Kerry Washington is known for her dynamic roles that have spanned decades. Although she is one of the most recognized faces in Hollywood, the 47-year-old actress has managed to strike the perfect balance between keeping her private life and public persona separate. In a recent interview with Bustle, the mother-of-three opens up about keeping her kids from limelight and much more.
When asked by the outlet was it a conscious decision to keep her family life private, the Scandal actress said, “yes”.
“Yeah. BN — Before Nnamdi — I was in a very public relationship and engagement, like I was on the cover of a bridal magazine. When that relationship ended, I thought, Going forward, I need to have a different kind of boundary, so that my relationships can belong to me. So even in the years of dating after that, I was very private, which was good, because those were my wild years.”
She continued, “When I met my husband, he was also very private. It was a shared value. We started dating right before Scandal, and he had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. We both wanted to protect our relationship. By the time people started talking trash, we were happily married and pregnant. He was massaging my feet while we were laughing about some story on the internet about him partying at the Super Bowl without me. We’d built so much trust that those attacks didn’t put a dent in what we’d created together.”
Washington adds that she wants her children to be old enough to make their own decisions about being in the public eye when they are older. “I want them to make decisions about [that] when their brains are fully developed. I’m not making it for them. They didn’t choose to be born into the public eye.”
Washington and her husband, former NFL player Nnamdi Asomugha, celebrated the birth of their first child together, daughter Isabelle, in 2014. Two years later, in 2016, the couple welcomed son, Caleb to the world. Additionally, the UnPrisioned star embraces her role as stepmom to Asomugha’s teenage daughter from a previous relationship.
Washington went on to discuss with the outlet how being taken out of public school and transferred to the exclusive Spence School for Girls in Manhattan helped her to make her own decisions for her children’s private school education in Los Angeles.
“It was less hard for me, particularly living somewhere like LA where the public schools are so segregated economically — which is always tied to race. I wasn’t as fraught about it, but I did really want to make sure that their school made inclusion a real priority,” Washington said. “And if there’s an issue, I’m on campus, they’ll see me. We have to be really involved and connected to other Black families and families of color.”
When it comes to spending quality time with her girls, Washington says that she is all in. She labels herself as a “entry-drug Disney adult” and surprisingly enough, a new “Swiftie.”
“I think other people would label me a Disney adult, but I know how far down the spectrum you can go. I think I’m an entry-drug Disney adult. But what else is inspiring my kids? This summer my younger daughter saw her first concert, Taylor Swift. She’s a Swiftie.”
“She was freaking out about the announcement of [The Tortured Poets Department]. I’ve become more of a Swiftie because my daughters love her. So we went to see Taylor Swift, and I became more of a fan in their presence. Then I took her to see Beyoncé, who my older daughter loves.”
To read Washington’s interview in its entirety, click here.
Photo: Kerry Washington Instagram
