Inside Anne Hathaway's Relationship With Her Two Kids

It's safe to say that Anne Hathaway has been on Hollywood's A-list ever since she rose to fame in the fan-favorite film, "The Princess Diaries," back when she was just a teenager. From there, she appeared in a variety of popular movies, including Blockbusters like "The Dark Knight Rises." She's also starred in musicals like "Les Miserables" which earned her both an Academy Award and Golden Globe. However, in recent years, Hathaway has appeared to have stepped out of the spotlight and shifted her focus more toward her family.

Hathaway married actor and jewelry designer, Adam Shulman, in 2012. But, you could say things really began to change for the "Ocean's 8" actor when she became a mom in 2016 after welcoming her first child, Jonathan. She and Shulman expanded their family soon after with the birth of their second son, Jack, in 2019. Like many celebrities though, Hathaway has made it a point to shield her children from fame, so much so that her eldest didn't even know his mother is a movie star. In an interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Hathaway explained preparing her son for her leaving for work saying, "I was like, 'Okay, so, Mommy's going to work,'" adding, "And he's like, 'Mommy, are you going to work at the library?'...So he thinks I'm a librarian."

Although the star has kept her boys pretty private for the most part, she apparently can't help but occasionally gush about them like most mothers. So with that said, let's go inside Anne Hathaway's relationship with her two kids. 

It seems that becoming a mother really changed Anne Hathaway's perspective on life, which she apparently first noticed after having her son, Jonathan. Around that time, she told Marie Claire that she realized that she's happiest when things are simple. She found joy in what her new baby would do just by basically existing. She explained, "The day begins with a checklist: Is he breathing? Is he healthy? Is he growing? Is he thriving? If I get four yeses it's really hard to upset my day." Hathaway suggested it meant more to her than her past accomplishments, adding, "I just wasn't feeling satisfied by the other stuff."

Hathaway reiterated how motherhood had improved her life after her second son, Jack, was born. She shared with the Wall Street Journal that not only does she no longer sweat the small stuff but it's influenced how she treats other too. She dished, "[I] didn't feel fully landed and fully here until I was a mom. It's not like I was lacking integrity, but it made me want to be completely, on every level, true to my word."

For new moms or moms-to-be out there, Hathaway explained what she does to keep that attitude even when times get tough. She revealed, "That meant stopping any nonsense that I had going on inside myself. And it's little breaks that you give yourself sometimes when you know that you're not being your best self."

Anne Hathaway eldest son, Jonathan, apparently inspired her to make some major lifestyle changes in 2019. That's when the "The Witches" star decided to quit drinking — for about 18 years at least. She revealed on "The Ellen Degeneres Show," "I'm going to stop drinking while my son is in my house, just because I don't totally love the way I do it and he's getting to an age where he really does need me all the time in the mornings."

Hathaway made it clear though that it wasn't alcohol that was the issue. It was her intense hangovers that kept her from being the best mom she could be. She explained to Tatler, "My issue is I just love it. So. Much. But the way I do it makes me unavailable for my son. My last hangover lasted for five days." The actor emphasized that in an interview with "Loraine." She explained that she was away filming a lot so she didn't want the time she had with her son to be negatively impacted.

Hathaway presumedly extended her 18-year drinking hiatus after her second son, Jack, was born. Yet, she doesn't feel it's necessary for every mom to stop drinking. She dished to Modern Luxury, via ET, "I don't think drinking is bad. It's just the way I do it — which I personally think is really fun and awesome — is just not the kind of fun and awesome that goes with having a child for me."

Anne Hathaway may have gotten her big break in Hollywood as a young teen, but she doesn't necessarily want her sons, Jonathan and Jack, to follow in her footsteps. When discussing how she'd feel about her boys acting with the Wall Street Journal, she revealed, "I would probably take the same tack that my parents did with me, which is: You have all the time in the world to be a professional actor; you can only be a child once."

Hathaway did share on "Lorraine" though that she's noticed that Jonathan has his grandmother's knack for performing. She dished, "My mom had that personality, that you know just kind of stand in the center of the room and just sing thing, and my son's got that too." Even so, Hathaway still won't be pushing him or Jack to become child stars. "I would encourage them to study, to go to classes, to read, but I would strongly discourage them from starting too young," she said in the Wall Street Journal interview. She added that she thinks they probably won't make any career decisions until after college.

That doesn't mean Hathaway isn't excited to share some of her own acting with them. She told "The Jess Cagle Show," via People, that she can't wait to show them "The Devil Wears Prada" in particular, gushing, "It's just such a joy of a film, and it's so well-crafted, and it's so funny, and I love what it's about."

These days when Anne Hathaway is making a movie, you can bet that she thinks it'll be a good one, considering that she's now much more selective since becoming a mom. Hathaway explained on "The Jess Cagle Show," that her children changed how she goes about taking roles, saying, "...Something really has to be so excellent to spend time away from them because they're so precious to me." Of course, that does make the stakes higher when she does work, with her adding, "It puts greater pressure on me to make it worth the time that I've spent away from them."

Hathaway's children have also inspired her to say yes to specific projects, like the "Sesame Street" movie. She admitted to Us Weekly, "A big reason why I'm doing it is just an off chance that [Jonathan] has a memory of hanging out with Cookie Monster." What Jonathan probably isn't interested in though is his mother doing any more musicals. That's because during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" she says, "He just hates my voice. He hates it. I'm not allowed to sing in my own house anymore."

Hathaway may avoid doing scary movies too, while her sons are still little. She revealed to People that she doesn't even want them to watch her in "The Witches." She dished, "My kids can't see this movie until they're like 30 because every time I smile they're just going to freak."

