Entertainment

20 Badass Celebrity Women Who Chose Not to Have Kids (PHOTOS)

EntertainmentPublished Feb 14, 2016
By Margeaux Baulch Klein
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If you're a woman between the ages of 18 and 45, you've inevitably been asked about kids or whether you want to have them someday. If you're a famous woman between those ages, you've definitely been asked this question. 

However, not all women are destined or desire to be mothers, and for some, that's a great thing. Click through for 20 celebrity women who are proof that being kid-free doesn't mean living a life filled with regret.

Image via Maurice Ross Photography/The Photo Access/The World

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Oprah Winfrey
Tracey Nearmy/epa/Corbis

Oprah Winfrey

As one of the richest and most successful self-made women in the world, Oprah Winfrey says she has no regrets about not becoming a mother. "If I had kids, my kids would hate me," she said in a 2013 interview. "They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something [in my life] would have had to suffer and it would've probably been them."

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Gloria Steinem
Brock Miller/Splash News/Corbis

Gloria Steinem

"I'm completely happy not having children," stated feminist icon Gloria Steinem in 2011. "I mean, everybody does not have to live in the same way. And as somebody said, 'Everybody with a womb doesn't have to have a child any more than everybody with vocal cords has to be an opera singer."

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Chelsea Handler-placeholder
Chelsea Handler
Maurice Ross Photography/The Photo Access/The World

Chelsea Handler

While Chelsea Handler has recently changed her mind about getting married, thanks to her research on the topic for her new Netflix series, it's not likely she will budge on her anti-motherhood stance. "I definitely don't want to have kids. I don't think I'd be a great mother, I don't want to have a kid and have it raised by a nanny. I don't have the time to raise a child myself," she's said.

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Helen Mirren-placeholder
Helen Mirren
Xavier Collin/Image Press/Splash/Splash News/Corbis

Helen Mirren

Although women of her generation were much more likely to have kids than not, Helen Mirren claims she never felt pressured to procreate: "I never felt the need for a child and never felt the loss of it. I'd always put my work before anything." 

More From The Stir18 Celebrities Who Got Married in Their Teens (PHOTOS)

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Dita von Teese
Azelle Woussen/Bauergriffin.com/Corbis

Dita von Teese

Burlesque star Dita von Teese, 43, seemed to have changed her mind about having kids during her marriage to shock rocker Marilyn Manson, whom she divorced in 2007. "I was married to someone who was not cut out to be a father. He could hardly take care of himself, let alone a child, so I changed my views, adapted accordingly, thought: 'It's OK not to have children.' Now I'm just going to watch how my life unfolds and see what happens. I'm not going to be less of a person if I don't have children. It will work out the way it is supposed to."

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Margaret Cho-placeholder
Margaret Cho
Paul A. Hebert/Press Line Photos/Corbis

Margaret Cho

Comedian Margaret Cho has said that the idea of being so vulnerable to another person, as well as the large commitment required, is what turned her off to the idea of becoming a mom. "My child would have my heart completely, and having never truly given that over, in all my relationships in my life, starting with myself, I don't even know where to begin."

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Dolly Parton
Christian Behring/Geisler-Fotopr/dpa/Corbis

Dolly Parton

Having a lot of younger siblings was enough of child-rearing experience for country icon Dolly Parton. "I grew up in a big old family with eight kids younger than me and several of my brothers and sisters came to live with me early on in my life. I've loved their kids just like they're my grandkids, and now I've got great-grand-kids!...They call me 'Aunt Granny.' Now I'm GeeGee, which is great-granny. I often think, it just wasn't meant for me to have kids so everybody's kids can be mine," she said in 2014.

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Anjelica Huston
Armando Gallo/Corbis

Anjelica Huston

She's famously played matriarchs in movies like The Royal Tenenbaums and The Addams Family, but, in real life, Anjelica Huston is child-free. In 2011, she told an interviewer: "There have been times when I wanted children and other times I've been grateful not to have them. I am a mess if I have to say goodbye to my dog for longer than five days. I don't know how I would deal with kissing my children as I left for work. I know there are women who are able to do that. I don't know if I could."

More From The Stir15 Celebrities With Kids Born More Than 10 Years Apart (PHOTOS)

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Marisa Tomei
Axelle/Bauergriffin.com/Corbis

Marisa Tomei

Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei didn't mince her words when she told a magazine in 2009: "I'm not that big a fan of marriage as an institution, and I don't know why women need to have children to be seen as complete human beings."

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Betty White
Splash News/Splash News/Corbis

Betty White

At 94 years old and with a TV and movie career that's still going strong, it's not surprising that Betty White doesn't regret her choice not to have kids: "I'm so compulsive about stuff, I know if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would have been my whole focus. But I didn't choose to have children because I'm focused on my career. And I just don't think as compulsive as I am, that I could manage both."

