Michelle Pfeiffer surprises fans by revealing she is now a grandmother
Michelle Pfeiffer has revealed she secretly welcomed her first grandchild into the world last year.
Michelle Pfeiffer has revealed she became a grandmother for the first time last year.
The 67-year-old actress has adopted daughter Claudia, 32, and a 31-year-old son called John with her television writer husband David E. Kelley, but she didn't disclose which of her two children had welcomed a child into the world.
Appearing on the SmartLess podcast, she shared: "I don't have time nor the desire to go that deep for that long and not be present. I realise I have a finite amount of time left and — I might announce on this show — that I became a grandmother last year.
"I've been very quiet about it and it is — it's heaven. It's ridiculous."
The Marvel star - whose upcoming roles include a part in her spouse's Apple TV+ limited series Margo's Got Money Troubles - admits she would have reigned in her work hours sooner if she had known she was set to become a grandparent.
Pfeiffer continued: "And if I had known that I was going to be a grandmother, I wouldn't have taken on so much work, but I've enjoyed everything and I'm really grateful.
"I've loved — I love each of these projects. And so the weird thing is that giving up that angst about the process has freed me up and I feel in some ways has made me better.'"
The Hairspray actress has largely kept her children out of the spotlight and took a break from her career to bring up her children.
And, she previously admitted she was taken aback by claims she had retired from acting when she was just trying to raise a family.
The First Lady actress reflected on her decision to take a break from Hollywood for around five years after the attention on her and her family made things difficult for her brood when they were growing up.
Recalling her decision to protect her children, she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022: "[It was] 'Well, I’ll only shoot in the summer, and I’ll only shoot here, and I’ll only blah, blah, blah, blah,’ and finally it was just too much trouble to hire me.”
Pfeiffer and Kelley moved their family away from Los Angeles, and after five years she was surprised by the way others saw her career.
She added: "I would start to hear that I had retired, and I’d be like, ‘Wait, no.’ "
The Batman Returns star admitted the move was down to the more challenging aspects of life in the spotlight, and it became even more of an issue with children.
She explained: “I just couldn’t bear seeing photos of me picking them up in carpool for public consumption.
“And then they’d follow me home with them in the car, which was terrifying to me ... There were cameras right in their little faces, and it traumatized them."
Claudia and John didn't understand their mom's fame for a while, but that changed when her daughter was in second or third grade, while they were still in Los Angeles.
She recalled: “My daughter came home from school one day, and she said, ‘Mom, I know when someone’s coming up to talk to me because they want to be my friend or because you’re my mom'.
“And I asked, ‘How?’ and she said, ‘Well, if they’re older and they talk to me for too long, it’s not because they want to be my friend.' "
