t let them see me put attention to how I dress. They’ve never seen me get ready for something; they’ve never seen me at work, which is fine, for whoever wants to do it that way, but the way I keep it normal is by not letting them see me in these situations," Mendes said in an interview with Women's Health. "I’m just Mom. And I’m more than happy to just be Mom."
13.Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are notoriously outspoken when it comes to protecting their children's privacy. Most recently, Lively took to Instagram to confirm the news of baby No. 4, complete with real-life photos of her bump, in an effort to dispel paparazzi who were waiting outside of their home. "You freak me and my kids out," the Gossip Girl alum wrote on Instagram.
14.Lively and Reynolds inspired another pair of celeb parents to follow in their footsteps. Take a look at Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid’s social feeds, and you won’t find any photos of daughter Khai. Though the couple is no longer together, they’re both insistent on privacy for their toddler. Speaking to Vogue in 2021, Hadid said, "I have friends who are public figures, and that's how they've gone about it. I've seen their kids really blossom in a different way."
In an Instagram story in late 2021, Hadid shared a heartfelt plea with members of the media, noting her and Malik's desire to keep images of Khai's face private. "Our wish is that she can choose how to share herself with the world when she comes of age, and that she can live as normal of a childhood as possible, without worrying about a public image that she has not chosen," her post said. "It would mean the world to us, as we take our daughter to see and explore NYC and the world, if you would PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE blur her face out of the images, if and when she is caught on camera."
15.In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Jennifer Garner spoke out about her kids and their rights to privacy despite their parents' fame. "'We didn’t ask for this,'" Garner recalled her daughter, Violet, whom she shares with Ben Affleck, saying of the paparazzi. "'We don’t want these cameras, they’re scary. The men are scary, they knock each other over, and it’s hard to feel like a kid when you’re being chased.'"
Garner famously testified at the California State Capitol in 2013, speaking out in support of a bill that changed the definition of harassment to protect children from the paparazzi. "I chose a public life…[but] my three children are private citizens," she said. "I love my kids. They're beautiful and sweet and innocent, and I don't want a gang of shouting, arguing, lawbreaking photographers who camp out everywhere we are all day, every day to continue traumatizing my kids."
16.Prior to Garner's testimony, she was introduced by Oscar-winner and mom Halle Berry, who championed the bill, citing extreme concerns about the paparazzi's treatment of her daughter. "We aren't just whiny celebrities," Berry said as she introduced Garner. "We're moms who are just trying to protect our children."
In 2019, Berry opened up again on The Today Show, saying, "I’ve fought really hard to protect their privacy, and I just want them to have their life and have it be theirs." She went on to explain that, "I just don’t want to plaster them all over the internet. That just doesn’t feel right for me. They’re gonna do that soon enough. That’s gonna be their life when they grow up, and they will choose when that starts."
17.From the moment they announced their baby's birth, Cameron Diaz and husband Benji Madden have made it a point to express their desire for privacy. On Instagram, they shared, "While we are overjoyed to share this news, we also feel a strong instinct to protect our little one’s privacy."
"So, we won’t be posting pictures or sharing any more details, other than the fact that she is really, really cute!! Some would even say RAD," the post concluded with a sweet nod to daughter Raddix's name.
18.And finally, George and Amal Clooney are another pair of famous faces on a mission to protect the privacy of their family. In 2021, George Clooney penned an open letter to the Daily Mail, asking the publication to refrain from posting photos of his wife and children, according to a report by the Hollywood Reporter.
The letter stated in part, "I am a public figure and accept the oftentimes intrusive photos as part of the price to pay for doing my job. Our children have made no such commitment." Citing safety concerns due to Amal's work as an attorney, the Oscar-winner goes on to say, "We cannot protect our children if any publication puts their faces on their cover."
