.jpg?width=1200&auto=webp&crop=3%3A2){kind=spacer}
Celebrities aren’t usually where to look for parenting tips. The constant paparazzi attention, extreme wealth, and peripatetic lifestyle don’t usually make for the most harmonious family environment, and stories of feuding famous families (*cough* the Beckhams *cough*) are rarely out of the headlines.
But there is a current crop of celeb parents proving themselves to be true stars — raising their trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming children in a loving and supportive way despite the current climate of escalating transphobia. In the US and the UK, governments have enacted bans on trans children participating in sports, using bathrooms, or accessing gender affirming healthcare.
Of course, wealth and status are a boon in this aspect. They can move their children to safer states or indeed countries to protect them, as celebrities such as Rosie O’Donnell, and Dwyane Wade and Gabriella Union-Wade have done.
Liev Schreiber, Robert De Niro, David Tennant and Cynthia Nixon are just some of the A-listers who have spoken out about supporting their trans, non-binary and gender nonconforming offspring recently. Upsettingly, it’s not always a given.
Here are the famous families showing people how it’s done:
Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts
Although they are no longer a couple, Liev Schreiber, 57, and Naomi Watts, 56, share two children and their daughter Kai Schreiber, 16, is trans. She recently made her catwalk modelling debut at Paris Fashion Week, walking the runway for Valentino.
“I'm so eternally grateful that I'm so supported as a young transgender girl, Kai said on Instagram post raising money for the Ali Forney Center. “There are so many boys and girls like me who can't say they have the same blessing.” Watts replied: “Such important words. Beautiful girl, I'm so proud of you.”
“Kai was always who Kai is,” Schreiber said in a recent Vanity Fair interview. “The most profound moment was her asking us to change her pronouns. To be honest with you, it didn’t feel like that big of a deal to me only because Kai had been so feminine for so long.”
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro’s daughter with Toukie Smith recently came out as trans. Airyn De Niro, 29, told Them that although she’s a self-described “late bloomer” she is happy to be "stepping into this new identity".
De Niro, 81, has been unequivocal in his support. "I loved and supported Aaron as my son, and now I love and support Airyn as my daughter,” he told Variety. "I don't know what the big deal is. I love all my children."
David and Georgia Tennant
David Tennant, 54, is an unequivocal champion of trans children, regularly photographed wearing slogan shirts proclaiming “Leave trans kids alone you absolute freaks” and “You will have to go through me” in the trans pride flag colours (pink, blue and white). The former Dr Who star also reps the cause with a Tardis-shaped pin badge in the same colourway.
He has five children with his wife Georgia, 40, and one of them Wilfred Tennant, 12, is non-binary. Tennant regularly speaks out against right-wing groups looking to “weaponise” gender. “It’s just about people being themselves. You don’t need to be bothered about it. F**k off and let people be,” he told a fan panel in Germany.
While accepting an award for being a celebrity ally he spoke out against the now Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s anti-trans stance. “I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up,” he said.
JK Rowling, another vocal campaigner against trans rights, attempted to troll Tennant when Badenoch was elected. Tennant has since said he has “no ill will” towards the celebrity author but re-iterated his position against turning trans people into a “political football”.
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon has two children with her former partner Danny Mozes, and their eldest Samuel Joseph Mozes, or Seph, 28, is a trans man. Nixon herself is queer, and has a third child with her wife Christine Marinoni.
In February, Nixon took to the streets of New York to protest President Trump's Trans Care executive order, which saw hospitals cancel gender-affirming care appointments for trans minors.
“I am here today as the mother of a proud trans man,” Nixon told the protesters. “The idea that this city is filled with young people who thought they had a place to go where they can receive the highest care – and that place has now been shut to them, sickens me. Sickens me to my core.”
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron, 49, has two adopted daughters and her eldest Jackson, 12, is trans. “She looked at me when she was three years old and said: 'I am not a boy,’” Theron told the Daily Mail.
“I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive,” she added. “ They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide.”
Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest
Jamie Lee Curtis, 66, and Christopher Guest have two adopted daughters, including Ruby Daniels, 29, who is trans. Lee Curtis dedicated her Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once to Ruby and gave the statuette they/them pronouns.
The actor is firm in her support of both her daughter and the trans rights movement. “There is no debate to argue here,” Lee Curtis said on Instagram. “Trans people have been here forever and aren’t going anywhere. There is no ideology here. It’s simple. Trans rights are human rights. Anything stating the contrary is wrong.”
