Natalie Portman is best known for her iconic movie roles – which include Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars franchise and Jane Foster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – but at home, the “Thor: Love and Thunder” star is mom to two kids, Aleph Portman-Millepied and Amalia Millepied, both of whom she keeps out of the spotlight.
Portman shares her two children with husband Benjamin Millepied, a dancer, choreographer, and director. The pair married in an intimate outdoor celebration in Big Sur, CA, on Aug. 4, 2012. The couple first welcomed their son, Aleph, in June 2011 before the birth of their daughter, Amalia, in February 2017. That year, Portman actually missed the Academy Awards ceremony due to the arrival of her daughter; she was up for a best actress nomination for starring as former First Lady Jackie Kennedy in “Jackie.”
Between her acting career and motherhood, Portman has had her hands full. Years after starting her family, Portman shared that being a mom has actually “made me much calmer under stress,” per a 2016 interview with The New York Times – which seems like a bonus as a working actor in the entertainment business.
Portman is the co-founder of the new Los Angeles’s Angel City Football Club in the National Women’s Soccer League, and she opened up in a March 2023 interview about how important it is to her for both her kids to see and support the team. “I think that for all kids, it’s so influential to see female athletes be celebrated as they deserve,” she told People. “I mean, we grew up as girls being expected to idolize male athletes, and we did. If you see excellence, you can be in awe of it no matter who is being excellent. So, I think that for all our kids, it really gives me tingles thinking about how different their world will be growing up with icons we have on our team.”
In the summer of 2022, Portman opened up about how her kids inspired her to play Jane Foster as Thor in “Thor: Love and Thunder.” “I feel like it’s the phase of my career where I’m really trying to just impress my kids. My 5-year-old and my 10-year-old were so enthralled by this process, getting to visit the set and see me dressed up in a cape,” she told Variety in June. “It made it really cool. You know, it’s very rare that my kids are like, ‘Please go to work!’ Usually, it’s quite the opposite.”
However, both mom and dad remain extremely private about their children, though they’ve all been seen out and about over the years. In May 2020, Portman posted a rare throwback photo of her son and daughter via Instagram but has since deleted the post. Keep reading to learn more about Portman and Millepied’s kids.
Related: Conflicted About “Feminist Baby Books,” Natalie Portman Decided to Update the Classics Instead
Aleph Portman-Millepied
Portman and Millepied’s first child, a son named Aleph, was born on June 14, 2011, just five days after the actor’s 30th birthday. In 2015, Portman commented on balancing being a parent to Aleph and her career in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “Very early on, I asked [Cate Blanchett] about being a parent,” she told the outlet. “I said ‘How do you do it? You’re a mom. You’re the best at what you do.’ She said, ‘You just do. Stressing about it doesn’t help.'”
In October 2018, Portman brought Aleph to a Los Angeles Lakers/San Antonio Spurs basketball game at the then-Staples Center, where the two were both photographed in the crowd. Her son looked adorable sporting his Lakers gear, donning Shaquille O’Neal’s retired No. 34 jersey.
Amalia Millepied
Portman and Millepied’s second child, a daughter named Amalia, was born on Feb. 22, 2017. Despite her best actress Oscar nomination that year, Portman didn’t attend the award show as she instead was busy giving birth to her baby girl. At the time, she kept details mum and blamed her absence on being in the late stages of her pregnancy. “Due to my pregnancy, I am unable to attend the Independent Spirit Awards and the Academy Awards,” she said in a statement. “I feel so lucky to be honored among my fellow nominees and wish them the most beautiful of weekends.”
After her daughter’s birth, Portman felt conflicted about the many “feminist baby books” she received, which ultimately inspired her to write her own modern versions of classic children’s tales, released in 2020. In a letter on the website for her book, “Natalie Portman’s Fables,” the actor wrote: “It felt sad to explain to a small child that girls and women have so many obstacles or why they are treated differently, before they’ve even started experiencing the world.”
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