In a rare public interview, Charlize Theron has opened up about the pain of media misgendering her daughter.
The actress, who first spoke about the moment she learnt her eldest daughter is transgender in April, emphasised the importance of the media using the correct pronouns when referring to her seven-year-old daughter Jackson.
“I feel like as her mother, for me, it was important to let the world know that I would appreciate it if they would use the right pronouns for her,” the actress said in an interview with Pride Source on Monday.
Mamamia’s daily entertainment podcast, The Spill, discussed Charlize Theron’s new interview. Post continues below.
“I think it became harder for us the older she got that people were still writing about her in the wrong pronouns, and also I was still talking about her in the press using the wrong pronoun,” she added.
“It really hurt her feelings. I don’t want to be that mum, and that was really why I [spoke to the media about Jackson] a while back.
“I haven’t really talked about it ever since, again, because outside of just asking that respectfully of the press – and the world, hopefully – the rest is really private and it’s her story, and it’s really up to her to decide if she wants to share that.”
The 44-year-old first spoke about the moment she learnt Jackson is transgender in an interview in April.
The Oscar-winning actress, who is best known for roles in movies including Monster, The Italian Job and North Country, said Jackson told her she identifies as female four years ago.
“Yes, I thought [Jackson] was a boy, too… Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said: ‘I am not a boy!’” the South African-born actress told the Daily Mail of her daughter Jackson, now aged seven.
"So there you go. I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive."
The 43-year-old actress is raising Jackson as female, along with her younger daughter August, saying "who they want to be is not for me to decide".
"They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide," she said.
"My job as a parent is to celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be, and I will do everything in my power for my kids to have that right and to be protected within that."
Theron adopted Jackson in March 2012, and August in July 2015.
Speaking to People in 2018, Theron said adoption was always a priority for her.
"Even when I was in relationships, I was always honest with my partners, that adoption was how my family would look one day. This was definitely not a second option for me. It was always my first."
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Top Comments
I don’t understand the title of this article - where does the mum call the child by the wrong pronoun and where in the article is it pointed out what she has used the wrong pronoun. From what I read the child was born a boy but identifies as a girl so the mum is using she. What am I missing here?
These comments are alarming. I think we can assume that a mother with plenty of resources probably consulted one of the very many qualified psychologists who specialise in working with transgender kids. There are children who present with gender dysphoria at a very young age and transition early and it has incredible results for their mental and physical wellbeing.
I doubt she’s ‘just confused because she likes blue things’ or that she’s traumatised because she’s not the same race as her mother (!) and it’s condescending and insulting to imply that you somehow know more about her than she does.