Actress Megan Fox broke down in tears when asked about her children during an interview published this week with InStyle.
The mother of three said she worries most about her 8-year-old son, whom she encourages to wear dresses to school — something the child has done since he was at least four years old, per Fox.
The actress told InStyle young Noah has been subject to “mean, awful people and cruel people” online.
“I don’t want him to ever have to read that shit because he hears it from little kids at his own school who are like, ‘Boys don’t wear dresses,'” Fox, 35, said.
Here’s how InStyle reported on Fox’s crying when asked about her children:
When I ask her about her kids, Fox does something women are told constantly to avoid in professional settings: She cried. At first, she apologized for her emotions but then immediately stopped herself and went on with what she was saying. Like her epiphany around her career, she acknowledged there’s no need to hold back a feeling just because of some arbitrary behavioral rule set out for women. And when it comes to her “babies,” all that matters is protecting them, especially her oldest, 8-year-old Noah, who has been subject to “mean, awful people and cruel people,” online. “I don’t want him to ever have to read that shit because he hears it from little kids at his own school who are like, ‘Boys don’t wear dresses,'” she says.
Back in 2019, Fox told “The Talk” that Noah, then 6 years old, wore dresses to his “really liberal, hippy school,” noting that she’s trying to teach him “confidence” to handle being picked on.
“Sometimes, he’ll dress himself and he likes to wear dresses sometimes,” she said on the panel, according to PEOPLE magazine. “And I send him to a really liberal, hippy school, but even there — here in California — he still has little boys going, ‘Boys don’t wear dresses,’ or ‘Boys don’t wear pink.’ ”
“So we’re going through that now, where I’m trying to teach him to be confident no matter what anyone else says,” Fox said.
“He just wore one two days ago to school, and he came home and I was like, ‘How was it? Did any of the friends at school have anything to say?’ ” the “Jennifer’s Body” actress recalled. “And he was like, ‘Well, all the boys laughed when I came in, but I don’t care, I love dresses too much.'”
In 2017, Fox’s ex, Brian Austin Green, argued that “it’s his life” when defending their then-four-year-old Noah wearing dresses in public.
“My son, he’s four,” Green said, PEOPLE reported. “I’ve heard from some people that they don’t agree with him wearing dresses. To them I say, I don’t care. He’s 4 and if he wants to wear it, then he wears it.”
“And it’s dresses or goggles or slippers or whatever. It’s his life, they’re not my clothes … I feel like at 4, at 5, that’s a time when he should be having fun,” he added. “He’s not harming anyone wearing a dress. So if he wants to wear a dress, good on him.”
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