麻豆APP

Photo by INTX. .

35 Famous Women who Decided  Not to have Children

Women are often considered to be nurturing and the care givers. Society expects women to live a life of servitude. Impositions such as the famous biological clock women have is a tag that will always be flushed in our faces. It is in fact revolutionary, even at this time, for a woman to decide that having kids and a family is not the path she wants to take.

However, more women are taking charge over their bodies and being. They are deciding the kind of life they want to live regardless of societal pressure. This is why this article goes on to look at 35 famous women who decided that having children is not the road they want to take. Cheers to them! Let’s hope right in.

1. Ashley Judd

Photo by Ashley Judd. .

Judd spoke publicly about her decision not to have children in her 2011 memoir All That Is Bitter and Sweet. “The fact is that I have chosen not to have children because I believe the children who are already here are really mine, too,” she said. “I do not need to go making ‘my own’ babies when there are so many orphaned or abandoned children who need love, attention, time, and care. ”

“I figured it was selfish for us to pour our resources into making our 鈥榦wn鈥� babies when those very resources and energy could not only help children already here, but through advocacy and service transform the world into a place where no child ever needs to be born into poverty and abuse again. My belief has not changed. It is a big part of who I am.”

2. Kim Cattrall

Photo by Canadian Film Centre. Wikimedia Commons.

The Sex and the City star has said that “being a biological mother isn’t going to be part of my experience this time around”.

“When I was five, my fantasy was to have a hundred dogs and a hundred kids. I realized that so much of the pressure I was feeling was from outside sources, and I knew I wasn’t ready to take that step into motherhood,” she told Oprah magazine. “Being a biological mother just isn’t part of my experience this time around.”

3. Tracee Ellis Ross

Photo by Mingle Media TV. .

The famous star of  Black-ish did not want to “fall back on” the expectations of a patriarchal society by marrying and having children – unless it felt right for her. “I鈥檓 constantly asking myself questions, reminding myself, 鈥楢re you making that decision for you or someone else?” the actress said to  The Times.

“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鈥檚 the point of the human species, procreation’. “And I鈥檓, like, ‘I think there are a lot of babies, isn’t that part of what鈥檚 going wrong, there鈥檚 too many?’ Some people could be working on the world being a better place, or just being happy.”

4. Oprah Winfrey

Photo by INTX. .

She has been on the limelight for very many years. Oprah Winfrey is considered a successful career woman who has broken many glass ceilings. Having had a hectic career with busy schedules, she determined that getting kids was not an option for her.

She said that having a baby didn’t feel right for her. “I don鈥檛 think I would have been a good mother for baby children, because I need you to talk to me, and I need you to tell me what鈥檚 wrong,” the star said on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop podcast. “I can鈥檛 just figure it out. And I was always – I knew this about myself.”

Find out more about Famous Women Right Activists. 

5. Alison Brie

Photo by Gage Skidmore. .

The Glow star, 38, said that she doesn’t want to have children. Speaking about the decision she made with husband Dave Franco, the actress told The Sunday Times: “I don’t really want to have kids. It’s great because I don’t worry about when I should get pregnant – between seasons, while we’re shooting the show [Glow] I don’t think about it every day. “It would be nice, but I think of all the things that would be so stressful. I think about how much we’re involved in our cats’ lives. Oh my God, if it was a child!”

6. Betty White

Photo by Alan Light. .

Almost hundred plus years, White has grown to have a flourishing career on TV and film. While she has three step-children, Betty does not for a second regret not having children. She pointed this out speaking in a 2011 interview with CBS News.

“No, I’ve never regretted it,” White said. “I’m so compulsive about stuff. I know that if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would’ve been my whole focus. But I didn’t choose to have children because I’m focused on my career, and I just don’t think as compulsive as I am that I could manage both.”

7. Stevie Nicks

Photo by Elsa Baye. .

As she took on her career, Nicks told InStyle in 2002 that she was forced to make choices  one of them being whether to work or to become a mom. “It’s like, do you want to be an artist and a writer, or a wife and a lover? With kids, your focus changes,” she told the publication. “I don’t want to go to PTA meetings.”

8. Ellen DeGeneres

Photo by Tulane Public Relations derivative work. .

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have been married since 2008, but they haven’t expanded their family to include children. “Honestly, we’d probably be great parents,” DeGeneres wrote 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!” Ellen DeGeneres hosts the world’s very famous talk show which receives visitors from all over the world.

