The tables have turned! Christina Aguilera isn’t just teaching her kids life lessons, but the singer is learning from them as well.
“I’m a huge kid at heart, and they give me the opportunity to play and be able to instill and encourage their imaginations,” the Grammy winner, 38, shared in her Haute Living cover story published on Monday, September 9. “You’re part of these amazing little people’s lives, and it teaches you patience and teaches you things about yourself that you don’t like, that you want to work on. It’s a constant journey of learning. They teach me so much, and they challenge me all the time to be better.”
The Voice judge welcomed Max, 11, with her ex-husband, Jordan Bratman, in 2008 when the “Genie in a Bottle” singer was 27. “I was a very young mom,” she told the outlet. Six years later, she gave birth to her and fiancé Matthew Rutler‘s daughter, Summer, 5.
The New York native doesn’t see any more children in her future, saying, “What the universe thinks will be, will be. Who knows what’s in the future? But as of now, [I’m not planning on more].”
The actress’ relationship with Max and Summer has impacted her career choices. “I made the decision for quite some time not to tour for a while because I thought it was the best thing to make a more stable, routine life for my children,” she explained to Haute Living. “Even when I took the spot on [The Voice], it wasn’t really something I wanted to pursue. I just decided, ‘It keeps me in L.A. and in a place where I can focus on my kids.’”
She added, “Everything I’ve pretty much decided to do has been influenced by [my kids], but at the same time, I need to make sure that I don’t lose myself and that I always stay grounded in what’s important for me. Because that’s part of the example I want to impose on them: to follow your heart and not lose yourself when life changes.”
For now, that means working hard on her Las Vegas residency. “I wanted people to not just see a concert, listening to music, but really feel immersed in the world itself — whether it’s tasting, smelling, touching or feeling,” Aguilera said of the show, which started in May and wraps up in October. “We used a lot of different scents and fragrances to bring to life different video aspects, like fire and earth elements, that make you feel like you’re engulfed in the atmosphere.”