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Stevie Nicks
Jason Sheldon/The Hell Gate/Corbis

Stevie Nicks

Morning school runs are not something that rocker Stevie Nicks ever envisioned as part of her life. As she bluntly put it in 2002, "It's like, 'Do you want to be an artist and a writer, or a wife and a lover?' With kids, your focus changes. I don't want to go to PTA meetings."

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Kim Cattrall
Philippe Farjon/Demotix/Corbis

Kim Cattrall

Art imitates life when it comes to Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall's views on having children. Like her character Samantha, the 59-year-old actress doesn't have any biological or adopted kids of her own but stills considers herself a parent in other ways. "I have young actors and actresses that I mentor. I have nieces and nephews that I am very close to," she explained in 2015.

More From The Stir6 Celebrities Who Still Live With Their Parents (PHOTOS)

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Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi
PG/Splash News/Corbis

Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi

As a married power-couple, it seemed natural that Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi would contemplate adding children to their family. Ultimately, however, they decided not to. Portia told an interviewer in 2011: "There comes some pressure in your mid-30s, and you think, Am I going to have kids so I don't miss out on something that other people really seem to love? Or is it that I really genuinely want to do this with my whole heart? I didn't feel that my response was 'yes' to the latter. You have to really want to have kids, and neither of us did."

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Renee Zellweger
Splash News/Corbis

Renee Zellweger

She may play a mom in the upcoming Bridget Jones 3 sequel, but, in real life, becoming a mother isn't a priority for Renee Zellweger, 46. "Motherhood has never been an ambition. I don't think like that," she said in 2008.

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Condoleezza Rice
Nick Agro/ZUMA Press/Corbis

Condoleezza Rice

Motherhood won't ever be a title that former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will take, but that's fine with her. "I'm very religious and I at some very deep level believe that things are going to work out as they're supposed to. The key is to be open to that and to appreciate the life that you've been given," she said when asked about her personal life in 2010.

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Joan Jett
Splash News/Corbis

Joan Jett

Balancing motherhood with a rock 'n' roll career seems like an impossible task and one that Joan Jett decided she wasn't up for. The Runaways frontwoman explained to Rolling Stone, "As I grew up, I thought about what [having kids] would mean...But I was too focused on my own situation. If you want to call that selfish, fine. But at least I know it. I have family."

More From The Stir14 Celebs Who Went Gray on Purpose & Look Amazing (PHOTOS)

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Cameron Diaz
Splash News/Splash News/Corbis

Cameron Diaz

Newlywed Cameron Diaz married for the first time at the age of 42 but has stated in many interviews that kids may or may not be something she will get around to. "We live in a society where everyone has kids, so they want other people to have kids. There is this culture that says celebrities are supposed to be just like us, so people think, 'I have children — why doesn't she?' But I'm not going to do something because it's expected. If a family happens, then it happens. If children come to me, then I would do that, but I'm not someone who feels like she has to do something because it's expected."

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Liza Minnelli
RDUPA/Retna Ltd./Corbis

Liza Minnelli

Although she is a daughter of a celebrity herself, Liza Minnelli is A-OK with passing on her legacy in other ways: "Nowadays, why get married? Nobody else does. It's not like I want to have children, I tried that, didn't work unfortunately...It helped me because now I work with all kinds of children all over the world. Brain damaged children and I work with kids with AIDS and that's how I've rationalized [not having kids]. I was meant to do something else."

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Candace Bushnell
Patrick Gorski/NurPhoto/Corbis

Candace Bushnell

Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell has said the career of a writer is not one that is conducive to motherhood. "I knew when I was young that if I had to make a choice between being married and being a writer, I would have chosen to be a writer. I think it's a career where you have to put the career first. I don't have kids but -- and luckily everyone isn't like this -- I think if you have that passion, in a way, your career is your child."

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Jennifer Westfeldt
infusny-142/INFphoto.com/Corbis

Jennifer Westfeldt

During her 10+ year relationship with Jon Hamm, Jennifer Westfeldt was repeatedly questioned about the couple's unmarried and childless status. "I've thought about this a lot lately," she said in 2012. "I never thought I'd be this age and not have kids. But my life has also gone in a million ways I never anticipated ... I kept feeling like I'd wake up with absolute clarity, and I haven't. And we have a pretty great life together. The chance that we'll regret it doesn't seem like a compelling enough reason to do it. I may wake up tomorrow with that lighting bolt, and I'll have to scramble to make it happen." The couple split in 2015.

More From The Stir: 15 Celebrity Couples Fans Secretly Wished Would Break Up (PHOTOS)

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