In a world where settling down and growing a family often seems like the natural next step or the ‘end-all-be-all,’ these American stars have boldly chosen a different path: living childfree by choice. Whether for personal freedom, career focus, or a conscious lifestyle decision, these celebrities have openly embraced a life without children and they’re not apologising for it.
1. Oprah Winfrey
71-year-old billionaire and media personality Oprah has always been candid about not wanting children. She says she never had the desire and didn’t think she could give her children the attention they would deserve due to the demands of her career.
“If I had kids, my kids would hate me. 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,” she said during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2013.
2. Miley Cyrus
Singer Miley Cyrus has also been very vocal about her choice against having children, tying it to her concerns over climate change. She stated that she can’t justify having children given the state of the planet.
“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,” she told Elle in 2019.
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3. Jennifer Aniston
Actress Jennifer Aniston has also made it abundantly clear that children aren’t in the cards for her. Back in 2016 when pregnancy speculations were spreading like wildfire, she debunked them saying:
The sheer amount of resources being spent right now by press trying to simply uncover whether or not I am pregnant points to the perpetuation of this notion that women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful, or unhappy if they’re not married with children.
Here’s where I come out on this topic: We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies…. We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.
ALSO READ: I will never be ready – John Cena speaks on not wanting children
4. Tracee Ellis Ross
The Black-ish star challenges traditional narratives around womanhood and motherhood. She’s made it clear that joy, success, and self-worth aren’t defined by marriage or having children.
I’m constantly asking myself questions, reminding myself, ‘Are you making that decision for you or someone else? The husband and the babies are the expectation of what’s supposed to happen at a certain point, and people fall back on, ‘Well, that’s the point of the human species, procreation.’ And I’m like, ‘I think there are a lot of babies—isn’t that part of what’s going wrong, there’s too many?’ Some people could be working on the world being a better place, or just being happy.”
5. Ellen DeGeneres
Famous media personality Ellen DeGeneres and her partner Portia de Rossi have both admitted that they do not want to be parents, due to the fear of messing them up somehow.
“Honestly, we’d probably be great parents,” she wrote in an essay for People in 2014. “But it’s a human being, and unless you think you have excellent skills and have a drive or yearning in you to do that, the amount of work that that is and responsibility—I wouldn’t want to screw them up! We love our animals.”
6. Dolly Parton
“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,” Parton said on a 2020 episode of The Oprah Conversation on Apple TV+, per People. “I wouldn’t be in a position to do all of the things I’m doing now.”
7. Margaret Cho
Actress Margaret Cho is one star who has been blunt about her childfree stance, highlighting her lack of maternal instincts towards them. “I look at children and feel nothing,” she said
8. Kim Cattrall
Best known for her role as Samantha Jones on Sex and the City, Cattrall has spoken about the pressures of motherhood and how her demanding career didn’t align with raising children. She’s been vocal about society’s narrow definition of womanhood.
I am not a biological parent, but I am a parent.
9. Chelsea Handler
“I have zero regrets about not having children.” The comedian and talk show host has never shied away from discussing her childfree lifestyle. Handler says she loves kids but prefers the freedom and flexibility that comes with not being a parent.
10 Helen Mirren
The Oscar-winning actress has said she was never strongly drawn to motherhood and didn’t feel a sense of loss because of it. Her career and lifestyle gave her a different kind of fulfillment. “It was not my destiny.”
11. Ashley Judd
The actress and activist has explained that her passion for global humanitarian work made her feel like she could make a bigger impact without becoming a parent herself. “I decided I didn’t want to have children because I believe the children who are already here are really mine, too.”
