Actress Heather Graham, 55, said it’s “awesome” that more women aren’t having children, while also admitting that she sometimes questions her decision never to become a mother.
The “Austin Powers” star made the revelation during a recently published interview with The Guardian.
“I think I’ve had moments where I wondered: what would it have been like if I had a kid? I guess I would say 80% of the time I feel glad I don’t have kids, and I feel free and really good about it, and maybe 20% of the time I wonder what would it be like. You just have to appreciate the life you have,” Graham said.
The actress said she respects women who decide not to have children.
“I do think it’s awesome now that more women are expressing their desire to not have kids,” she added. “The culture says: ‘You need to have kids.’ But why? If you’re not being a people pleaser, what do you really want?”
Graham’s comments come as multiple reports show declining birth rates in the United States and other countries, such as Japan.
The “Chosen Family” actress also said she’s been estranged from her “religious” family for 30 years because they disapproved of her Hollywood lifestyle.
“I kind of became my own person and discovered: ‘What do I like? What do I want when I’m not under this very judgmental, authoritarian, parental, patriarchal structure? What do I want to do? What do I think of this?’” she told the outlet of cutting ties with her family around the time she was 17.
“My father’s really religious, and they were, especially my father, very critical of everything I was doing. It didn’t feel like a healthy dynamic. I stopped talking to them and, I have to say, that was a huge relief. I felt like, at that moment, my life opened up with a freedom. I didn’t need to please them.”
Graham continued, “I feel like I wasn’t brought up to have a deep sense of self-esteem, and I think as I detached from my family, I built my own sense of self-esteem. Sort of like a detective, I went through my past and looked at how I developed certain ways of thinking that weren’t the healthiest, and basically just went on a journey to be happier.”
When asked if her family ever tried to contact her, the actress said an effort was made, but it was “very judgmental.”
She said they would say, “‘Let me give you the number of the priest and you can go to confession.’ I just think we’re really different. They have a lot of great qualities – it’s just not a healthy dynamic for me.”