9. Sarah Silverman

Photo by Ali Shaker. .

Comedian Sarah Silverman has opened up about her choice not to have kids several times. “As a comic always working & on the road I have had to decide between motherhood & living my fullest life & I chose the latter,” Silverman tweeted in February 2017.

She said, “If I could be a fun dad, I would have done that years ago. I’d still get to put my job and my passion first and be on the road and then come home and be the best version of myself in loving 40-minute bursts.” However, coming to terms with the fact that reality needs a present mum, Silverman chose not to have children.

10. Miley Cyrus

Photo by Vanessa Ip. .

鈥淲e鈥檙e getting handed a piece-of-shit planet, and I refuse to hand that down to my child,鈥� Miley Cyrus told Elle in 2019. 鈥淯ntil I feel like my kid would live on an earth with fish in the water, I鈥檓 not bringing in another person to deal with that.鈥�

11. Lily Tomlin

Photo by U.S. Department of State. .

The Grace and Frankie star revealed to Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show back in 1973 that she didn’t want children, and Tomlin still stands by her feelings. 鈥淥h yeah, that鈥檚 perfectly fine for somebody who wants to. But at that time I didn鈥檛 want to and I鈥檓 glad I don鈥檛 have any children,鈥� she told Metro Weekly in 2006.

鈥淕od only knows what I would have done with them, poor things. I really do like kids, but there wouldn鈥檛 have been room in my life to raise children. I was so involved with my career, and I would have had to give up the career in large part because I could not possibly have shortchanged the child.鈥�

12. Margaret Cho

Photo by Charlie Nguyen. .

Margaret Cho doesn’t hide anything including her aversion to having children. 鈥淚 look at children and feel nothing,鈥� she said in her 2004 Revolution performance. 鈥淚 ovulate sand.鈥�

Comedian Margaret Cho got real on her blog  in 2012: “I don鈥檛 know if I could stand that kind of commitment, or if I am really honest, I don鈥檛 think that I could handle being that vulnerable to someone else. My child would have my heart completely, and having never truly given that over, in all my relationships in my life, starting with myself, I don鈥檛 even know where to begin.”

Click to see 15 Celebrity Women who Rock Amazing Tattoos. 

13. Chelsea Handler

Photo by Tabercil. .

Chelsea Handler is open about not wanting children. She points out that there’s nothing wrong with accepting ones weaknesses. In this case, Handler considers that she has a weakness with handling children. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think I鈥檇 be a great mother. I don鈥檛 want to have a kid and have it raised by a nanny. I don鈥檛 have the time to raise a child,鈥� she said on The Conversation With Amanda de Cadenet in 2013.

鈥淐hildhood was heartbreaking enough for anybody. I don鈥檛 know that I could handle my own child, especially if I had a girl, going through what I went through growing up. Not that it was so traumatic, but in many ways, it was in your own way.鈥�

14. Dolly Parton

Photo by Eva Rinaldi. .

Dolly Parton chose not to have children. 鈥淚 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,鈥� Parton said on a 2020 episode of The Oprah Conversation on Apple TV+, per People. 鈥淚 wouldn’t be in a position to do all of the things I’m doing now.鈥�

15. Helen Mirren

Photo by Caroline Bonarde Ucci. .

鈥淚 never felt the need for a child and never felt the loss of it鈥�. I鈥檇 always put my work before anything,鈥� Mirren told AARP in 2015, per Vanity Fair. In 2013, Mirren told British Vogue, 鈥淢otherhood was not my destiny. I kept thinking it would be, waiting for it to happen, but it never did, and I didn鈥檛 care what people thought鈥�. It was only boring old men who would ask me.鈥�

16. Katharine Hepburn

Photo by eBay. .

Some people choose not to become parents for one simple reason: They don’t want to. Katharine Hepburn opted out of motherhood because she wanted to focus on herself and her well-being. “I would have been a terrible mother, because I’m basically a very selfish human being,” the Hollywood icon admitted.

17. Rachael Ray

Photo by The Heart Truth. .

Celebrity chef Rachael Ray simply doesn’t have time to cook for her own brood, and is perfectly satisfied being a mom to her pup. “I think that I’m 40 years old, and I have an enormous amount of hours that have to be dedicated to work,” she said in 2009 in an interview with Salon.

