Meet Jennifer Connelly's 3 Kids

After getting her start in the modeling industry, Jennifer Connelly spent the '80s making a name for herself in Hollywood. She landed major gigs right out the gate — her earliest credits include Jim Henson's "Labyrinth," Dario Argento's "Phenomena," and Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" — and it wasn't long before she proved she has serious range; whether she's hamming it up in comedies like "Career Opportunities" or tackling darker projects like "Requiem for a Dream," she always delivers on the silver screen. 

As her career continued to chug along in the late '90s, Connelly added a totally new title to her resume: mom. In 1997, she and her then-partner, David Dugan, became parents to Kai Duggan. Connelly went on to marry fellow actor Paul Bettany five years later, and their family continued to evolve. Shortly after she and Paul tied the knot, Connelly gave birth to Stellan Bettany. In 2011, daughter Agnes Bettany arrived.

In 2012, the mother of three chatted with Anderson Cooper about life with her little ones. "They're all such extraordinary kids and they're great together," she stated. "They never fight. They look after each other. They're loving." By all accounts, Jennifer Connelly is as proud of her three kids now as she was then.

On July 9, 1997, Kai Dugan was born. His father, photographer David Dugan, and mother, actor Jennifer Connelly, broke up shortly after his arrival. Kai then split time between David's home and Connelly's. "I'm very grateful that my son has a good relationship with his father that's very consistent, so I really support that and do everything I can to protect and nurture it," Connelly told the HFPA in 2001.

In 2002, Connelly opened up to New York magazine about the changes that came after she became a mom. "I feel more comfortable in my own skin now than I ever have," she told the outlet. "I think there's something about loving Kai so much, in a way that I've never loved anyone, including myself."

Her confidence was not the only thing that evolved. After Kai was born, Connelly's career also went through a stunning transformation. As she told the HFPA, being a mom impacts the choices she makes in her work. "Now I think about the world that my son Kai is growing up in, and I don't want to put anything out into the world that's going to cause any more suffering or pain or confusion," she said. In her aforementioned chat with New York magazine, she noted that motherhood has made her more discerning than ever. "[I]t's really important to me to feel good about what I'm working on, to justify the number of hours I'd have to be away from him," she said.

A few years after she and David Dugan split, Jennifer Connelly connected with the man who would become her husband. After meeting during the making of the movie "A Beautiful Mind" in 2000, Connelly and co-star Paul Bettany struck up a romantic relationship. They began dating in 2001, and by 2003, the two were happily married. Bettany also became a paternal figure to Kai Dugan. 

When Connelly and Bettany's relationship became serious, they recognized that it all might take some getting used to for Dugan. "I think he felt I was the funnest of the boyfriends who had come along, but then I think it was a really hard road to hoe for him," Bettany told The Standard in 2012. "It had been Jennifer and him and he must have felt that I was taking all that away from him, but he was really amazing about it and he's as bright as a kid with two heads anyway."

According to the "WandaVision" actor, music has played a major role in shaping their bond. In a 2010 interview with Parade, Bettany shared that he had a cover band and announced that Dugan began playing with them when he was only 12 years of age. "Every year we have a band that gets together and plays rock songs," he stated. "This year, my stepson joined the band for the first time playing guitar and it was such a lovely, moving experience."

Kai Dugan is the son of an actor and photographer, as well as the stepson of an actor who moonlights as a musician, so it seemed like a given he'd get into a creative field. However, he chose a markedly different path. 

Like Jennifer Connelly, Dugan went to Yale University. While his mom initially sought a degree in English lit, he studied mechanical engineering. In a 2022 interview with Marie Claire, Jennifer Connelly spoke about how hard it was for her to send her eldest off to college. "The worst of it was the first weekend when we first left him at college and drove away," she recounted. "I sobbed the entire way. And then I sobbed the entire night. I went to sleep crying and woke up in the morning crying and I was like, 'Oh my God, this is not normal!' I was bereft!"

After he graduated from college, Dugan relocated to the West Coast where he began his career as an engineer for Lockheed Martin. As much as Connelly misses having Dugan nearby (she and Paul Bettany put down roots in Brooklyn and Vermont), she couldn't be more proud of his accomplishments. "It's an incredible experience, watching him kind of create his own community and his own life," she said. "He really knows how to nurture himself, which brings me so much happiness, seeing him in his world and the world that he's creating."