Jennifer Lopez
J-Lo, 55, has been carefully using gender neutral pronouns for one of her twins with ex-husband Marc Anthony. Emme Muñiz, 17, joined their mother on stage to sing at a gala in LA, where Lopez said “they're my favourite duet partner of all time.”
Lopez is also supportive of their trans nibling, Brendon Scholl, who produced a documentary short about their coming out for LGBTQ+ non-profit The Trevor Project. Lopez proudly shared their trailer on Instagram with her own introduction.
Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck
Jennifer Garner, 53, has always been a loud and proud LGBTQ+ ally, featuring in PSA’s for Pride celebrations and talking about how it’s a good thing “the kind of gender normative thing is not celebrated and expected in the way that it used to be”. Garner is also a cheerleader for their fellow actor friend Elliot Page, who transitioned.
While they haven’t spoken about it publicly, one of Garner’s children with ex-husband Ben Affleck recently changed their name to Fin and buzzed their hair. Fin also has the support of their step-sibling Emme (see above), from Affleck’s on-off marriage to Lopez.
Cher
Cher, 78, has a two children, including her trans son Chaz Bono, 56, from her marriage to Sonny Bono. Chaz came out as trans in 2009, and although Cher said she didn’t “handle [it] all that well in the beginning” she has since educated herself.
“When Chaz went through the transition, that was difficult for me,” she told the LA Times. “It’s hard to lose one child to get a new one, especially so late. I think that was the hard thing for me. I don’t think it was the transition. It was waiting to see who the person would be.”
Chaz documented his transition in a documentary, Becoming Chaz. Chaz had initially come out as a lesbian in 1996 and was estranged from his father, who had become a Republican congressman, when Sonny died in a skiing accident in 1998.
Sigourney Weaver and Jim Simpson
Sigourney Weaver, 75, and her husband Jim Simpson, 69, have one child, Shar Simpson, 34. “They’re nonbinary,” Weaver told The Times in 2023. “They teach at Columbia, digital storytelling, bots, misinformation, they are someone who is excited about AI and not frightened about it.”
Shar’s decision to go in to academia rather than acting thrilled their parents “They were not at all interested in doing what I do,” said Weaver. “That made my husband and me very happy.”
Rosie O’Donnell
Rosie O’Donnell’s youngest child Clay, 12, is non-binary. “I am supportive of any way they want to be in this world and feel connected and happy,” the comedian told NBC Chicago.
Days before Donald Trump took office, O’Donnell moved herself and Clay from the US to Ireland, and says they will only return “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America.” Her other four children, who are in their twenties, stayed behind.
Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union-Wade
Dwayne Wade, 43, is always bursting with love for his trans daughter Zaya Wade, 17, as is her step-mother Gabrielle Union-Wade, 52. Zaya came out in 2020, and has been carving a career for herself as a model and influencer, making her runway debut for Miu Miu at Paris Fashion Week 2023.
“She’s a hero,” the basketball star said of his daughter in a 2021 interview. "It's our family's job to make sure that we listen to her. We listen to the doctors. We ask questions and we formulate our own ideas of how Zaya should be and should be raised in this world and we don't allow others to do that for us."
Her parents moved their family out of the state of Florida to protect her. “My family would not be accepted or feel comfortable there,” Wade said. “That's one of the reasons why I don't live there."
“It is our job to be loving, compassionate, protective guides for our children, but their lives are their lives and we have to respect that,” Union told Buzzfeed in 2022. “We do not believe in any kind of shaming for existing.”
Sting and Trudie Styler
Sting, 73, and his wife Trudie Styler, 71 are parents to Eliot Sumner, 34, who is non-binary. “I don’t think anyone should feel pressured to have any kind of label or tag on them,” Sumner told the Standard in 2015. “We should treat everybody the same. Me, I don’t like to be put down to a specific thing. We’re all human beings.”
They musician and actor added that there was no need to officially come out to their family, because “they knew already” and accepted them for who they are.
Sade
Sade, 66, has a 28-year-old son Izaak Theo Adu, who came out as trans in 2016. “Thank you for staying by my side these past 6 months Mumma,” Adu posted on Instagram. “Thank you for fighting with me to complete the man I am. Thank you for your encouragement when things are hard, for the love you give me.”
The musician wrote a song about her son, called Young Lion, where she apologised to the child he was for not seeing him as he was sooner. Adu told Rolling Stone that he was touched, but that there was no need for any apologies. “My mum never tried to oppress the boy I silently always knew I was. She always let me be me,” he said.
