The Truth About Charlize Theron's Kids Revealed

At the 2020 Academy Awards, Charlize Theron was up for Best Actress for her role as Fox News anchor, Megyn Kelly, in Bombshell. While the statue ultimately went to Renee Zellweger for her performance as Judy Garland in Judy, it's not like Charlize wasn't already an Oscar-winner. She previously took home the Best Actress award for her stunningly unique role in Monster in 2006. But while many fans may have been rooting for Charlize to take home a second award, there were at least two people who weren't so enthusiastic about the process: her children. Charlize has two daughters, ages 3 and 8, and she revealed exactly how they felt about her Oscar nomination on Jimmy Kimmel Live that January. She explained, "It's been a thrilling couple of weeks. I was nominated for a Golden Globe. I was nominated for a Critics' Choice. Spoiler alert: I didn't win." Revealing that her kids were allegedly "upset" about those losses, she added, "When the Oscar nominations came in, it was the third time that they were like […] now they're suspicious. They're just like, 'Will you win this time?' And I said, 'You know, listen, there's a good shot I'm probably not gonna win.'' Charlize rarely posts photos or personal information about her kids, but she has shared some important glimpses into her family life over the years. She adopted her eldest daughter, Jackson, in 2012 and her youngest daughter, August, in 2015. The actress always knew she would adopt multiple children one day, and she ended up doing so as a single parent, by choice. She told People magazine, "This was definitely not a second option for me. It was always my first." Charlize was born in South Africa and now lives in Los Angeles. And she was connected with both Jackson and August in the United States, though not necessarily by design. In fact, she had filed for adoption in every single country where she was allowed to do so. Charlize told NPR, "I wanted to believe that somehow my child would find me in the way that we were just meant to be. So I wasn't specific with anything. […] In whatever country they would allow me as a single woman to adopt, that's where I filed. And it just happened to be that both my children ended up being American. […] Everything that I hoped would happen during my adoption process did happen because these two babies were meant to be in my life — and they're my children." But even though she might not show it on social media, Charlize does, however, love to tell candid stories about her daughters. In 2018, she told People magazine that August was going through a difficult period of potty training and told ELLE that Jackson had recently started school. While the sisters are constantly discovering their ever-changing relationship with one another, Charlize told People, "We went through this really beautiful stage a year ago where the baby was hugging her sibling and there was all this love and affection. I was bawling my eyes out every day saying, 'This is the most beautiful love I have ever witnessed in my life.' Now the baby is almost 3 and realizes she doesn't have to do everything her sibling tells her. There's a lot of wars in my house.'" But no matter the struggles, Charlize is intent on being a loving and devoted parent. In April 2019, she revealed that Jackson is a trans girl. Before that, the public knew Jackson as a boy — but Charlize had realized her child's true gender identity four years prior. She told The Daily Mail, "I thought she was a boy, too. Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said: 'I am not a boy!" Charlize has kept most of Jackson's story private — claiming it's not her story to tell. She told The Daily Mail, "I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive. […] My job as a parent is to celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be." #CharlizeTheron #AcademyAwards