Kerry Washington is promoting her project, American Son, on Netflix. Kerry starred in the play last year and based on the trailer, it looks like they tried to stay as close as they could to the single-room set of the play. It also looks really good. Kerry is famously private about her personal life. She rarely discusses her kids or marriage and when she does, it’s merely a mention. Obviously that’s her right and we respect it, it just makes it harder to get good gossip stories. So, Kerry has cleverly found a great work-around: discussing how private she is about her personal life. For instance, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a photo of her kids and it turns out, there’s a reason for that. Kerry told People that she’s torn because she doesn’t want the public to have photos of her kids but they are so cute, she wants to post them. So she does, but only shows her therapist.
Fans of Kerry Washington likely won’t be seeing photos of her kids on social media anytime soon, but it’s harder not to share their cuteness with the world than one might think.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peek at her sit-down with Sunday Today‘s Willie Geist, airing Sunday at 8 a.m. ET, the American Son actress opens up about the temptation she feels to post images of her three kids publicly — and how she combats it.
“I have moments where I take pictures or videos of one of my three amazing kids and I wanna post it online, and I tend to just send it to my parents or my shrink instead,” says Washington, 42.
“I’m like, ‘My kids are so cute and I don’t wanna post about them, so look at how cute they are!’ ” she adds.
“I have a private Instagram for my shrink and he loves it!” Washington says, joking, “It’s not great when I get parenting feedback, incidentally, based on something he heard me [say] in the background of the video.”
See – brilliant. I could see families doing this, private Insta-rings so they could share photos just among each other. Kerry’s stepdaughter is 13 and her younger kids are 5 and a half and 3, I get keeping their photos off public pages. I should have been more respectful about this when mine were that age. Now we ask their approval and they don’t always grant it, which is fine. But there are a bunch of shots I’d like to get to my mom outside of email. I’m honestly considering this, although I’ll still have to wait until I visit her to show her how to get on Instagram. I’m laughing about Kerry’s therapist commenting on what he hears in the background of the videos, that would happen to me too. I swear, if I’m off camera, I’m a menace.
But this is also brilliant because that’s a fun and gossipy story, but Kerry gave very little up. American Son is about a mother whose son is missing and she and her ex are trying to find out what happened. Motherhood questions are bound to come up, just like they did when she was doing the play. Finding a level playing field in which Kerry can discuss being a parent but not expose her kids in any way is just promotional genius. I tip my hat to you, Ms. Washington.
The cast of American Son on Broadway, Opening Night
Photo credit: WENN Photos
I also respect my children’s complete right to digital privacy.
Good. I think that’s how it should be.
I love that she said she had three kids.
Other than that I can see why she wouldn’t want to post her kids pictures online.
I saw the play in NYC. It was really good. I haven’t seen the Netflix adaption yet but from the previews I’ve seen, it does look to be quite faithful.
I have a friend who does that. Her IG is family only, and it’s all about sharing photos of the kids. It’s a really nice idea. All social media doesn’t have to be public – sharing with loved ones is enough
Also, I love Kerry’s hair in these pics
My niece just put up a private family album that you have to get an invitation to join and view pics. She asked the family not to post pics of their new baby on social media. This is just a run-of-the-mill Midwestern family where everyone has phones and online accounts, but everyone was fine with it.
I use an app called Tinybeans to post pics and vids for invited family and friends. I think people get an email every day that you post pics but they can unsubscribe from it and only view pics by going to the app. So it works for family members with smart phones and those who only have computer access.
Love her. She seems like the most down to earth person ever and I’m sure her kids appreciate her discretion with their lives!
With some of the social media platforms you can set your audience. That is what I’ve always done with photos of people who only want to share with a select few, as long as the person is okay with it.
yea my husband and I agreed to never have pictures of our children online if we can help it.