Hollywood parents aren’t always able to shield their kids from the spotlight and provide them with largely “normal” childhoods. But Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, a long-married couple and loving parents, are demonstrating that it is possible.
Except for a few movie screenings where they join their parents for professional engagements, their three children are seldom ever seen in public photos. The couple’s 19-year-old eldest child, James Wilkie Broderick, was recently spotted going to a celebration for Broderick’s latest Haute Living magazine cover with his father.
Our curiosity was piqued by James Wilkie’s unusual appearance and uncanny likeness to his parents. So, here is what we currently know.
He spent his early years wearing hand-me-downs
Parker’s background was hardly glamorous, despite the fact that Sex and the City gave her official Hollywood status. “I think that if I had been reared a child of privilege, I wouldn’t be the working person I am today,” she said in an interview with Parade in 2008. I have a lot of respect for work.
Since James Wilkie is not entitled to the rewards of our labour, she continued, “I think it’s incumbent on my husband and me to really stress and to show James Wilkie by example what it means to owe your community something.” She said she avoided raising her children in a lifestyle of excess and luxury.
Parker also revealed that she was dressed her son, who was five years old at the time, in clothes that her mother had collected from her brothers and older nephews. The actress admitted, “I don’t think I’ve ever purchased him any clothes.” Because everyone’s feet are different, “I do buy him shoes.”
He’s surrounded by a great group of friends
In interviews, parents Parker and Broderick actually frequently discuss their parenting philosophies. The actress stated: “Sometimes I simply sit on the stairs because they’re all in the kitchen, eating all the food, and I listen” in a People interview about the value of family conversations. And I find their conversation to be very endearing. In reference to her son, she continued, “I’m very proud of the young man he’s becoming. The adoring mother of three also expressed her pride in the way her children “speak to us.” They are “interesting people,” she continued, and her son has “this fantastic friend group.”
He has plenty of different hobbies
Despite being well-known for playing Carrie Bradshaw and serving as the face of numerous fashion and beauty companies, Parker admitted to Entertainment Tonight that she doesn’t really discuss her job with her kids.
Instead, it appears that conversations at home are more typical and similar to those that occur in other homes. The actress remarked, “It’s school and internships and soccer, and chats about universities and how to pass the time, and where’s everyone’s stuff that’s missing.
Football, reading, and hanging out with close friends are just a few of the varied interests that James Wilkie displays on Instagram. His pals have also tagged him in pictures from proms and art gallery exhibits. He is pursuing his degree at Brown University and has indicated on his profile that he is a musician and band, indicating his likely future professional path.
He was brought up in a religious household
Parker discussed the various religions her son James Wilkie had been exposed to in the same Parade interview. While her husband has both Jewish and Catholic ancestry, the actress is Jewish. One of Broderick’s sisters is a priest in the Episcopal Church, and the other is a therapist.
At the time of the interview, Parker claimed that his nanny was an ardent Catholic who “says prayers with him” and “had had some influence on James.” Along with her son, Parker prays as well. She continued, “He’ll probably become a Unitarian.”
He remains low key … for now
James Wilkie rarely makes eye-catching public appearances, much like his younger twin sisters Marion Loretta Elwell and Tabitha Hodge, yet he has nonetheless amassed 22,000 Instagram followers from just 25 postings thus far.
His visit on the red carpet at the And Just Like That movie premiere last year was one of his “big” outings. He and his siblings also went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Broadway in 2017. We might witness more of James Wilkie’s untapped star power if his music career develops.
The adoring mother of three also expressed her pride in the way her children “speak to us.” They are “interesting people,” she continued, and her son has “this fantastic friend group.”
