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Anna Faris has candidly reflected on becoming a stepparent to her husband Michael Barrett’s children.
The 47-year-old actor opened up about her family during an interview with Today, published on July 15. While Faris has an 11-year-old son Jack – who she shares with ex-husband Chris Pratt – she’s also the stepmother to Barrett’s 20-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son from a previous relationship. According to Faris, it wasn’t easy for her to bond with her stepchildren in the beginning.
“When I first entered into their lives, I had no idea how to relate to them,” she said on Today, after noting that her husband’s eldest child is a student at Georgetown University. “I remember trying to be really cool, like blasting music when I would go pick up my stepdaughter. Of course she’s mortified.”
She added: “That’s kind of one example of sort of my stumbling through that position.”
TV host Hoda Kotb shared that when her friend became a stepmother, she waited for her stepchildren to become comfortable with her on their own time. In response, Faris said that was a good approach, before acknowledging how she’s now much closer to her husband’s children.
“That’s really good advice because eventually I did [the same thing],” she said. “It’s an uphill battle.”
The Mom star has previously opened up about the initial challenges of forming a relationship with her stepchildren, after marrying Barrett in 2021. During an interview with People in 2022, she confessed to feeling “very immature” around her stepchildren in the beginning, since she “wanted to be a kid like them” and would even question why they didn’t like her.
However, she said she ultimately knew why they weren’t necessarily comfortable with her at that time. “I think that I didn’t give them a ton of reason to cultivate a trusting relationship,” she explained. “Because I also think, when you’re an actor, your…interactions are different than with most people.”
She further explained how she learned that her relationship with her stepchildren couldn’t be like the other she had with other people in her life.
“Most people, even if they don’t care for you, are really kind to you, which of course, inflates your ego or whatever, and you just don’t tend to have a ton of rude or normal interactions,” Faris added. “And I think that I didn’t respect the idea that I have a completely different relationship with them.”
Regarding her bond with her stepchildren at that time, Faris expressed that she had “this special place” in their lives where she just got to “be supportive.”
Aside from co-parenting with her husband, she also raises her 11-year-old son with Pratt, who she was married to from 2009 to 2018. After Pratt married Katherine Schwarzenegger in 2018, they welcomed two daughters, Lyla, three, and Eloise, two. They’re also now reportedly expecting their third child.
Faris has continued to praise the friendship she has with Pratt, as she told People in 2022 she’s “getting closer” with him and Schwarzenegger, and that she’s “happy with the way things turned out.
“They’re very protective of me, and I want to be very protective of them. I so appreciate their support,” she said. “It feels just much easier now that time has passed. It feels really good to not live with that internal churning of unpleasantness.”
She also called Schwarzenegger “awesome” and praised the writer’s relationship with her son, adding: “She’s just on top of it. I love how she is with Jack.”
During a recent backstage interview withToday, Faris spoke about her parenting style, revealing that she’s the “opposite” of “whatever the idea of helicopter parenting is.” However, she did acknowledge that there are certain boundaries she sets for her son.
“I said: ‘Listen, I’m really terrified you’re going to be one of those kids that is stupid enough to go cliff jumping.’ He is not afraid of much. He doesn’t have fears. He’s not easily rattled in that way. So it does scare me that he will be a little reckless,” she said, while noting that she does give him instructions about things she doesn’t want him to do.
