celebrities without kids Archives

Childfree Celebrities: Famous Hollywood Edition: Actors and Musicians– Women’s History Month

March 27, 2013 by amywnk 18 Comments

Cropped screenshot of Marilyn Monroe from the trailer for the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Time for another fun list of childfree celebrities. We could list many famous women who do not have kids but these women have something to say about being childfree and proud!

This time we celebrate our favorite actresses,

Greta Garbo (Photo credit: aclbraga)

comediennes, TV personalities and musicians:

Oprah Winfrey – Media guru

Dolly Parton – Actress, singer-songwriter

Betty White – Actress

Janeane Garofalo – Comedian, actress and political activist

Eva Mendes – Actress

Tallulah Bankhead – Actress of the stage and screen

Paulette Goddard – Actress and Broadway performer

Stockard Channing – Actress

Sarah Brightman – English classical soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer

Shirley Manson – Scottish singer and actress, lead singer of rock band Garbage

Claudette Colbert – French-born American-based actress

Lauren Hutton – American model and actress

Mary Chapin Carpenter – American folk and country musician and winner of five Grammy Awards

Mary Pickford – Actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Daphne Zuniga – Actress

Ginger Rogers – Actress, dancer, and singer

Cameron Diaz – Actress, model

Kathy Griffin – Comedian, actress “It seems like kids don’t have the rights they need. For example a prison sentence for a child molester is so so incredibly low and yet in a way, kids are running the world (in many ways) it revolves around these kids but I don’t feel like we’re really protecting them. I want to really protect kids. I want to give them rights they need, I don’t want to give them the right to annoy me in a restaurant, I want to give them the right not to get molested.”

Caitlin Moran – British TV Personality “No one has ever claimed for a moment that childless men have missed out on a vital aspect of their existence, and were the poorer, and crippled by it.”

Christine McVie – Singer Fleetwood Mac

Nanci Griffith – Singer, guitarist and songwriter

Bo Derek – Actress, model and animal welfare activist

Bonnie Raitt – American blues singer-songwriter

Jean Arthur – Actress and major film star during the 1930s-40s

Julie Christie – Actress and Academy Award winner, starred in Doctor Zhivago

Lily Tomlin – Actress, comedian and writer

Jaqueline Bisset – Actress

Lara Flint Boyle – Actress

Mae West – Actress and sex symbol

Jean Harlow – Actress and sex symbol

Helen Mirren – Award-winning actress

Marisa Tomei – Actress

Dusty Springfield – British pop singer

Janet Jackson – Singer, songwriter and actress

Billie Holiday – American jazz singer and songwriter

Katharine Hepburn – Actress and winner of four academy awards

Marilyn Monroe – Icon, actress, singer and model

Liza Minnelli – Actress and singer

Janis Joplin – Singer and songwriter

Stevie Nicks – Singer, member of Fleetwood Mac

Portia de Rossi – Actress

Bessie Smith – Blues singer of the 1920s and 30s

Debbie Harry – lead singer of Blondie

Pam Grier – Actress

Gloria Gaynor – Singer

Mary Pickford – Actress and co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Bettie Page – Pin-up girl

Ashley Judd – Actress, women’s rights activist “Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it.”

Zooey Deschanel – On kids from a Marie Claire interview: “Don’t hold your breath waiting for Deschanel to announce a pregnancy, either. “That’s never been my focus,” she said of having children. “I like kids, and I like being around kids, but it was never an ambition, something, like, I need. I like working. That’s what I like doing. I like to work.”

Ava Gardner – Actress

Greta Garbo – Actress

Ellen Degeneres – Television host, actress and stand-up comedian

Margaret Cho – Actress, comedian, women’s rights activist and LGBT rights activist

Maria Callas – Soprano opera singer

Leah Dunham – Writer, director, actress

Kim Cattrall – Actress

Jo Frost – British nanny and television personality, better known as Supernanny

Julia Child – American chef, tv personality and author.