“For me personally, I would need more time to feel like I’d be a good mom to my own child. I feel like a borderline good mom to my dog. So I can’t imagine if it was a human baby鈥� I feel like it would be unfair, not only to the child but to the people I work with.”

18. Gloria Steinem

Photo by Gage Skidmore. .

It may not come as too big of a shock that one of the world’s premiere feminists doesn’t see the necessity of having children to fulfill a woman’s life. “I’m completely happy not having children. I mean, everybody does not have to live in the same way.

And as somebody said, ‘Everybody with a womb doesn’t have to have a child any more than everybody with vocal cords has to be an opera singer,'” she told fellow childless lady Chelsea Handler on Chelsea Lately(opens in new tab) in 2011.

19. Candace Bushnell

Photo by Keete 37. .

If the American author and journalist had chosen to have children, she might not have had the energy to give us the gift that is Sex & the City. She opened up about choosing her writing career over motherhood in a 2003 interview.

“There are women who do it. On the other hand, there are a lot of women writers who never get married and don’t have kids. I am married, but I didn’t marry until I was 43. I knew when I was young that if I had to make a choice between being married and being a writer, I would have chosen to be a writer. I think it’s a career where you have to put the career first. I don’t have kids and I think if you have that passion, in a way, your career is your child.”

20. Kylie Minogue

Photo by marcen27. .

Though the international superstar has achieved unheard of success with her music, motherhood isn’t something she’s sure is in the stars for her. “Of course I wonder what that would be like but, your destiny is your destiny and I can鈥檛 imagine, if by some miracle I got pregnan at this point in my life, I wonder, could I even manage that?” she told The Sunday Times.

“It would be a lie to say there鈥檚 not a bit of sadness there, but I don鈥檛 get caught up in it.” However, Minogue is open to raising her significant other’s children: “There鈥檚 a high probability, if/when I meet someone, that they will have children anyway. So I could imagine being a stepmum.”

21. Cameron Diaz

Photo by David Shankbone. .

Diaz is one of the most vocal celebs on this topic, never feeling guilty about her decision not to have kids. Diaz discussed the topic in her 2014 cover story for Esquire. “It’s so much more work to have children. To have lives besides your own that you are responsible for. That did make things easier for me. A baby, that’s all day, every day for 18 years. Not having a baby might really make things easier, but that doesn’t make it an easy decision.”

She added, “I like protecting people, but I was never drawn to being a mother. I have it much easier than any of them. That’s just what it is. Doesn’t mean life isn’t sometimes hard. I’m just what I am. I work on what I am. Right now, I think, things are good for me. I’ve done a lot. And I don’t care anymore.”

22. Janeane Garofalo

Photo by Edwin Torres. .

While many women really want to have children of their own, fur babies are good enough for comedienne Garofalo and her partner. “As much as I enjoy other people’s children, my dogs have always been for me and my boyfriend our babies. I mean, we’re those types of people that people probably loathe if they overheard us the way we are with our dogs,” she joked with Middle Mojo.

23. Jennifer Lawrence

Photo by Kurt Kulac..

The Oscar winner revealed to E! that while she had been obsessed with the idea of motherhood as a child, those desires had slowly faded over time. “When I was 21 or 22 I was like, ‘I can’t wait to be a mother. They are actually getting less and less as I get older, which is starting to worry me. I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work!”

24. Dita von Teese

Photo by Caroline Bonarde Ucci. .

Despite loving children, the burlesque star knows that she has worth outside of being a mother and is happy all the same. She kept it real in an interview with The Independent back in 2007.

“I was married to someone who was not cut-out to be a father. He could hardly take care of himself, let alone a child, so I changed my views, adapted accordingly, thought: It’s okay not to have children. Now I’m just going to watch how my life unfolds and see what happens. I’m not going to be less of a person if I don’t have children. It will work out the way it is supposed to.”

25. Aisha Tyler

Photo by Gage Skidmore. .

After struggling with infertility, Tyler and her then-husband Jeff Tietjens decided to stop trying to have children and focus on other aspects of their lives. The actress and television host opened up about her choice in a 2014 appearance on Huff Post Live.

“I wanted families and couples to know that it was a valid choice not to get on this crazy merry-go-round of IVF and tens and tens of thousands of dollars,鈥� said Tyler. “I wanted people to feel it’s okay to say, 鈥業 love my marriage, I love my life, I choose not to have children.'”

