5 FAMOUS STARS WHO KEEP THEIR KIDS HIDDEN FROM THE PUBLIC – FIND OUT
Jamie Lee Curtis, Robert De Niro, Kate Hudson, and two other celebrities have children who prefer to stay out of the spotlight. These children rarely make public appearances, but a few photos of them exist.
While some famous parents enjoy sharing their children’s lives with the world, others have kids who like to keep things private. For example, Robert De Niro has biracial twin sons that many people don’t even know about. These kids prefer to stay out of the public eye, keeping their lives low-key. Here’s what we know about these rarely-seen celebrity children.
ROBERT DE NIRO’S LITTLE-KNOWN BIRACIAL TWIN SONS, JULIAN AND AARON
Robert De Niro, one of the most iconic actors, is a proud father of seven children: Drena, Raphael, Aaron, Julian, Elliot, Helen, and Gia. In 1976, he married singer Diahnne Abbott, and they had their first son, Raphael.
Though De Niro is a well-known figure, his twin sons, Julian and Aaron, have managed to stay out of the spotlight for most of their lives.
Robert De Niro shared a sweet moment with his wife, Diahnne Abbott, on the set of the film *New York, New York* during a location shoot in Los Angeles on April 26, 1977. Abbott had a daughter, Drena, from a previous relationship, and De Niro adopted her before the couple separated in 1988.
In the mid-1990s, De Niro began dating African-American model Toukie Smith. Though the pair never married, they welcomed twin boys, Julian Kendrick and Aaron Henry, in October 1995 through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy. Despite their famous father, Julian and Aaron have remained largely out of the spotlight.
Julian and Aaron, who turned 28 in March 2023, prefer to keep their lives private. Although they have attended red-carpet events with their parents as both children and adults, they generally stay out of the public eye and lead quiet lives.
When asked about his kids, De Niro expressed his love for them, saying, “I love my children, just being with them. [But] It’s not easy. When you have the good moments [though], you forget about the ones that weren’t good.” Despite the challenges, De Niro cherishes the time he spends with his children.
Luna García is one of Rossy de Palma’s two children. Rossy de Palma, a Spanish actress, was discovered in 1986 by famed director Pedro Almodóvar at a café in Madrid. She quickly became a recognizable face in Almodóvar’s films, appearing in iconic movies like *Law of Desire* (1987) and *Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown* (1988).
Despite her fame, Rossy has kept her family life relatively private, and her children, including Luna, are rarely seen in public.
At the start of her acting career, Rossy de Palma faced harsh criticism from her home country’s top newspaper, being labeled as “ugly and strange.” Known for her unique look, de Palma has asymmetrical eyes and a prominent nose—her left eye is green, while her right is brighter and rounder.
Despite the comments about her appearance, Rossy embraced her distinctive features and made a bold statement in a 1994 interview, when she was 29. She confidently said, “Perhaps I’m very pretty to some people and very ugly for others. But that’s their problem, not mine.”
KATE HUDSON’S SON, RYDER, PREFERS STAYING OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT
Kate Hudson became a mother at 23 when she welcomed her son, Ryder Russell, with her ex-husband, Chris Robinson. During an interview on “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” Hudson joked about feeling like a “teen mom” after Ryder was born. She explained that becoming a mom at such a young age made her feel like she was figuring out motherhood while still growing up herself.
Despite her early start, Hudson has embraced motherhood, raising Ryder while continuing her successful acting career.
During the interview, Kate Hudson joked about feeling like she was 12 when she had Ryder, stating that in Hollywood, having a child at 23 seemed early. Along with Ryder, Hudson is also the mother of Bingham, from her relationship with ex-fiancé Matt Bellamy, and Rani Rose, her daughter with current fiancé Danny Fujikawa.
Balancing motherhood with her career and business ventures has been tough, but Hudson has managed it with help from her older children, especially Ryder. The family lives in the same house Hudson grew up in, which her mom, Goldie Hawn, and Kurt Russell bought in the 1970s. Hudson later purchased the house in 2015, combining it with a neighboring property to create a larger home.
Hudson shares a special bond with Ryder, who is now a young adult. She mentioned that having Ryder at 23 shaped their close relationship, although she still emphasizes good manners and gratitude. Despite being a “wild mum,” she and Ryder are very close, and he often shows love by doing things like making her breakfast in bed and caring for his siblings.