Rachel Ray – TV Chef

Quite an accomplished list! Did we miss anyone WNKies?

Childfree Celebrities: Artist Edition – Women’s History Month (whynokids.com)
Childfree Celebrities: Famous Authors Edition – Women’s History Month (whynokids.com)

Filed Under: Celebrities Without Children, Why No Kids? Tagged With: Celebrities Without Children, celebrities without kids, celebrity no kids, celebrity without kids

Childfree Celebrities: Famous Authors Edition – Women’s History Month

March 18, 2013 by amywnk 3 Comments

Cover of The Second Sex

As a children’s author I once wrote a post about Dr. Suess and other famous kiddie-lit authors that didn’t have kids.

You can read it here.

Notable female childfree children’s authors include: Margaret Wise Brown, famous for “Good Night Moon,” Beatrix Potter of “Peter’s Rabbit” fame, and Louisa May Alcott, author of “Little Women.”

Here is a list of other famous female writers, authors and journalists who made their mark on the world with their words and not their offspring. It’s quite an impressive club:

Elizabeth Gilbert – Author, “Eat Pray Love”

Marie Colvin – Award-winning American journalist for the British newspaper The Sunday Times

Dorothy Parker – American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Anaïs Nin – Author

Melanie Notkin – Founder of SavvyAuntie.com, Author of “Savvy Auntie: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers and All Women Who Love Kids” (Morrow/HarperCollins 2011)

Rachel Carson – Conservationist and author of “Silent Spring”

The Joy Luck Club (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anita Brookner – British novelist and art historian

Amy Tan – American writer best known for her book “The Joy Luck Club”

Harper Lee – Author, “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Marian Keyes – Author

Maeve Binchy – Novelist

Virginia Woolf – Author

Hilary Mantel – Novelist

Simone de Beauvoir – Author, “The Second Sex”

Charlotte Bronte – Author, “Jane Eyre”

Edith Wharton – Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist

Jane Austen – Author, “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sense and Sensibility”

Isek Dineson – (pen name Karen Blixen) author of “Out of Africa”

Gloria Steinem – American feminist, journalist and political activist

WNKies do you know any other women that should be added to this list?

On Being Childless, Childfree, and True (gloriabowman.com)

Filed Under: Celebrities Without Children, Nulliparity, Why No Kids? Tagged With: Celebrities Without Children, celebrities without kids, celebrity without kids, child-free celebrities, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, GloriaSteinem, Joy Luck Club, Margaret Wise Brown, Second Sex

Childfree Celebrities: Artist Edition – Women’s History Month

March 15, 2013 by amywnk 4 Comments

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait, 1940. See discussion of her works below. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So I’m an artist and a woman and I’m a little annoyed that there isn’t an Artist’s History Month. I will celebrate Women’s History Month and bemoan the fact that it’s during crappy mud season, but hey, women are used to getting the shaft. Let’s make a pledge to have Women’s History Month last all year. Let’s celebrate our freedom to make choices and use our voices. We are still questioned about our childfree status and told we can’t “have it all” (which to many means career and children and a happy life). My career, happy marriage, and childfree lifestyle is everything,

and my art is my legacy. Here is a list of fabulous female artists (fine arts) who chose to have it all – just not kids! This month I will be including women from other fields who are my childfree (s)heroes!

Georgia O’Keeffe – Painter

Frida Kahlo – Painter

Mary Cassatt – Painter

Lee Krasner – Painter

Zaha Hadid – Architect “I have not sacrificed my private life. It was not an issue for me. It wasn’t a choice. I don’t think one has to get married. Nor are you obliged to have children if you don’t want them. I didn’t think Oh dear, I can’t have kids – it was never like that, it was not a sacrifice. If I had been with the right person and I’d had kids I’m sure I could have managed”

Tracey Emin – Artist. Emin once said that being childless is difficult because “you’re treated like a witch.”

