{"id":599143,"date":"2026-09-13T14:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T14:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599143\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T14:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T14:06:13","slug":"catherine-zeta-jones-says-calling-her-kids-dylan-and-carys-nepo-babies-is-horrific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599143\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Zeta-Jones says calling her kids Dylan and Carys \u2018nepo babies\u2019 is \u2018horrific\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Catherine Zeta-Jones<\/a> has shared her fears over her and husband Michael Douglas<\/a>\u2019s children being branded \u201cnepo babies<\/a>\u201d, as she hit out at the \u201chorrific\u201d label.<\/p>\n

Used (often disparagingly) to reference the children or close relatives of famous stars<\/a> who enter the entertainment industry themselves, the term \u201cnepo babies\u201d has allowed commentators to highlight the leg up available to wannabe actors and musicians with family connections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the term has proven divisive, with everyone from Laura Dern<\/a> to Willow Smith<\/a> offering their thoughts on the moniker.<\/p>\n

The latest star to weigh in is Welsh actor Zeta-Jones, 56, while talking in a new interview about Dylan, 26, and Carys, 23, her children with husband of 26 years Douglas, 81.<\/p>\n

\"DouglasDouglas and Zeta-Jones with their daughter Carys (left) at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival (Getty)<\/p>\n

Explaining that her kids had been \u201cplugging away\u201d at their careers, with Dylan acting in a number of upcoming short films and Carys also working as an assistant director, Zeta-Jones told The Times<\/a>: \u201cMy daughter wanted to be Amal Clooney for a while. But you have to go with your dreams, your passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the nepotism<\/a> label, the Chicago star said: \u201cIt\u2019s hard for them to forge a way forward on their own. This horrific phrase \u2018nepo baby\u2019 is horrible because these kids didn\u2019t ask to be born into this, they\u2019re finding their own way in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zeta-Jones added that her children both \u201clove\u201d and are \u201cgood\u201d at acting, before clarifying: \u201cOtherwise Michael and I would be the first to go, \u2018You know what? Maybe law school looks really good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While used sporadically online in the 2010s and 2020s, the term \u201cnepo baby\u201d was popularised in 2022 by a tweet about the actor Maude Apatow (daughter of Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann) and subsequent New York Magazine cover<\/a> branding it \u201cthe Year of the Nepo Baby\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Zeta-JonesZeta-Jones claimed that the phrase was \u2018horrible\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n

Many beneficiaries of nepotism have hit out at the concept; Lily Allen, who is the daughter of actor Keith Allen, said in 2024<\/a> that the term was \u201cinfantilising\u201d because it was only used about women.<\/p>\n

But with the label being a constant topic of conversation in interviews, some such stars have spoken in agreement of the term and used it to address their privilege.<\/p>\n

As the daughter of Hollywood director JJ Abrams, singer Gracie Abrams is often used as a prime \u201cnepo baby\u201d example, but spoke frankly about the realities of growing up with a famous and well connected father while appearing on The New York Times\u2019 PopCast in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about the privilege there\u2026 I had a safety net, and that allowed me the ability to experiment and to concentrate and I had the gift of time to dedicate to doing this thing I loved. I wasn\u2019t growing up afraid financially, and that\u2019s the biggest deal,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[295371,22599,21500,35493,108078,6883,430,168,14032,156,107825,235201,22602,235200,1221,581,295372,6884,111,139,69,153595,295370,5296,40426],"class_list":["post-599143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-76th-international-cannes-film-festival","tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","tag-attending","tag-cannes","tag-carys-zeta-douglas","tag-catherine-zeta-jones","tag-celebrities","tag-ceremony","tag-daughter","tag-entertainment","tag-females","tag-film-and-television-screening","tag-film-industry","tag-film-screening","tag-france","tag-horizontal","tag-jeanne-du-barry","tag-michael-douglas","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opening-ceremony","tag-palais-des-festivals-et-des-congres","tag-photography","tag-red-carpet-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}