Charlize Theron opened up about raising “two beautiful proud black African girls” without forcing her own South African heritage onto them.
“I have taught them a little Afrikaans, but it’s a language filled with very conflicted history,” the Tully star, 43, said on the U.K. talk show The Graham Norton Show on Friday, April 26, referencing the time she spent as a child raised in South Africa during the Apartheid. “I am raising two beautiful proud black African girls and I want them to find themselves and not necessarily push my ancestry on them.”
The Oscar winner, who is mom to 7-year-old Jackson and 3-year-old August, added: “[I’ve] taught them two very sweet Afrikaans songs about politeness.”
She adopted Jackson in 2012, her rep telling Us Weekly in a statement, “Charlize Theron has adopted a child. She is the proud mom of a healthy baby boy named Jackson.”
In April 2017, the Arrested Development alum told Ellen DeGeneres about the sweet bond her children share with each other on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“I’m an only child, so I didn’t grow up with siblings and so I had no idea the beauty that siblings have with each other. Like, it really is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever witnessed,” the two-time mom said at the time. “I see how much they love each other and to see how much they’re excited to see each other. They’re so in love with each other, it’s really beautiful.”
The actress raises her little ones with the help of her mother, Gerda Maritz, explaining to Elle in May 2018, “I knew that I would have to have my mom help me if I was going to do this as a single parent. To not acknowledge her in coparenting my children would be a lie . . . I would feel pretty alone if I didn’t have a partner in crime in all of this.”
But Theron didn’t always feel that way! “In the beginning, I wanted to do it all and didn’t reach out for as much help as I actually needed. I felt, ‘If I don’t do all of this, then maybe I am a bad parent,’” she revealed. “The second time, I realized I am happier and my kids are happier if I ask for more help. People think I have a staff of 40, but I don’t.”