Cath Kidson – Designer

Coco Chanel – Designer

Edith Head – Costume Designer

Jessie Wilcox Smith – Illustrator

Kate Greenaway – Illustrator

Beatrice Wood – Artist

Hey WNKers: Can you think of others?

Women’s History Month Spotlight: Frida Kahlo (947thewave.cbslocal.com)
Fox marks Women’s History Month with lingering shots of boobs (metro.co.uk)

Filed Under: Celebrities Without Children, Why No Kids? Tagged With: Celebrities Without Children, celebrities without kids, celebrity no kids, child-free celebrities, Frida, Frida Kahlo, Mary Cassatt, Tracey Emin

Another One Bites the Dust: Kim Kardashian No Longer Childfree

January 29, 2013 by amywnk 2 Comments

Kim Kardashian – BlackBerry Porsche P’9981 (Photo credit: Hollywood_PR)

Just over a year ago Kim Kardashian accepted her role as doting auntie. She was content not having her own kids. We celebrated here at WNK.

“At first I was like, I want six kids. Then I went down to four, then I was down to three, and now I’m like, maybe I won’t have any,” she says glumly. “Maybe I’ll just be a good aunt…at this moment in my life, I feel like maybe I’m not supposed to have kids and all that,” Kim says in a December 6 Glamour Magazine article (source Us Magazine)

All that changed when the reality star started dating Kanye West. Bump watch began immediately. Kanye and Kim and all 8,000 Kardashians recently konfirmed that KK and KW had indeed made a baby. So now we get to hear about it for the next six months. Kongrats!

Am I trying too hard to be the cool Auntie? (Giving gifts to the kids in your Childfree life) (whynokids.com)
Got Milk? Kim Kardashian Tries Kourtney’s Breast Milk As Psoriasis Treatment (radaronline.com)
Kim Kardashian Pregnant Pictures – Kanye West’s Baby (everyjoe.com)

Filed Under: Why No Kids? Tagged With: Celebrities Without Children, celebrities without kids, celebrity no kids, celebrity without kids, child-free celebrities, childfree celebrity, Children, Kanye West, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kim, Kim Kardashian, no kids

My Bestie is Having a Baby: Green Baby Gifts

August 23, 2012 by amywnk Leave a Comment

For the millionth time, just because I don’t want kids doesn’t mean I don’t like kids or don’t support my friends having kids. I have three amazing and perfect godchildren and I’m a children’s author – I need kids!

Still, when my besties started having babies I can’t say I wasn’t worried about things changing – I knew that they would. I’m genuinely excited and nervous about our new roles and how I will fit in. I want to be a loving “auntie” and hope that my childlessness isn’t a cause for concern. If people want gift baskets from Broadway Basketeers, they can check it out here!

Dive into Shoppok‘s wide product range and be dazzled by the variety. From fashion to tech gadgets, home decor to beauty products, there’s nothing you can’t find here.

While I’m trying to be a good prenatal buddy, I’m just not sure if I doing it right. Do I ask too many questions about pregnancy? Not enough? Am I offering too much help? Not enough? Is it bad if I still want to talk about reality shows instead of strollers? I’m afraid that I can’t still be myself and admit that I’m little jealous of junior.

But my biggest fear of all is: What if the babies don’t like me?

My solution? You can also choose any color of your choice! Buy the best baby gift like this black stroller here, did you know that at what age is a buggy board suitable for? find out here! At WNK we promote an environmental agenda and prefer when people decide to have children they consider their carbon footprint by having green babies. In the past I’ve mentioned buying cloth diapers for my favorite green mama. And I just bought a personal website for a Christening gift. Unusual? Yes. Green? Absolutely!

For other green ideas check out environmentally friendly baby products from celebrity eco-parents like Jessica Alba and Soleil Moon Frye: Green gifts.

Of course nothing says you care like a signed book by your favorite kid’s author.