In September 2022, Ryder left for college on the East Coast, marking a big change for Hudson. She helped him shop for essentials and shared their preparations with her fans, calling him a “minimalist” when he refused to buy extra things. Though his departure was emotional, Hudson is proud and excited for his future.
Although it’s been hard to adjust to Ryder being away, Hudson stays in touch with him regularly, and they’ve already had emotional moments over the phone. As time goes on, they’re both committed to maintaining their bond, proving that distance only strengthens their connection.
JAMIE LEE CURTIS’ SECOND CHILD, RUBY, TRANSITIONED FROM A MAN TO A WOMAN
“Perfect” actress Jamie Lee Curtis always dreamed of having kids. After marrying her husband, comedy director Christopher Guest, the couple faced years of heartbreak as they struggled with infertility. Despite trying, they couldn’t conceive, which led them to explore other ways to grow their family. Eventually, they decided to adopt, and Curtis has often spoken about how this experience shaped her perspective on motherhood and family.
After trying everything and not succeeding, Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband, Christopher Guest, chose to adopt. Curtis shared that adoption was their path to becoming a complete family because they felt something was missing until they had a child.
Just two years into their marriage, Curtis and Guest welcomed their daughter through an open adoption in 1986, right after her birth. While they had planned to adopt Annie, their second child, Ruby (formerly Thomas), came unexpectedly.
VAL KILMER IS SUPER CLOSE TO HIS DAUGHTER, MERCEDES
American actor Val Kilmer became a Hollywood star with his role as Tom Kazansky in the 1986 film *Top Gun*. He is also well-known for his performances in other popular films such as *Tombstone*, *Batman Forever*, and *Heat*.
Val Kilmer and his wife, Joanne Whalley, got married in 1988 after meeting on the set of the movie *Willow*. They also worked together in *Kill Me Again* a year after their marriage. In 1991, they welcomed their daughter, Mercedes, and then their son, Jack, was born in 1995. Although Kilmer and Whalley divorced in 1995, they stayed on good terms and continued to work together. Their love and commitment to their children remained strong despite the end of their marriage.
Rare facts about the astonishing Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith’s life has been quite a rollercoaster. The iconic actress, daughter of actress Tippi Hedren, made her debut on the screen at age 12 – and since then, she’s starred in several big productions.
While Melanie Griffith’s career kept rolling, her private life was very much in focus. She’s been married three times – including to Antonio Banderas – been in rehab, and raised three children.
Melanie Griffith’s children from her first two marriages – Alexander Bauer and Dakota Johnson – had a pretty rough upbringing, especially considering that they had to go through having a mother who was in a terrible place at the time…
Melanie Griffith really had something in the ’80s. She was erotic and sexual in a way that European actresses sometimes are and American actresses almost always are not. And she could act, even though I don’t think Melanie ever truly realized her potential.
I loved her in the movie Working Girl and Paradise!
She was born on August 9, 1957, in New York City to parents Peter Griffith and superstar actress Tippi Hedren, most commonly known for her role in the Hitchcock classic, The Birds.
In hindsight, Griffith’s life has been rather incredible. However, it’s been tragic at the same time. The famous actress, who became known for playing strong-but-sexy characters, has been involved in a car accident, battled with drinking problems, and went through three divorces.
From the start of her life, she was exposed to the pressure of a life in show business. Her mother, Tippi, was, as mentioned, a superstar, and her childhood was extravagant in a very special way – even by Hollywood standards.
When Griffith was seven years old, her mother married agent and producer Noah Marshall. After coming back from a trip to Africa, the couple decided to make a film about lions. An animal trainer gave them a unique idea: to get to know the big cat better, they could welcome one into their home.
So, Melanie Griffith grew up with a pet lion, living with them in the 1970s at their home in Los Angeles, California.
”I grew up with lions, tigers, and two elephants,” Griffith said.
The pet lion, Neil, lived together with the family. Life Magazine documented the extraordinary event, with pictures showing Hedren resting on Neil’s back. The lion even slept under blankets in Melanie Griffith’s bed.
”It was stupid beyond belief,” Griffith later explained.
Even though she wasn’t involved in any incidents with Neil, years later, in another encounter, things didn’t end that well.
Met Don Johnson at 14
Melanie Griffith starred in her first commercial before she turned one. She continued to do commercials and modeling work for some years, and at 12, she made her debut in Extra!, even though she was uncredited.
