15 Celebrities Without Children: Famous Stars Who Don't Want To Have Kids

People who choose to be child-free are not lonely; most of the time, it's their comforting independence and strong personal pursuits that make them whole and empowered.

The decision to be child-free may elicit unnecessary comments, such as "You'll always need a child to take care of you when you get older," "Why are you wasting your womanhood/manhood?" and "You're being selfish," more than a genuine curiosity about the factors at play. But these comments aren't just blurted out in the wind; having a child has been part of the normative system, making non-conforming decisions such as voluntary childlessness appear unusual or defiant.

But the world is becoming more open about being child-free because a lot of people are also speaking about it and standing their ground, like these celebrities who wouldn't mind getting old with a cat or a dog and a dream.

1. Stevie Nicks

Some are meant to be mothers, and some are meant to be rock stars. While there's nothing wrong with being the former, Stevie Nicks can attest to the latter.

Nicks' career-driven mindset catapulted her to being one of the all-time great rock icons, an integral part of Fleetwood Mac, and the only woman to be inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Because of her career and the opportunities that came along, the "rock and roll" mama just couldn't afford to give that up, especially at the time when Fleetwood Mac was at its peak in 1979. Nicks decided to end her pregnancy the same year the rock band was in the spotlight.

"If I had not had that abortion, I'm pretty sure there would have been no Fleetwood Mac. There's just no way that I could have had a child then, working as hard as we worked constantly. And there were a lot of drugs, I was doing a lot of drugs ... I would have had to walk away," she said, as per The Guardian.

Given her addiction to the tranquilizer Klonopin, her love for music and her strong feminist values, Nicks knew well enough what she wanted and what she couldn't do. She understood that she was not intended to be a mother but rather a rock star with feminist ideals who took the world by storm.

"I am a totally free woman, and I am independent, and that's exactly what I always wanted to be," she stated in an interview with The Guardian, referencing the theme of freedom in her feminist anthem "Storms."

2. Miley Cyrus

The 30-year-old pop-rock singer Miley Cyrus' choice to be child-free is strongly influenced by her position on climate change.

With the myriad of societal issues that stem from the declining state of the world and climate issues that are gradually becoming impenetrable and pervasive, Cyrus believes that bringing another child into this planet would be a plan with fatal consequences.

"We've been doing the same thing to the earth that we do to women," she said in an Elle interview.

"We just take and take and expect it to keep producing. And it's exhausted. It can't produce. We're getting handed a piece-of-s--t planet, and I refuse to hand that down to my child. Until I feel like my kid would live on an earth with fish in the water, I'm not bringing in another person to deal with that," she added.

3. Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller

The comedy actor and high-end ceramic maker Seth Rogen admitted that juggling work and parenting responsibilities is not for him and his wife Lauren Miller, a fellow cast member of "Superbad" and also a screenwriter-actress.

"I wouldn't be able to do all this work that I like," he said, as per People.

"People are always like — it's something I think I was uncomfortable answering this before — but they were like, 'How do you do so much?' The answer is I don't have kids. ... I have nothing else to do," he continued.

He also revealed that his wife was on the same page as him about not having children.

"I would say she wants kids less than I do. I could probably be talked into it; she's like no," he said.

However, the two also went through a dark time when both of Miller's parents died from Alzheimer's disease. But given that the two are both comedic talents, they've used that and founded Hilarity for Charity (HFC) in 2012, an organization that uses humor to spread awareness of Alzheimer's disease.

4. John Hamm

The Golden Globe-winning "Mad Men" actor John Hamm also came honest about not wanting kids.

"I'd be a terrible father! I see my friends who have children and I'm like, 'Dude, how are you even upright, much less here at work at 6 a.m.?" Hamm told US Weekly.

His ex-girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt, the actress-filmmaker, directed a rom-com titled "Friends with Kids" in 2011, in which Hamm also starred with her. And they did have a lot of friends with kids in real life.

The ex-couple ended their 18-year relationship in 2015. Five years after his relationship with Westfeldt, Hamm confirmed his romance with his "Mad Men" co-star, Anna Osceola, in a 2022 interview on "The Howard Stern Show."