In 2022, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's lengthy defamation trial brought a number of serious allegations and damning details to light. What's more, there were a number of references to other celebrities, ranging from Depp's ex-girlfriend Kate Moss to his friend Marilyn Manson. Paul Bettany, who struck up a friendship with Depp while making the 2010 film "The Tourist," also happened to come up during the trial. At one point, Depp alleged Heard once made Bettany's stepson, Kai Dugan, cry in front of his family.

According to Depp, Heard apparently took issue with his friendship with Bettany. "Ms. Heard despised Mr. Bettany, mainly because we had become such close friends, and for her he was a threat and would take me away from her," he claimed.

Evidently, this all came to a head when Depp and Heard went out to lunch with Bettany and his family one day. Depp claimed that during the meal, Dugan chimed in on a conversation, and Heard allegedly not only shut him down, but embarrassed him. "Ms. Heard demeaned that young man to the point of where he burst into tears and walked away," he recalled. "And it was at that point that I had spoken to Ms. Heard and said, 'That's just unacceptable. That behavior is unacceptable.'"

A few years after meeting on the set of "A Beautiful Mind" in 2000, Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany not only got married, but expanded their family. On August 13, 2003, Connelly welcomed her second son, Stellan Bettany, into the world. Stellan was named after his father's friend and fellow actor, Stellan Skarsgård. Paul and Skarsgård first became pals while working on the 2001 film "Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang)." 

At a young age, Stellan was keen to follow in his parents' — and his namesake's — footsteps. In a 2008 interview with The Guardian, Connelly dished that Stellan "wants to be an actor when he grows up, which I can't believe." Connelly, who got her start in Hollywood when she was just a tween, went on to note that she wasn't exactly itching to become a stage parent. "I'd like both of my kids to remain kids as long as possible until they actually have to become grown-ups, so I prefer none of them become professionals before adulthood," she said.

In 2021, Stellan Bettany graduated from high school. While Jennifer Connelly and "WandaVision" actor Paul Bettany mostly keep their family's life away from the spotlight, the proud parents have certainly shared a handful of sweet social media posts about their three kids over the years. And when Stellan received his high school diploma, they couldn't help but gush about this major milestone. 

On June 7, 2021, Paul took to Instagram to celebrate this momentous occasion with three back-to-back posts. For his first post, Paul included a lengthy caption alongside a throwback photo. "Here's me holding Stellan at about a week old. ... Today my beautiful kid graduates high school! Time ... my head is spinning," he wrote. "Very proud of everything Stellan has accomplished so far and even more excited about what the future holds." 

The second post featured a photo of Paul and his stepson Kai Dugan in suits, preparing to celebrate Stellan's special day. Finally, his last post of the day featured selfie he took with Stellan after the ceremony. "So that happened," he wrote. "The short version is that Stellan graduated and I cried like a baby."

Jennifer Connelly's husband, "WandaVision" star Paul Bettany, began playing guitar long before he became a professional actor. As previously noted, he shares his love of music with his stepson, Kai Dugan. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he also shares his love of music with Stellan Bettany. Early on, Connelly suspected this would be more than just a hobby for Stellan. When he was just 5 years old, she told The Guardian that she believed music was his calling. 

After graduating high school in 2021, Stellan went on to study classical composing and songwriting at the New England Conservatory of Music. An aspiring musician, Stellan uses his Instagram page to showcase his art. He's no slouch either; he plays the piano, guitar, and drums. In 2023, he and his stepfather covered Radiohead's "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" and posted it for all to see. That same year, Stellan released his first album, "Armor." 

Two months before the album's release, the New England Conservatory YouTube channel uploaded a video of Stellan performing his song "Breaking the Code."  "I have been writing music for as long as I can remember, but only in the last 8 years has my love for classical music really developed," he wrote in the video's description. "Throughout my time at NEC, I have wanted to share the other side of my musical voice that exists entirely independent of my studies here at conservatory."

