Heather Graham has said she has no regrets over her decision to remain child-free.
The Boogie Nights actor, 55, has been dating the snowboarder John de Neufville since 2022.
Although de Neufville shares a 10-year-old son with his ex Allison Wise, Graham has no kids of her own.
The actor, who is set to play a childless woman in her forthcoming film, Chosen Family, said that she rarely reflects on her decision not to become a mother – unlike her latest character, Ann.
Written and directed by Graham, her new film follows a yoga teacher as she struggles with her dysfunctional family and miserable dating life until her friends set her up with a divorced dad who has a seven-year-old daughter.
Speaking to The Guardian, Graham said: “I think I’ve had moments where I wondered: what would it have been like if I had a kid?
“I guess I would say 80 per cent of the time I feel glad I don’t have kids, and I feel free and really good about it, and maybe 20 per cent of the time I wonder what would it be like.”
She continued: “You just have to appreciate the life you have.”
The Drugstore Cowboy star said that she admires women who go against society’s expectations to have children, as motherhood can be a form of people-pleasing in some cases.
“I do think it’s awesome now that more women are expressing their desire to not have kids,” she said. “The culture says: ‘You need to have kids.’ But why?
“If you’re not being a people pleaser, what do you really want?” she asked.
In the UK, the birth rate has been noticeably on the wane since 2010, with the average birth rate in England and Wales sinking to 1.49 children per woman in 2022 – the lowest rate on record.
This is not a pattern unique to the UK. Birth rates are falling the world over, other than in Sub-Saharan Africa. Two-thirds of the world’s countries now have childbirth rates below the replacement rate.
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The issue is particularly pronounced in Southeast Asian countries. Taiwan, China, Thailand and Japan are all towards the bottom of the fertility table.
Graham’s remarks come after Seth Rogan recently hit back at criticism over his decision not to have children with his wife Lauren Miller.
“People really had strong takes on it, being like, F*** this f***ing guy,’” he said. “Who the f*** does he think he is not to have kids? Well, if you hate me that much, why do you want more of me?”
The Studio star gave a simple reason why he and Miller aren’t parents. “You should only have kids if you really want kids,” Rogan said.
“And we just don’t really want kids. Time kept going by and the moment where we were like, ‘Let’s do it!’ just kept not happening.”
“I look at my friends with kids and honestly I feel like some of them are incredibly happy and fulfilled, and some of them seem like maybe they wish they had put a little more thought into it,” he added. “I just didn’t want to be one of those people.”
