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Catherine Zeta-Jones has shared her fears over her and husband Michael Douglas’s children being branded “nepo babies”, as she hit out at the “horrific” label.
Used (often disparagingly) to reference the children or close relatives of famous stars who enter the entertainment industry themselves, the term “nepo babies” has allowed commentators to highlight the leg up available to wannabe actors and musicians with family connections.
But the term has proven divisive, with everyone from Laura Dern to Willow Smith offering their thoughts on the moniker.
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.
Douglas and Zeta-Jones with their daughter Carys (left) at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival (Getty)
Explaining that her kids had been “plugging away” 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: “My daughter wanted to be Amal Clooney for a while. But you have to go with your dreams, your passion.”
On the nepotism label, the Chicago star said: “It’s hard for them to forge a way forward on their own. This horrific phrase ‘nepo baby’ is horrible because these kids didn’t ask to be born into this, they’re finding their own way in life.”
Zeta-Jones added that her children both “love” and are “good” at acting, before clarifying: “Otherwise Michael and I would be the first to go, ‘You know what? Maybe law school looks really good.’”
While used sporadically online in the 2010s and 2020s, the term “nepo baby” 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 branding it “the Year of the Nepo Baby”.
Zeta-Jones claimed that the phrase was ‘horrible’ (Getty)
Many beneficiaries of nepotism have hit out at the concept; Lily Allen, who is the daughter of actor Keith Allen, said in 2024 that the term was “infantilising” because it was only used about women.
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.
As the daughter of Hollywood director JJ Abrams, singer Gracie Abrams is often used as a prime “nepo baby” example, but spoke frankly about the realities of growing up with a famous and well connected father while appearing on The New York Times’ PopCast in July.
“I think about the privilege there… 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’t growing up afraid financially, and that’s the biggest deal,” she explained.