Kerry Washington Defends Her Choice to Keep Her Kids out of the Spotlight: ‘These Are Their Lives’

Just because Kerry Washington is famous, doesn’t mean her kids have to be. The beloved Scandal actress opened up about her journey through motherhood and revealed the reason why she shields her kids from the spotlight.

Everything You Need to Know About Kerry Washington!

“These are their lives. But it’s not about pulling a Rapunzel and hiding them away in a castle from the world — we don’t want to do that,” the 43-year-old beauty shared with InStyle for the magazine’s March cover story, noting she’s been “really, really vigilant” about keeping her kids out of the public eye.

Kerry — who shares daughter Isabelle, 5, and son Caleb, 3, with Nnamdi Asomugha, and is also the proud stepmom of her husband’s teenage daughter — defended her decision to keep her family life private. “I think any parent would want to keep kids from a situation that causes them to feel scared. I don’t want them to be exploited, particularly in this social media world,” she explained.

Although the Django Unchained star won’t share glimpses inside their fun-filled, family outings on social media, she did tell the outlet about some of their favorite activities. “My husband teased me that if I did the [DNA test] 23andMe, it would come back 11 percent mermaid,” Kerry said. “My kids are the same way. They’re just fish.”

See Kerry Washington and the 'Scandal' Cast on Their First Red Carpets vs. Now!

As fans know, maintaining privacy in her personal life has always been important for the upcoming Little Fires Everywhere actress. Around the time Kerry — who tied the knot with Nnamdi, 38, in 2013 — welcomed her daughter, Isabelle, a year later in 2014, she revealed the hilarious way she kept her due date a secret.

“Every Thursday within three weeks of my daughter Isabelle’s due date, I loaded up pre-tweets based on the episodes and what I would want to say,” she revealed to The Edit in March 2015. “I figured that if I went completely silent on social media, then people would know I was in the hospital!”

There’s no denying Kerry gets an urge to posts pictures of her adorable children every now and then. However, the Emmy winner sat down with Sunday Today’s Willie Geist in November 2019 and she dished how she fights the temptation of wanting to post images of her kids.

“I have moments where I take pictures or videos of one of my three amazing kids and I wanna post it online, and I tend to just send it to my parents or my shrink instead,” she explained to the host. “I’m like, ‘My kids are so cute and I don’t wanna post about them, so look at how cute they are!'”