Mama's Boys: Mothers and Sons on Their Unbreakable Bond
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Charles and the queen. Ronan and Mia. Elon and Maye. Sons and mothers: a fierce and loving and complicated bond. Pardon us if we get a little sentimental. What would Mother say?
Wes & Diane Gordon/
Jody Gottfried Arnhold & Paul Arnhold
”My mom has been my champion every step of the way, from hand-sewing beads onto my graduation collection to every one of my fashion shows. She is my forever muse.” —Wes
”The most tenacious and generous person I know is my mom. I am lucky to have such an incredible role model.” —Paul
Emily Tracy & Simon & Nikolai Haas
”Our mom is wildly creative, and she imprinted her love of the arts on us early, as most of our childhood memories involve music, writing, and decorating (and redecorating!). She taught us that beauty has an important emotional function and isn’t, as is so often said, just surface. We are all about making fantasy worlds as objects and installations, and growing up the way we did, we could really only have wound up doing that.” —Simon and Nikolai
Christine Chiu & Baby G
“There’s a special bond between mothers and sons. He doesn’t go a day without telling me he loves me. How does so much love fit into this tiny body? Being a mom to a son also comes with a sense of responsibility. I have to make sure he goes out into sthe world as a good person.”
Kadeem & Bethann Hardison
“Facing the day with the objective to make society a better place to be, with a greater understanding, is my advice to make it through the long haul of life.” —Bethann
Deborah Willis & Hank Willis Thomas
“More than anything, I’m grateful for the example my mother has set: to be caring and considerate of others, and to do all you can to champion the people and things you’re passionate about.” —Hank
Daphne Rubin-Vega and Luca Ariel Costanzo
“Being his mother, I’ve learned incredible patience and that I have the capacity to change my own behavior so that he can live a better life in this world. He’s taught me to be a better human being. That sounds like jive, but it’s pretty much it.” —Daphne
Patrick & Amanda Vaill
“That photo was taken just moments after Patrick arrived at the closing night party for Oklahoma!. I felt at that moment so proud of what he had accomplished. I thought, Wow, my kid did this. Also, I felt relief, because each time he did this show, he would get shot. It made me cry every damn time.” —Amanda
Inga & Keith Rubenstein Jr.
“Keith is a true beauty in all ways: smart, handsome, hardworking, kind. I am quite lucky to have him, and not a single moment together is taken for granted.” —Inga
David Ernaux-Briot & Annie Ernaux
In October 2022 French writer Annie Ernaux received the Nobel Prize in Literature. A few weeks later, The Super 8 Years, a documentary written by Ernaux and co-directed with her son, was released. “My relationship to her work evolved,” David says. “I reclaimed the narrative.”
Brooke Garber Neidich & Jon Neidich
“My entire sense of what style was and is I credit to my mother. She is the consummate host. I was raised with an understanding of what it meant to take care of people, which is foundational to what I do today.” —Jon
Jordan Roth & Daryl Roth
“The greatest lessons I’ve learned from my mom? Matinees. Little gestures aren’t little. Dogs make everything better. Call your mother.” —Jordan
“Jordan is beautiful, intelligent, creative, and kind. I have such pride knowing he is true to himself and in his ability to be free and fearless. He’s a wonderful son and father to his son, and mostly I love that he is happy!” —Daryl
Clint Ramos & Erlinda Boiser-Ramos
“My mom is a force, and I learned everything about how to operate in this world from her. She was a trailblazer in her field—there weren’t many other women in labor law in the Philippines—and I learned fortitude, tenacity, and deep, abiding love from her. What makes her special? What doesn’t?”
Crystal Mccrary & Cole Anthony & Leo Mcguire
“I have two sons, one who’s 22 and one who’s 10, and a daughter, Ella, and there’s nothing like the mother-son relationship. There’s truth to the phrase mama’s boy, and I’d say I have two of them with Cole and Leo. As their mother, I am their first love, and no matter how old they are they’ll always be my babies.” —Crystal
Hal & Sadie Stein
“What people don’t say enough about having a small child is how fun it is. One really reassuring piece of advice I heard when I was pregnant was that babies are just really nice people, and there’s something to be said for spending your time with someone who’s kind. Believe the hype.”
In the top image: Ronan and Mia Farrow; Roberta and John McCain; Crazy Rich Asians’ Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeoh) and Nick Young (Henry Golding); Princess Diana with Prince Harry and Prince William; Audrey Hepburn and Sean Ferrer; John David and Pauletta Washington; JFK Jr. and Jackie Kennedy; Jeremy O. Harris and Veronica Farrish; Sean Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono; Damian and Elizabeth Hurley; Sophia Loren and Edoardo Ponti; Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II; Arrested Development’s Lucille (Jessica Walter) and Buster Bluth (Tony Hale); Kiyan and La La Anthony; Sofia Vergara and Manolo Gonzalez Vergara; Barbra Streisand and Jason Gould; Erykah Badu embracing Seven Sirius Benjamin; Elon and Maye Musk; Forrest Gump’s Mrs. Gump (Sally Field) and Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks); Brandon Thomas Lee, Pamela Anderson, and Dylan Jagger Lee
This story appears in the February 2023 issue of Town & Country.
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