At the age of 14, she appeared in The Harrad Experiment, and on set, she met her first big love. Griffith met actor Don Johnson on set, and the two fell madly in love. At the time, however, their age difference was somewhat controversial. Don Johnson was 22 at the time – eight years older than Melanie – but their love for one another didn’t stop them.
”I thought he was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen,” Griffith said.
Her mother feared for the two because of her age but eventually gave in. At 15, Melanie Griffith moved in with Don Johnson, and on her 18th birthday, the two got engaged.
”They were two beautiful, wonderful people, and here, my daughter was showing signs that I had never seen before in her, with an older man, and there was just sheer panic,” her mother, Tippi Hedren, recalled.
Griffith and Johnson tied the knot in Las Vegas in 1976. And, after just six months of marriage, the two split. However, they would rekindle their romance later on, exchanging vows a second time in 1989.
Melanie Griffith lion accident
Melanie Griffith started her promising acting career in the 1970s, starring in films such as Night Moves and Joyride.
In 1981, Melanie Griffith starred in the film Roar. Even though her mother and stepfather raised lions to shoot a film, things turned out ugly on the set of Roar. It was very dangerous being in front of the camera, and Melanie got injured.
She was mauled near the eye, and she feared losing her sight. She needed plastic surgery, while her mother Tippi Hedren contracted gangrene and needed skin grafts, according to a piece in the New Yorker.
As reported by The Guardian, Melanie Griffith said that the lioness ”didn’t mean to hurt me. Just, after seven years growing up with the lions, I forgot you have to be careful. You can never be sure you’re safe, and just a blow can pop your head like a ping pong ball.”
Melanie Griffith came through the scary incident. She continued to star in movies, however, without any live wild animals. She appeared in Body Double, Something Wild, and The Working Girl, among others, with the last one earning her an Academy Award nomination in 1989.
In the 1980s, Melanie Griffith also found love for the second time. She married actor Steven Bauer in 1981, and four years later, they welcomed a son, Alexander Bauer.
Melanie Griffith – daughter Dakota Johnson
Their relationship lasted until 1989 when the couple divorced – with Griffith finding love in Don Johnson again. They divorced again in 1996, after welcoming daughter and now actress Dakota Johnson in 1989.
”You have to understand that we have a tie, and I love him,” Melanie Griffith said and added:
”I will always love [Don Johnson]. But just because you love someone doesn’t necessarily mean that you can live with them.”
Dakota Johnson has become a prominent actress, starring in Fifty Shades of Grey and The Social Network. But because her parents divorced when she was only seven years old, she had a turbulent childhood. She moved around plenty, went to several different schools, and was even homeschooled for a while.
She was often hanging around her parents on film sets from a young age. It made her want to become an actress as well, which she did.
However, the childhood of Dakota Johnson was also filled with much trouble because of her family situation. As a result, she started to go to therapy at age three.
“The whole shebang,” Dakota Johnson told Vogue. “All the help you can get.”
Melanie Griffith – marriage to Antonio Banderas
”I was so consistently unmoored and discombobulated, I didn’t have an anchor anywhere, I never learned how to learn the way you’re supposed to as a kid. I thought, ‘Why do I have to go to school on time? What’s the point when you’re living in Budapest for six months while your stepdad films Evita and you go to school in your hotel room?’ I was a disaster, and I thought for so long that there was something wrong with my brain. Now I realize that it just works in a different way.”
Dakota Johnson’s childhood could’ve become the thing that put her on the wrong foot. However, a new person soon entered her life, who changed everything. Just as she mentioned, she needed an anchor. And that was precisely what she got in her stepfather, Antonio Banderas.
In 1996, the same year as Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson split, Banderas also went through a divorce with Ana Leza, whom he’d been married to for nine years. He had long admired Melanie Griffith after seeing her in Gone Girl and on the red carpet at the Academy Awards.
“The first time I went to the Academy Awards after we got a nomination for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, we got on the red carpet, and I saw this blonde woman, and I knew her because I saw movies of her, but I didn’t remember [her name] at the time,” Banderas told Vulture.
“So, I said to [director Pedro Almodóvar] ‘Who is she? Who is she? What is her name?’ Pedro said, ‘That’s Melanie Griffith!’ I said, ‘That’s it. Oh my God.’ Six years later, I was married to her.”
