Her kids are alright!
Annette Bening, who is notoriously private about her personal life, has given a new interview to AARP in which she discusses her son, 27-year-old Stephen Ira, a transgender man.
“He’s managed something that’s very challenging with great style and great intelligence,” Bening says of her son, who was born Kathlyn Elizabeth. “He’s an articulate, thoughtful person, and I’m very, very proud of him,” Bening adds, noting that her son recently gave her a novel called “Little Fish” about a transgender woman who discovers that their grandfather, a Mennonite, may have been transgender themselves.
Bening, 61, and her husband of almost 30 years, Warren Beatty, 82, are “newish empty nesters,” AARP reports. Ella, the youngest of their four children at 19, began attending Juilliard earlier this year, while Benjamin, 25, and Isabel, 22, have already left home.
“When I was younger, part of me thought I could save my children from having to suffer, which was, of course, ridiculous,” she said of her journey as a parent. “They have to go through their struggles. They’re very much their own people now.”
Thankfully, the pair, who are “still adjusting to the quiet at home,” have their Newfoundland puppy, Scout, to keep them busy.