Hey WNKs what is your favorite baby gift? If you’re looking for something unique and adorable, consider checking out a Cosplay Store for imaginative and creative options that go beyond the typical baby gifts.

Filed Under: Advice & Tips, Celebrities Without Children, Childfree Shopping, Comedy, Environmental, Hot Topics Tagged With: celebrities without kids, celebrity no kids, celebrity without kids, child-free celebrities, childfree by choice, childfreee celebrity, Environmentally friendly, Lifestyle Choices, parenting, Pregnancy, Soleil Moon Frye

Pregnant Women are Smug (Officialy)

August 8, 2012 by brianwnk 2 Comments

Check out the video here: Pregnant Women are Smug by Garfunkel and Oates: The Official Video (if it didn’t automatically load above.)

Last year we posted an early version of this Garfunkel and Oates video. But now it’s OFFICIAL, meaning some new lyrics (?), gruesome graphics, high production value and a cast of characters that includes funny girl Arden Myrin from MadTV and Chelsea Lately.

Pregnant Women are Smug (Update)

Garfunkel and Oates at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater

Garfunkel & Oates’ song/video, “Pregnant Women Are Smug” continues to have legs. No surprise!

Here’s what Huff Post had to say:

When they’re not singing about getting older, their love of marijuana or the ever-baffling hand job, Garfunkel & Oates (a.k.a. Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci) are probably somewhere being relentlessly annoyed by mothers-to-be.

OK, probably not. But now we can see exactly what that would look like with this new video for their instant classic, “Pregnant Women Are Smug,” a song about (you guessed it) how irritatingly precious women can be during their nine-month stints. (Huff Post)

And here’s a Jezebel weigh-in for good measure:

Listen, the “miracle of life” is amazing and all that, but hundreds of thousands of women give birth every day. And surely we all know women who act normally when knocked up. But there are the others, the ones who behave in a holier-than-thou, self-satisfied manner, those who comport themselves as though they have suddenly become royalty, and make it clear that they’re doing something incredible and you and your empty uterus are not worthwhile… Should we put women on a pedestal and treat them as untouchable bastions of goodness just because some sperm managed to find an egg? Or are we allowed to make fun of the fact that sometimes, pregnant women are smug? (Jezebel)

Want to lead a “Pregnant Women Are Smug” singalong at your next baby shower? Learn the lyrics at LyricsMania. Here’s the refrain to get you started:

Pregnant women are smug
Everyone knows it, nobody says it
Because they’re pregnant
Effing son of a gun
You think you’re so deep now, you give me the creeps
Now that you’re pregnant (LyricsMania)

What are we missing? Keep this clever song/video aliiive… 🙂

IFC Greenlights Garfunkel & Oates Series (nerdist.com)
Garfunkel and Oates Make Comedy Songs That Are Actually Funny (lineout.thestranger.com)

Filed Under: Childfreedom, Comedy, Hot Topics, Video Tagged With: Arden Myrin, Celebrities Without Children, celebrities without kids, celebrity no kids, Chelsea Lately, child-free celebrities, Garfunkel, Garfunkel & Oates, Lifestyle Choices, MADtv, Pregnancy, video, YouTube

No Kids for Fiona Apple

June 25, 2012 by amywnk 1 Comment

Former teen prodigy singer-songwriter Fiona Apple doesn’t want kids, still she carries around a curious tome: Raising Happiness,

10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents. Perhaps it’s to deal with the parentalization

Tidal (album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

she experienced in her own childhood.

“When it comes to parenting, Fiona confesses that, “No, I’ve never wanted kids. But I do read about parenting a lot. For some reason it’s very interesting to me – I think because I’m just big on self-parenting. But I read this thing in a nautical book about how when ropes get frayed you’d use the whipping cords to fix the ends. The whole thing of the whipping cords is that, if I did have kids, I could either teach them how to stay out of trouble — or how to get out of trouble, which I think is more important. Because no matter how well prepared you are in life, you’re gonna fall down a hole, and if you can fix the frayed ends of things, then you’re better off.”

