Julia Roberts is opening up about parenting the three children she shares with her husband, Daniel Moder.
The 57-year-old actor spoke about raising her three children — twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, 20, and son Henry, 18 — with Moder during an interview with George Clooney in the new print title, 72 Magazine.
After Clooney discussed the rules he has for his own children when they’re on the internet, Roberts shared how she has limited her kids’ access to technology.
“Some of the last kids in their peer groups to get phones and stuff like that,” she said during the interview, as reported by Us Weekly. “When they were younger, certainly, Danny and I would have been considered some of the stricter parents. Not like we’re laying down the law, but these are the rules and they don’t change.
“Here’s the boundary of your life and it does not shift. You know, you don’t ask me and get an answer and then go ask dad and get a different answer. That doesn’t happen. It will never happen,” she added.
The Pretty Woman star then acknowledged how setting this boundary has helped her children.
“I think that is what creates the stability that then allows them to feel secure because you know there is this fixed world of love and safety that exists unconditionally,” she concluded.
This isn’t the first time that Roberts has spoken about setting boundaries with her children when they were younger. During an interview with Today in 2023, she explained that there are certain points when her kids could and couldn’t use their phones.
“So, for us, we just had sort of simple rules where we had a charging station, where everybody’s phone goes when you get home. There’s no phones at the table, certainly,” she explained.
She acknowledged that while her kids have gotten older and are ultimately adults now, her parenting style has stayed the same.
“I parent them the same way out of the house that I parented them in the house, which is, you know, ‘Are you getting enough sleep?’ And ‘You sound like you’re sick,’” the Notting Hill star added. “And I have an immense amount of appreciation for both of my older kids because they still allow me to be the same mom to them and it’s not eye-rolling and there’s a huge amount of understanding.”
Usually, Roberts keeps her personal life out of the spotlight, since she rarely posts her children on social media. However, throughout her successful career, she’s viewed her kids and her relationship as her biggest achievements.
During an interview with CBS News’ Sunday Morning in 2022, Roberts said that while it was a “dream come true” to become an actor, that wasn’t her only dream.
“The life that I’ve built with my husband,” she said, calling it another dream come true. “The life that we’ve built with our children. And that’s the best stuff, to come home at the end of the day triumphantly to them.”