5. Marisa Tomei

Marisa Tomei, who played Aunt May in the last three "Spiderman" movies starring Tom Holland, takes her role as an aunt in real life very seriously.

When people start talking about having kids, Tomei would like to be removed from the narrative, thank you very much.

Tomei told Manhattan Magazine in 2009 that she "is not a big fan of marriage as an institution" and she doesn't "know why women need to have children to be seen as complete human beings." She was much ahead of her time, and a lot of people now would agree with her.

Her portrayal of Peter Parker's mother figure in "Spiderman: Homecoming" (2017) and her role as Pete Davidson's fictional mother in the comedy-drama film "King of Staten Island" were the closest she has ever gotten to becoming a mother. Mother Marisa may appear more frequently, but it will undoubtedly only be in movies.

6. Jennifer Aniston

In 2016, Jennifer Aniston broke her silence by penning an article for the Huffington Post regarding the persistent rumors that she was carrying a child.

Aniston pointed out the "objectification and scrutiny" women and young girls go through owing to the "warped" beauty standards imposed by the media. The argument was a result of the media's use of her unflattering angles in photos where she was either assumed fat or pregnant.

"The objectification and scrutiny we put women through [are] absurd and disturbing. The way I am portrayed by the media is simply a reflection of how we see and portray women in general, measured against some warped standard of beauty," Aniston wrote.

Aniston also firmly stated that women and young girls should be able to have control of their bodies "with or without a child."

"We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone," she stated.

But she made it clear in her most recent interview with Allure that she has "zero regrets" about attempting to have a child while going through infertility issues in her 30s and 40s.

"I have zero regrets," she said. "I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more, 'Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.' I don't have to think about that anymore."

7. John Cena

You can't see him or any of the kids since having kids is neither a piece of cake for wrestler-turned-actor John Cena, nor a wrestling move he can pull off with ease.

In his interview on "The Drew Barrymore Show" (via Buzzfeed), Cena was asked about having kids, and the "Peacemaker" star responded with a profound answer.

"It's hard work. It's hard work to balance the time I need to run myself correctly. It's hard work to be the best partner and husband I can be to my loving wife. It's hard to keep connections with those in my life that I love. And it's also hard to put in an honest day's work," Cena added.

Barrymore asked Cena because she thought he would make "the world's best father," but Cena believed that there was more to fatherhood.

"This is just my perspective; I think just because you might be good at something, for me, is not a strong-enough reason to do that. You have to have a passion for it. You have to have a fuel for it. It's like saying to somebody, 'Man, you know, you are pretty good with your hands. You'd be a great carpenter,'" he explained.

8. Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio, the 48-year-old award-winning actor, has long been at odds with the idea of getting married and starting a family.

When he revealed in 2008 that he did eventually want to be married and have children, he was honest about contradicting what he had said in the past about not believing in marriage.

But in 2010, he told Germany's OK Magazine he would like to "leave it to fate if and when I'm going to be a father. A part of me has too many professional plans to even seriously consider it. When I see the children in my family though, the idea of having children doesn't seem too far-fetched."

He altered his response when the wind blew in the opposite direction once more, but at the time, he alluded to his view on the state of the planet in his 2016 interview with Rolling Stone.

"Do you mean do I want to bring children into a world like this? If it happens, it happens. I'd prefer not to get into specifics about it, just because then it becomes something that is misquoted," DiCaprio stated.

9. Issa Rae

The comedian and producer Issa Rae has so much on her plate, and she plans to get more soon, which made her put aside the idea of having kids.

"I like my life, I like this selfishness, and I know that I have a window," she told Self.

"I've always felt that way, that women, Black women especially—unless you're Viola Davis or Angela Bassett—you have a window when people are going to want to continue to see you and see what you can do," she continued.

Issa is nowhere near ready to take on the path of being a parent, as the reputation she has been carving out for herself is slowly being recognized with a slew of award nominations and wins.

"Then there are so many limitations placed upon you, and that does keep me up. I want to do as much as I can while I still can. I know it's not the proper mentality to think that kids will slow you down, but I do feel that way."

Issa tied the knot with Louis Diame, an international banker based in Los Angeles, in 2021, and she said she's "extremely happy."

10. Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple, the singer-songwriter and pianist, put the idea of having kids in a simple analogy about ropes and whipping cords in her dialogue with Interview Magazine in 2012.

"No, I've never wanted kids. But I do read about parenting a lot. For some reason, it's very interesting to me-I think because I'm just big on self-parenting," Apple said with a kind of thick irony.

"But I read this thing in a nautical book about how when ropes get frayed you'd use the whipping cords to fix the ends. The whole thing of the whipping cords is that, if I did have kids, I could either teach them how to stay out of trouble—or how to get out of trouble, which I think is more important," she continued.

According to Interview, Apple mentioned "whipping cords" in the title of her 2012 album "The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do," which was related to her "having a problem with the "do unto others" thing and also to the "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" concept.

11. Keanu Reeves

One of Hollywood's A-listers, Keanu Reeves, accepted his fate way back in 2017 when he realized that it was already too late for him to settle down.

When asked by Esquire whether the 58-year-old Canadian actor would like to settle down or even if he has already done so, Reeves just gave a brief response.

"I'm too... it's too late. It's over. I'm 52. I'm not going to have any kids."

12. Ricky Gervais

The comedian-actor and director Ricky Gervais never fails to put things into satirical perspective, even being a child-free celebrity.

He jokingly shared one of the few reasons why he didn't have any children on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in 2019.

"I'd worry sick about a baby. I have a cat and I worry about that. I check the door three times before I go out. I put food and water in every room in case the door closes and he's peckish for 20 minutes," he said.

He added a couple more jests for why he and his partner Jane Fallon do not have children. "There's loads of reasons why I don't have kids. The world is overpopulated, no one's sitting around going, 'Oh Rick's not going to have kids, we're going to run out, there's loads!'"

13. Ina Garten

Ina Garten, the New York Times bestselling author and host of "Be My Guest" and "Barefoot Contessa," made a statement about being child-free by choice that she's very certain of, to the point that you don't even have to ask twice.

Garten appeared on Katie Couric's podcast in 2017 and opened up about her early decision to be child-free.

"I really appreciate that other people do, and we will always have friends that have children that we are close to, but it was a choice I made very early," Garten shared. "I really felt -- I feel -- that I would have never been able to have the life I've had. And so it's a choice, and that was the choice I made."

14. Allison Janney

Most people are more scared of having regrets than committing mistakes, and one of them is Allison Janney, who has landed many "mom" roles in the industry.

In 2021, the 63-year-old veteran actress shared on "The Drew Barrymore Show" her uncertainties and hopes of starting a family.

"I think if I'd found the right guy at the right time and wanted to have kids, I probably would have with the right partner," Janney said. "Because I wasn't ever really confident that I wanted to have kids, and I would rather regret not having kids than have kids and regret it."

"I'm OK with it," she added.

It's-already-too-late is not definitely in Janney's vocabulary. At 61 (at the time), Janney described it as a time when she was exploring who she was, what she wanted and who she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

"I really am at this time in my life getting to know who I am and what I want. So I'd love to eventually find someone to share my life with. But if it doesn't happen, I think I'll be just fine," she shared.

15. Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham

The billionaire magnate Oprah Winfrey had a different kind of mission in life for kids, but not of her own.

However, Winfrey did consider having children at some point after getting engaged with her old-time partner Stedman Graham.

"At one point in Chicago I had bought an additional apartment because I was thinking, 'Well, if we get married, I'm going to need room for children,'" Winfrey told People.

But over time, she came to understand the birth pains of motherhood while working on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

"I realized, 'Whoa, I'm talking to a lot of messed-up people, and they are messed up because they had mothers and fathers who were not aware of how serious that job is,'" she said. "I don't have the ability to compartmentalize the way I see other women do. It is why, throughout my years, I have had the highest regard for women who choose to be at home [with] their kids, because I don't know how you do that all day long. Nobody gives women the credit they deserve."

The pair didn't regret not getting married. They remain unmarried up to this date.

"I have not had one regret about that. I also believe that part of the reason why I don't have regrets is because I got to fulfill it in the way that was best for me: the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa," she said. "Those girls fill that maternal fold that I perhaps would have had. In fact, they overfill — I'm overflowed with maternal."