On May 31, 2011, Jennifer Connelly gave birth to her second child with Paul Bettany, Agnes Bettany. Though she was not new to motherhood — or the stress and fears that go along with it — she had an especially difficult time with being apart from her daughter. Evidently, this was only exacerbated when she traveled by plane. 

In 2022, Connelly told The Times that when she joined "Top Gun" franchise, she had to work through her real-life fear of flying. For the final scene of "Top Gun: Maverick," Connelly and Tom Cruise flew away in a P-51 Mustang — and yes, Cruise really did pilot the aircraft. According to Connelly, she'd struggled with air travel after Agnes suffered an undisclosed health issue. 

"My armchair analysis of myself is that we'd had a health scare with our youngest child, Agnes, when she was very little. It wound up being nothing, sort of a false alarm, but it was enough to really frighten me," Connelly said. "As a result, I struggled with separation. I never loved flying, but it got worse the first time I traveled without her, that was the first time I had a real panic. I always knew it was something I could outthink because I was always better when I was coming home."

While Jennifer Connelly's two sons have not seriously pursued acting careers, they have certainly dabbled. Kai Dugan, for example, did plays with his mom when he was in grade school. Stellan Bettany, meanwhile, had a brief cameo in his father's 2014 film "Shelter." 

For a while there, it seemed like Agnes Bettany had been bitten by the acting bug. On a 2019 episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Connelly shared that out of her three kids, she believed her youngest child might be the most likely to follow in her footsteps. As the "Labyrinth" actor told Jimmy Kimmel, Agnes, who was still in grade school at the time, was already showing an interest in the craft.

When Connelly's daughter visited her on the set of a recent project, was very locked in behind the scenes. "She'll sit by the monitor and watch — with headphones on — quite critically," Connelly said. "So I said, 'Well, any notes? Do you have any adjustments you think I should make?'" Agnes did indeed have some notes, including one suggestion about the blocking. Connelly took the suggestion, and evidently, Agnes' instincts were spot on. "I did it, and the director was like, 'I like that take,'" she laughed.

As previously mentioned, Jennifer Connelly has never been in a rush to get her kids into the acting industry. Rather, she wanted them to have a more "normal" childhood experience than she did. "I started working when I was 10 years old," she said on a 2024 episode of "Late Night with Seth Meyers." "It wasn't something that I had pursued. ... It was my mom's idea." Evidently, the "Phenomena" actor didn't want the same for her kids. Even after Agnes Bettany exhibited an interest in her line of work, Connelly held off from getting her into the biz.

Agnes might have her sights set on a different path anyway. On a 2020 episode of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association podcast "HFPA In Conversation," Connelly fielded questions regarding her children's interests. When the subject of whether or not her sons and daughter might one day try to make names for themselves in Hollywood, the proud mom revealed that Agnes seemed to be drawn to the medical field instead. 

As the actor shared, her daughter once had to do a project for school that involved creating pictures of what she imagined her life would look like over the next couple of decades. "In hers, she was in a library in her late teens, in her photograph, and then when she was in her 30s, she had a nametag that said 'Dr. Bettany,'" Connelly said. "So, no mention of acting so far." 

Jennifer Connelly and husband Paul Bettany have built incredibly successful careers for themselves in arguably one of the most competitive industries out there. And yet, Kai Dugan, Stellan Bettany, and Agnes Bettany sure know how to keep them grounded.

Paul first joined Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 when he lent his voice to J.A.R.V.I.S. in the "Iron Man" series. He would later be tapped to play Vision in the "Avengers" movies and, of course, "WandaVision." Of course, his involvement in the MCU is certainly a big deal to his kids. As he said on an 2015 episode of "Conan," "It was the only thing they've ever been interested in, in anything I've ever done in my life ever." That being said said, his kids have never called Vision their favorite MCU character. 

On a 2022 episode of "Late Night with Seth Meyers," Bettany joked that his kids continue to "torture" him about his role in the MCU. "My daughter has moved through all the different Avengers as her favorite. It's never, never me." He also shared that they mocked his place in the MCU via his Disney+ account. On a 2024 episode of the same show Connelly confirmed Bettany's story. "Yeah, it's true," she said. "His avatar, there's a picture of him as Vision ... and it says 'worst Avenger.' It's true. It was very funny." Turns out, even superheroes can be humbled.