Halle Berry is a proud mother of two but admits that sharing parenting responsibilities with her children’s fathers has left her feeling a certain amount of guilt over the years.
The Academy Award-winning actress, who stepped behind the camera as director for the first time in her upcoming Netflix film “Bruised,” got personal with Women’s Health about the challenges that come with co-parenting while raising her 13-year-old daughter Nahla and 8-year-old son Maceo, whose fathers are her ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry and her ex-husband Olivier Martinez, respectively.
“I have two different daddies, and I see [my kids] half the time. That’s a lot to manage. So I have to go sometimes to talk to people to help me figure out, ‘How do I make the best decisions for my children? How do I help them deal with this life that we — my dads and I — have given them?’” she said, referencing how she relies on therapy to help her keep a clear head.
“I feel guilty a lot. You think, ‘God, I should’ve done better,'” she continued. “But at the same time, I’m reminded that we always have to take care of ourselves first, because I can’t be a good mother for my children if I’m not fundamentally happy and feeling good about myself.”
The “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” actress credited her mother, Judith Ann, with introducing her to therapy at a young age to cope with any emotional damage brought on from a tumultuous relationship with her alcoholic father Jerome Jesse Berry. “My father walked out when I was 3, then he came back when I was 10,” said Berry. “After he left that year, he left our family in such a way that we were all damaged and broken and bruised, if you will. My mom had the forethought to realize I needed therapy.”
The star previously gushed about her hopes that her children will grow to be strong and independent, and they’ll feel that while she wasn’t perfect, she was a good mother who wanted the best for them.
“The only thing I want at the end of the day is for my children to say, ‘You weren’t perfect, you didn’t do everything right, but you were a good mom,'” she told InStyle. “One day they’re going to grow up, and I don’t want to be the mom who’s crying because her kids left. I want to be the mom who says, ‘Yes, girl, go fly. Go do you, do your life.'”
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