Christina Ricci has said that her eight-year-old son Freddie “won’t be able to avoid” growing up to be a feminist.
The Wednesday star and her husband, Mark Hampton, are both feminists themselves and their son will benefit from seeing that, she said.
Ricci, 42, said that as her son watches her work, she thinks he will “see women in a much more layered, complicated way, just by having grown up watching his mum do all this stuff”.
In a new interview with The Guardian, the actor said: “[Freddie’s] asking questions like, ‘Mum, is that racist?’ Or ‘Mum, is that OK for women?’ He’s got this whole thing about not calling objects – like boats – she. He’ll correct me: ‘Women are not objects.’”
The Addams Family star gave birth to Freddie in 2014 and shares him with her former husband James Heerdegen, who she split from in 2020.
She welcomed her first child with Hampton in December 2021, a daughter named Cleopatra Ricci Hampton.
Speaking on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in January, Ricci revealed that she and Hampton had not yet agreed on their daughter’s name when he posted it on Instagram following her birth.
She said that, at the time, they decided on Cleo for their daughter’s nickname but hadn’t yet confirmed a full name for her.
But while Hampton had his heart set on the name Cleopatra, Ricci said she was unsure and thought “it would [just] be Cleo”. However, she now thinks it is a “great name”.
In September, Ricci revealed that she still sleeps in the same bed as Freddie even though Cleo is already sleep-trained.
She told People: “The fact that I can put her down in her crib and she just goes to sleep when my eight-year-old still sleeps with me is amazing.”
Sleep training Freddie was difficult, she said, as he “screamed himself hoarse and started banging his head against the crib railing”.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ricci condemned women who call other women the word “b****” and said she believed there is still “internalised misogyny” to deal with.
She said: “When people say to me, ‘Oh what’s up, B?’ I will say, ‘Unless you’re going to rape me or beat me, please don’t call me a b****.’”