Dakota Johnson’s relationship with stepfather Antonio Banderas
The two met while filming the comedy film Two Much in 1995, and they had one actual thing in common. Both were unhappy in their marriages – and Banderas and Griffith recognized each other’s situations.
Antonio Banderas instantly felt an attraction to Melanie Griffith when working together. He thought she was funny, generous, sweet, and beautiful, and after Two Much, the two stayed in touch. In May 1996, the two tied the knot and welcomed daughter Stella later the same year.
Not only did Antonio Banderas become a father to Stella, but the well-respected actor also became a stepfather to Alexander – from her second marriage to Steven Bauer – and Dakota Johnson.
For both Alexander and Dakota, Antonio Banderas became vital, as they finally got a stepfather who was there for her all the time.
In the beginning, however, Banderas explained that it was difficult for the children to accept him because they didn’t know how long he’d stick around.
“I was totally inexperienced. Suddenly I had a 6-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy, and Stella came along almost immediately,” he told AARP. “I was, ‘Oh, my God!’ But as soon as the kids knew that I was there to stay, they were fine. They needed solid ground in which they could grow. As soon as I realized that, I started establishing my relationship, giving them security, little by little doing the father thing.”
Changed Dakota Johnson’s life
Dakota and Alexander realized that Antonio Banderas was not a temporary man. He took on the role of their stepfather and helped them in any way possible.
For Dakota, this was especially important. Her childhood had been more than stressful and uncertain. In Banderas, she got a stepfather that taught her many things, including “true passion and discipline.”
In 2011, he revealed that the kids call him “Paponio, “which is a mix of “Papa” and “Antonio.”
During an award ceremony in 2019, when Antonio Banderas received the Hollywood Actor Award, Dakota Johnson and Melanie Griffith presented him with the trophy.
”I come from a family of many a marriage, and I got very lucky,” Johnson said in her speech.
”I got a bonus dad who I realized that, over time, is actually one of the most influential people in my whole life. When I was six years old, my mother married a man who brought an unbelievably bright light, a whole new world of creativity and culture, and one remarkably magical little sister into our family.”
”He loved my mother, and my siblings and I so big, and so fiercely and so loud, that it would change all of our lives together,” Dakota added in her speech.
Strong bond to this day
The relationship between Antonio Banderas and his stepchildren continued to be strong even after he and Melanie Griffith divorced in 2014.
Even though Melanie Griffith and Antonio aren’t married anymore, their family bond will forever be strong. As of today, Banderas is in a relationship with Nicole Kimpel. But as soon as he is in Los Angeles, he makes sure to spend time with his stepchildren and ex-wife.
The divorce between the two in 2014 wasn’t dramatic at all, for which his stepchildren were very grateful, Banderas explained.
He added that he will always cherish the time he and Melanie had together – and that he always will love her. And regarding his stepdaughter, Dakota Johnson, he is like her biological, very proud father.
“I remember those years as very effervescent and really beautiful. I am not married with Melanie anymore, but she is my family. She is probably one of my best friends, if not the best friend that I have. My family is there, Dakota [Johnson], Little Estella and Alexander,” Antonio Banderas told Vulture in 2019.
”I met her when she was five years old,” he added. “I followed every single step of it. I’m so proud of her. I saw her the other day in Toronto, and she looks — as I said in the social networks when I put a picture of her and myself, I put there, ‘My radiant Dakota.’”
Melanie Griffith today
At 65, Melanie Griffith is happily single. Her last appearance on the big screen was in 2020, when she had a minor role and co-starred alongside her daughter Dakota in The High Note.
Today, she devotes her time to her family, and according to BestLife, Melanie is currently writing her memoir. And there will probably be a lot to pen down – including her battle against cancer.
The actress was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2010, and eight years later, she revealed that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Doctors had to remove a cancerous cell on her nose, the whole event took a toll on Melanie.
“It’s a scary thing when you’re an actress and you depend on your face for work,” the actress told InStyle and continued:
“But I realize I have to put a Band-Aid on it, and it’s fine. I just look like a dork.”
Luckily, everything went fine in the end – Melanie is now a loud advocate of cancer and also supports the efforts of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
You can say what you want about Melanie’s looks and her turbulent life, but she does seem to have a really sweet soul!
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