15 Children of Celebrities Told When They Finally Realized Their Parents Were Famous

When we are small, we don’t have a complete perception of what is happening around us, especially with our parents. We tend to call them “dad” or “mom” and think that those are their names, and we are not even entirely clear about what they do for a living. This also happens with the children of celebrities, who are very surprised when they learn the extent to which their parents are known.

1. Ricky Martin’s sons Valentino and Matteo

In an interview, Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin commented that he kept them backstage whenever his twins traveled to concerts with him. When they were old enough to see one of their dad’s shows, they got a surprise.

"One day, when the kids were old enough, I told them to go to the front. After they saw the lights and the whole show, they came up to me and said, ’Daddy, you’re Ricky Martin!’ I replied: ’I’m not Ricky Martin, I’m your father! And they immediately replied with ’No, no, no, no, you’re Ricky Martin,’ and everything changed.

2. Lincoln and Delta, Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell’s daughters

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, comedian Dax Shepard shared what happened when his daughters discovered that he and his wife, Kristen Bell, were famous.

One of the girls asked him if people listen to his podcast because of him or because of his partner. Dax explained that they initially started listening because of him. The daughter asked him, “But why?” and he said, “Well, daughter, because daddy is famous!”. She was shocked and asked, “Does Mom know?” Shepard replied, “Of course, my love, your mom is more famous than I am!”.

3. Kaia Gerber, Cindy Crawford’s daughter

In 2017, supermodel Cindy Crawford’s daughter Kaia Gerber shared how she first learned of her mother’s fame for Teen Vogue magazine. “I think it was on my eighth birthday at Disneyland when I started to understand what was going on. I wanted to take pictures with the princesses, and everyone wanted to take pictures with her,” the model said.

4. Brooklyn Beckham, David Beckham’s son

In 2017, Victoria and David Beckham’s son, photographer Brooklyn Beckham, told Wonderland magazine how he discovered at age 13 that his father was a sports celebrity. “I went to a soccer game, and people were shouting my dad’s name, and my reaction was, ’What, oh my God, I don’t see them like that.’”

5. Moses, Gwyneth Paltrow’s son

In 2013, Gwyneth Paltrow discussed in an interview what happened to her son Moses when he found out she was famous. They were going to meet Justin Bieber, and her son immediately made the connections: Justin Bieber and the other people he thought were cool knew who his mom was from the Iron Man movie. Considering this was all a recent thing for him, he said, “Ah, you’re in the movie!”.

6. Brandon and Dylan, Pamela Anderson’s sons

Pamela Anderson told how her sons, Brandon and Dylan, questioned her when they found out who she was.

“They came up to me and said, ’Mom, are you Pamela Anderson!’ and I said, ’Yes!’ And they were like, ’What? They were like, ’What? Why are people saying that? Are you really Pamela Anderson?’ and I said, ’Well, yes!’”

7. Hilary Duff’s son Luca Comrie

Hilary Duff commented that her son Luca Comrie gradually became aware of her celebrity status. At first, the little boy saw his mother on magazine covers and assumed it was something moms did until a classmate revealed his mother’s name to him (or so Hilary believes). She clarified that Luca initially didn’t even know her name. She was simply “mom” to him, and one random day, he told her: “I know your name, Hilary Duff.”

8. Jack Quaid, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid’s son

Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid’s son, Jack Quaid, opened up about what it was like growing up with famous parents.

"I fully recognize that the way I grew up was not normal, but at the same time, despite what my parents did, they’re still mom and dad. It’s not like sitting around with some characters at dinner, my dad was never Jerry Lee Lewis at my graduation, and nothing was handled that way. From my perspective, if the other kids I grew up with had had famous parents or actors, then they would have thought, ’That’s the way of the world!"’

9. Georgia May, Mick Jagger’s daughter

Georgia May Jagger, the youngest daughter of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, was asked in an interview if she was aware as a child that her parents’ jobs were not ordinary jobs, to which she replied:

“Not really. When I went on tour with my dad, I knew he was a musician, but they were my parents. I still think of my mom as kind of a dork, a cool one, but still a dork.”

10. Alexa Ray, Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel’s daughter

As a little girl, supermodel Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel’s daughter Alexa Ray didn’t know her parents were two international stars. They tried to hide from her how famous they were growing up on Long Island, so she had no idea. Christie said that when everyone said hello to them, Alexa just thought they were popular.

11. Michael Joseph, Michael Jackson’s son

In an interview with Good Morning America, Michael Jackson’s son, Michael Joseph Jackson, said it never occurred to him or his siblings that their father was a pop star.

“I think when we first realized it, it was when we saw videos of him performing. Then I thought, ’OK, it’s normal to see women fainting at concerts.’ But what surprised me the most was when I saw big-muscled men fainting, so I thought, ’There’s something else going on here,’” he laughed.

12. Luca Dotti, Audrey Hepburn’s son

Luca Dotti, Audrey Hepburn’s youngest son, commented in an interview for People that he didn’t know his mother was a world-famous movie star.

“She was just a simple country girl.” When reporters would ask Luca about Audrey Hepburn, he would say, “I don’t know who you’re talking about. You must be mistaken, my mother’s name is Dotti.” “I didn’t know she was Audrey Hepburn until I was 6,” Luca added.

13. Caleb and Liv, Julianne Moore’s children

Julianne Moore said that her children, Caleb and Liv, never thought their mother was so famous.

“A few years ago, when I won an award, they were at one of those film clubs. They had seen one or two of my films, but they didn’t know about all of them, so they came to me, amazed and shocked. First, they were shocked that I had made so many movies, and then because I was doing these outrageous things,” Moore added.

14. Hazel, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski’s daughter

Emily Blunt shared that she and her husband, John Krasinski, never used the word “famous” in their home, so their daughters would remain oblivious to it. One day the oldest daughter, Hazel, came up to her mom and asked, “Are you famous?”

Emily assumed someone at school had told her and asked her, but the girl lost interest on the spot and said no more. “What I don’t want is for my daughters to feel important or special or for there to be the slightest glimmer of them feeling different from other kids. If they can ignore fame for as long as possible, that would make me happy,” added Blunt.

15. Rumer, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore’s daughter

Rumer Willis is the eldest daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. She mentioned that she didn’t understand how famous her parents were. “We would go to Disneyland and people would come up and try to get their picture taken and I didn’t understand,” Rumer said.

What do you think about celebrities who want to raise their children away from fame?