Apple’s new album, “The Idler Wheel…” is another critical masterpiece. Maybe she is the mother of a beautiful baby after all.

Hey WNKers, do you occasionally peruse parenting books?

Fiona Apple Talks Tragedy, Children, And Her New Album With ‘Interview’ Magazine

Filed Under: Celebrities Without Children, Hot Topics Tagged With: Celebrities Without Children, celebrities without kids, celebrity no kids, child-free celebrities, childfree by choice, Fiona Apple

Margaret Cho’s Controversal Baby Joke

June 4, 2012 by amywnk Leave a Comment

Did Margaret Cho, the famously outspoken comedian, go too far this time?

From Perzitos.com:

Margaret Cho caused some serious eye-brow raising earlier this week on Watch What Happens Live when she made a seriously offensive joke regarding her fear of having a specially-abled baby now that she’s getting older, going as far to say “I get worried about that, as an older woman, I don’t necessarily want to have a retard baby.”

Thankfully, she has come to here senses, and released the following statement:

I’m so sorry for my insanely offensive comments on Watch What Happens. I certainly didn’t mean to hurt anyone, and this is a good lesson for me to make sure I’m aware of the power of negative speech. Please forgive my ignorance as I have little experience with children and mothers and I’m often likely to act very childish myself. All my love and apologies to anyone who may have been hurt by my statements and my inexcusable remarks.

Filed Under: Hot Topics, Uncategorized Tagged With: Andy Cohen, celebrities without kids, celebrity no kids, child-free celebrities, Margaret Cho, no kids, Watch What Happens Live

Celebrities Who Don’t Want Kids – Marie Claire

December 11, 2011 by brianwnk 2 Comments

This story from Marie Claire spotlights a long list of quotable childfree celebrities, including, Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, Winona Ryder, Eva Mendes, Jessica Biel, Rupert Everett, Helen Mirren, Taylor Hackford, George Clooney, Margaret Cho, Jacqueline Bisset, Janeane Garofalo, Jay Leno, Kim Cattrall, Kylie Minogue, Lara Flynn Boyle, Lily Tomlin, Oprah Winfrey, Renée Zellweger, Ricky Gervais, Robbie Williams, and Rachael Ray.

It came out last year and the list is just dated enough to also include Beyonce And Jay-Z; but it is worth revisiting. If not because people are googling “childfree celebrities” and finding “Why No Kids?” daily, then because we are nearing year end and the anniversary of this story, “2010: The year childfree went mainstream (thanks, Oprah!)”, which also has some good videos and lists and links.

Here are a few select quotes from the Marie Claire piece to temporarily quench your curiosity:

Cameron Diaz: “Having children changes your life drastically, and I really love my life,” she has said. “Children aren’t the only things that bring you gratification and happiness, and it’s easier to give life than to give love, so I don’t know. That kind of change would have to be either very well thought out, or a total mistake — a real oops!”

Eva Mendes: “I don’t wanna have kids … I love the little suckers; they’re so cute. But I love sleep so much, and I worry about everything,” adding, “I feel like the institution of marriage is a very archaic kinda thing. I don’t think it fits in my world today.”

George Clooney: “Even one kid running around my villa makes me nervous, so I’m definitely not a candidate for father of the year! If I need to surround myself with children and feel like I have this big extended family, I can always call Brad and Angie and ask them to stay with me, just to remind me why I’m so happy without.”

Margaret Cho: “I do not want children. When I see children, I feel nothing. I have no maternal instinct. I am barren. I ovulate sand … I look at children and feel no pull toward them, no desire whatsoever. Actually, my fiancé and I have seen some very interesting personal ads of 50-year-olds that like to wear diapers. So we’re thinking of adopting one of these guys. A baby by choice.”