Here are 50 Most Famous Black Women in History.

26. Anjelica Huston

Photo by Greg2600. .

The 67-year-old told Cinema.com that her decision not to have children was due in part to an anxiety about having to part with them when she went off to work.

“There have been times when I wanted children and other times I’ve been grateful not to have them. I am a mess if I have to say goodbye to my dog for longer than five days. I don’t know how I would deal with kissing my children as I left for work. I know there are women who are able to do that. I don’t know if I could.”

27. Sarah Paulson

Photo by Gage Skidmore. .

Paulson told The Sunday Times Style that she’s put motherhood on ice until she’s 100 percent sure and ready. “I love kids, but I鈥檓 very impulsive, and I was afraid that I would have children and then regret it.” Her current solution? Freezing her eggs.

28. Megan Mullally

Photo by Gage Skidmore. .

Megan Mullally is an actress, singer and comedian. She got married to Nick Offerman in 2003. While they previously tried to get kids, the same is no longer part of their plan.

Mullally pointed out that she has never had a burning desire to get kids. “But then I met Nick, and I thought ‘This is the only person I’d do this with.’ So we tried, but I was a little long in the tooth for that sort of thing … We tried for about a year or so, and it didn’t happen, and took that to mean it wasn’t meant to be.”

29. Ren茅e Zellweger

Photo by Siebbi..

Ren茅e Zellweger is an actresses who has received accolades such as British Academy Film Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. She told The Times that, “Motherhood has never been an ambition. I don’t think like that. I never have expectations like ‘when I’m 19 I’m going to do this, and by the time I’ve hit 25 I’m going to do that.'”

Zellweger is keen to live one day at a time. “I’ve always been kind of open to whatever may be, curious to see what’s next. I’ve never been that deliberate about my life and the things that I would require in order to be happy.”

30. Ricki-Lee Coulter

Photo by Eva Rinaldi. .

The Australian Idol star has addressed her decision to remain childless numerous times. “For me, it’s simply: I don’t want kids. People on the street ask me, ‘When are you and Rich having kids?’ Stop!” she previously told Stellar, adding that it’s a “personal decision” that can involve a lot of factors depending on the person. Ricki-Lee also revealed that her unique upbringing led to her decision.

31. Julia Gillard

Photo by Dilma Rousseff. Wikimedia Commons.

The former Prime Minister of Australia has previously opened up about her choice to focus on her career instead of having children. “I’m not sure I could have balanced having children with my career. There’s something in me that’s focused and single-minded and if I was going to do that, I’m not sure I could have done this,” she said.

32. Mary J. Blige

Photo by Donna Lou Morgan, U.S. Navy. .

Mary Blige has interesting views about getting children. 鈥淚 have nieces and nephews forever and I鈥檓 always watching how people are scrambling for babysitters,鈥� she said.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to go through that. I like my freedom to go and move and do what I want to do. I don鈥檛 want to have to tend to someone all the time.鈥� In her opinion, children will hinder her from having the flexibility and freedom to move around since they require to be taken care of.

Find out more about 20 Best Singers of All Time.

33. Carole Radziwill

Photo by Gigimadison. .

The journalist and former Real Housewife of New York star has a very fulfilling life, but there are times where she wonders whether she made the right choice not becoming a mother.

“I knew that my late husband Anthony Radziwill couldn’t have kids, and that wasn’t in any way a deal-breaker for me. I just wasn’t that girl who dreamed about getting married and having children. Those weren’t the priorities for me,” she said to The Daily Mail in 2013. “Now, looking back, I think it would have been nice to have a child. But I’m not going to sit around and mope about it.”

34. Fiona Apple

Photo by Sachyn. .

For the singer-songwriter, having kids isn’t an option because she’s still trying to evolve as a person. “I have a thing about, like, wanting to learn about parenting myself. I don’t want to have kids, but I tend to buy a lot of books about parenting,” Apple said in a 2012 NPR interview.

35. Liza Minnelli

Photo by Boss Tweed..

鈥淣owadays, why get married? Nobody else does. It鈥檚 not like I want to have children, I tried that, didn鈥檛 work unfortunately 鈥� It helped me because now I work with all kinds of children all over the world. Brain damaged children and I work with kids with AIDS and that鈥檚 how I鈥檝e rationalized not having kids. I was meant to do something else.鈥