If you're wondering why you haven't seen many photos of Anne Hathaway's sons, it's because "The Hustle" star has kept them extremely private. She apparently even regrets sharing the back of her eldest son, Jonathan's head on Instagram in 2017. It was seemingly the only time she's ever posted either of her kids on social media. Hathaway admitted to Jezebel, "Almost as soon as I'd done it, I wished that I hadn't. I felt like I had broken some kind of a seal in inviting people into my life."

Hathaway did use social media to announce her pregnancies though, so she could have agency over how she shared the news. When pregnant with Jonathan in 2016, she captioned an Instagram photo of her bump captioned with, "I figure if this kind of photo is going to be out in the world it should at least be an image that makes me happy." Hathaway disclosed her second pregnancy the same way but used the opportunity to spread a positive message. In the 2019 Instagram post she noted, "For everyone going through infertility and conception hell, please know it was not a straight line to either of my pregnancies. Sending you extra love."

Hathaway later kept Jack's 2019 birth super under wraps. She didn't even reveal Jack's name until almost a year later either, gushing during a "Live With Kelly and Ryan" appearance, "Now I have a beautiful almost-11-month-old boy."

Anne Hathaway may be a movie star but like most parents, she still has to discipline her children. However, you could say the "Love & Other Drugs" star has some pretty creative tactics for getting her older son, Jonathan, to behave. Hathaway and her husband use a certain jolly old elf to keep their kids in line. During an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" she dished, "You know when you're in the car with your kids...and everybody is loud at the same moment...I just have this spark and I go, 'Okay Johnny, but what about Santa?' Suddenly, there was no argument...and we went, 'Oh my God, this is so powerful.'"

On a more serious note though, Hathaway said she was actually inspired by how Prince William and Kate Middleton parent their children in terms of communication. She explained to The Sunday Times, "They get down on the child's level and speak to them eye to eye to make their child feel empowered. I thought that was really cool."

Hathaway revealed that she used the royals' parenting tactic when it came to helping her son, Jonathan, work through some of his emotions. She even gave an example when reflecting on a time when she told him he couldn't do something.  She recalled, "He got mad, I said, 'Of course you're mad...Gosh, that makes sense.' The answer is still no, but everything you're feeling right now is totally legit.'"

It appears that Anne Hathaway lucked out with how her son, Jonathan, felt about sharing his parents' attention with his younger brother, Jack. That's because when asked on "Live with Kelly and Ryan" in 2020 how Johnny was coping with the new baby, Hathaway responded, "No coping, just love." She elaborated, "Now Jack's big enough to wrestle with, and that's brought a new element to their relationship that's really cute."

Hathaway's boys don't just bond over wrestling though since she suggested to Woman and Home that they also enjoy playing make-believe together. "We do a lot of pretend play. We read stories and try to live in our imaginations a lot," she said. However, that doesn't mean that they don't fight like average siblings. Hathaway even recalled one moment specifically on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," saying, "We were driving in the car... And the baby is crying because he wants the cracker that the 4-year-old has and the 4-year-old will not give him a cracker."

Outside of their affinity for crackers, both of the "Ella Enchanted" star's kids seemingly have some different interests. Hathaway made that clear when she shared what they were going to be for Halloween in 2020 when on "The Drew Barrymore Show." She dished, "Jonathan is very into the 'Cars' movie franchise, so he is going to be Lightning McQueen." She added, "And Jack, who's 11 months old, is climbing on everything, so he's going to be a monkey."

Anne Hathaway looks like she has it all together but even she sometimes struggles with parenting her children. When it came to the obstacles she faced as a mother, she admitted to The Daily Telegraph, "There's obviously a learning curve – you just have to be kind to yourself with that because you do feel like you're doing everything wrong, especially in the early days."

Hathaway doesn't just preach that new mothers cut themselves some slack, but continues to apply that to her life when she feels bad about leaving her children for long periods to work. She admitted to People, "I try to be nice to myself. I'm not big on mommy guilt. I just don't really do it unless I really, really, really, really, really need to." It seems that Hathaway also made it a point to keep her work life separate from her home life. "If I'm in a character for three months, I make sure that I'm not in character for three months. That way I'm never asking for him to share me for too long," she said.

Of course, there are still things that are out of Hathaway's control, like dealing with a pandemic while her children were very little. She revealed to Woman and Home, "It was tough to try to explain to Jonathan why he couldn't see his friends and why school was shut down...in a way that didn't make him terrified of the world."

It's clear that Anne Hathaway has really taken to being a mother and has a special relationship with her two sons, Jonathan and Jack. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that she wants to give them a sibling. "The Intern" actor revealed on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Some minutes, I'm like, 'Yes, absolutely,' and some minutes the world scares me too much and I think I've got two healthy ones and that feels really great."

Another reason why Hathaway may be unsure if she wants to have more kids is that she struggled with pregnancy. She explained to the Wall Street Journal via Yahoo Finance, "There's this tendency to portray getting pregnant, having kids, in one light, as if it's all positive. But I know from my own experience ... it's so much more complicated than that." She went on to reveal that sharing her pain with that has been helpful for her. When it came to her challenges to conceive in particular, Hathaway told the Daily Mail, "What I hated was when people would say: 'What's taking you so long?' Or they'd try to put a pretty bow on what was happening to me...I would just think...my feelings are my feelings, and I'm fairly devastated right now."

It seems that Hathaway's openness about motherhood, as well as her close relationship with her two children, isn't just inspiring to fellow moms, but even to those who one day hope to become a mother like her.