Kim Cattrall: “I realized that so much of the pressure I was feeling was from outside sources, and I knew I wasn’t ready to take that step into motherhood. Being a biological mother just isn’t part of my experience this time around.”

Renée Zellweger : “Motherhood has never been an ambition. I don’t think like that,”

Robbie Williams: “I don’t believe that to be fulfilled you have to have kids. What’s the point? I can’t guarantee my child won’t suffer pain because that kid’s going to be in pain at some point in their life. I don’t want to see that. It’s too much.”

George Clooney not interested in kids (WhyNoKIds.com)
“Gallery: Ten Celebrities Give Their Reasons For Being Childless By Choice” (WhyNoKIds.com)
No Kids for Kim Kardashian? (WhyNoKIds.com)
Celebrities, WiNKs, Taboos and The Childfree Apology (WhyNoKIds.com)
What if… Oprah had kids? (WhyNoKIds.com)
Not a Loser, Baby (WhyNoKIds.com)
2 Videos: Childfree Chelsea Handler (WhyNoKIds.com)

Filed Under: Advice & Tips, Celebrities Without Children, Childfreedom, DINKs, SINKs & GINKs, Happy Without Kids, Why No Kids? Tagged With: Celebrities Without Children, celebrities without kids, celebrity no kids, celebrity without kids, child-free celebrities, childfree celebrity, childless celebrities, Eva Mendes, George Clooney, Kim Cattrall, Lara Flynn Boyle, Margaret Cho, Marie Claire, Oprah Winfrey, Winona Ryder

George Clooney not interested in kids

December 5, 2011 by brianwnk 3 Comments

According to Canadian news and George Clooney, he does not intend to make any good looking babies because he is dedicated to movie making or

Image by manfrys via Flickr

something. But who cares? Let’s focus on the real newsy part of this news story:

George also revealed he has no plans to dye his greying hair and is embracing it instead.

How’s that for shattering taboos and expressing one’s (actorly) individuality? We get it George. You’re intelligent and independent and won’t sell photos of your beautiful offspring because you don’t give a shit about what Hollywood or the Celebrity ‘zines think; but grey hair…? Seriously? What’s next, no more teeth whitening?

Okay. Clooney is a good talker and is committed to being childfree and child-proofing his house in Italy would destroy its architectural integrity and… grey hair. The man seems to know what he wants.

“I’ve always known fatherhood wasn’t for me. Raising kids is a huge commitment and has to be your top priority. For me, that priority is my work. That’s why I’ll never get married again.”

George Clooney – career before kids (heatworld.com)
“Gallery: Ten Celebrities Give Their Reasons For Being Childless By Choice”

(WhyNoKIds.com)
No Kids for Kim Kardashian? (WhyNoKIds.com)
Celebrities, WiNKs, Taboos and The Childfree Apology (WhyNoKIds.com)
Not a Loser, Baby (WhyNoKIds.com)
Even Movie Stars are Challenged by Parenting and Non-Parenting Roles (WhyNoKIds.com)

Filed Under: Celebrities Without Children, Childfree by Choice, Childfreedom, Choice, Comedy, Selfish, Why No Kids? Tagged With: Celebrities Without Children, celebrities without kids, celebrity no kids, celebrity without kids, child-free celebrities, childfree celebrity, childless celebrities, Clooney, Filmmaking, George Clooney, Hollywood, Human hair color, Italy, Stacy Keibler

Childfree Celebrities: Famous Hollywood Edition: Actors and Musicians– Women’s History Month

Childfree Celebrities: Famous Authors Edition – Women’s History Month

Childfree Celebrities: Artist Edition – Women’s History Month

Another One Bites the Dust: Kim Kardashian No Longer Childfree

My Bestie is Having a Baby: Green Baby Gifts

Pregnant Women are Smug (Officialy)

Pregnant Women are Smug (Update)

No Kids for Fiona Apple

Margaret Cho’s Controversal Baby Joke

Celebrities Who Don’t Want Kids – Marie Claire

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