Lourdes Leon just turned 25 years old. An important age for many people. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2018, and since then she’s lived in New York full-time and she’s paying her own way. I believe that – I think Madonna was a strict mother in a lot of ways, and one of the benefits of her strictness was that her kids understand the value of money and they’re not afraid to work. While Lourdes has that too-cool-for-school vibe, throughout her Interview Magazine piece, she talks about money and paying her own way and supporting herself. She wisely knows that if she asked her mom for any kind of financial help, Madonna would either say no or use the money to control her. Here are some highlights from Interview (Debi Mazar interviewed her, which is amazing because Mazar has been one of Madonna’s BFFs forever).
Her first Met Gala: “Did I have fun at the Met Gala? I’m really grateful to have been able to go. Maybe because it was my first time, but it felt crazy. You’re just shoved into a room with all these famous people and you’re supposed to talk to them and be their friend, even though you don’t f–king know them. That’s not my vibe. I’m sure it’s fun if you’re someone who is friends with a lot of famous people, but I’m not. I didn’t know who the f–k to talk to. I felt so awkward that I literally called my boyfriend in the middle of it, but the dinner was fine.
She’s a New Yorker: “I don’t consider myself a Californian in any way. I never lived there. I was born there. I consider myself a New Yorker because that’s where I grew up. But the worst part about L.A. is the people. Otherwise, it would be great.
She steals her mom’s clothes: “I do, but now there’s a lock on her closets. When she’s not in the house, those things are locked tight, because I take everything I feel that I’m entitled to.
Her goals: “I don’t have a specific goal. I probably should. Financially, modeling is a smart decision. I enjoy being very hands on with the campaigns I do, so that I’m not just modeling, per se… I don’t know how I feel about acting yet. I think it’s about finding a role that wouldn’t be too far off from who I am already. Honestly, actors really annoy me and I can’t be around them. As for music, I can sing. I just don’t care about it. Maybe it’s too close to home.
On Madonna being a strict mother: “The list of things I wasn’t allowed to do is never-ending.”
Whether she sees herself getting married: “I don’t feel the need to get married, but I would take a ring. Kidding. I don’t think of myself as traditional, but I’ve pretty much only had traditional relationships. I enjoy being a caregiver. I like cooking dinner for my boyfriend. I don’t want to miss out on having children, but the idea of birth scares me literally to my core. I can’t push a baby out of my vagina. It will not happen. So, I’m down for kids, but that’s kind of a problem. Of course, there are other ways.
She paid for her college tuition & apartment: “We don’t get any handouts in my family. Obviously, I grew up with extreme privilege. There’s no denying that. But I think my mom saw all these other kids of famous people, and she was like, “My kids are not going to be like this.” Also, I feel like if your parents pay for things, then it gives them leverage over you. My mom is such a control freak, and she has controlled me my whole life. I needed to be completely independent from her as soon as I graduated high school.
On social media: “Instagram is not real. It’s the biggest lie of all time. People create personas on Instagram that are nothing like who they are in person, and it’s the scariest thing to me, because I’m the same everywhere.
Her dad didn’t teach her Spanish: “No, because he was lazy and didn’t feel like it. That’s not to say he’s not amazing, I love him so much, but he didn’t feel like it. He thought I was juggling a lot with French, which I speak fluently. I’m really trying to learn Spanish, and I try to speak it with my boyfriend and my other friends who are fluent. A lot of my friends are mixed Latins, and a lot of Latin parents want their kids to speak English really well, and almost seem white. It was about fitting in and not having any problems. But now, I feel like my generation is craving that knowledge of the diaspora. We want to know.
A trend she hates: “I hate TikTok people. It’s something I can’t explain. Maybe there’s something I’m not fully understanding about it.
An average day: “I smoke a lot of weed. In general, I don’t really have an average day, because of my work. I’m constantly traveling. When I’m not doing that, I try to go to a dance class or do some yoga. I have a really intense hair-care routine. It’s the only thing I actually care about, because it’s my best feature, in my opinion. I feel like I wouldn’t be pretty if I didn’t have this hair, so I’m really psycho about it. Oils, all the time. Other than that, I try to work out, because it makes me feel good. I don’t watch what I eat, ever. I’m not there yet.
I appreciate that she has a strong personality, although I’m sure she rubs people the wrong way. I see her as a Cool Girl, perhaps one of the most impossibly cool girls of today. She has the authority, self-assurance, wit and DGAF attitude of someone born into privilege and money, but again, I don’t doubt that she works and that her biggest priority in life is to not be controlled by her mother. I also think it’s cute that she’s obsessed with her hair and thinks it’s her best feature. It’s one of her best features, for sure. But I would also say her eyes and her legs are her best features.
Photos courtesy of Interview Magazine.
I wonder what was her job
Seriously! The only way she gets these high paying modeling gigs is because of whose daughter she is. Otherwise she would be a bartender
yeah, she’s not uggo…but she’s also not really model material.
dead-eyed, not very engaging.
but being Madonna’s daughter gets you gigs. so pardon me if I’m not impressed by her “paying her own way”…it’s not like she’s waiting tables to pay off her student loans.
And let’s not think this girl and her sibs don’t have trust funds that they draw from. What is special about this girl, other than her parentage? She’s an admitted snobby pot head?
The spawn of celebrities. God save us all.
She’s probably a sweet girl but her life is paid by her mother or her connections. No judgment but it’s the truth.
At her age I probably would’ve had the same.
She’s paying via the money alloted bY her mother. Plus the jobs that overpay her.
I’d have taken it, too, at 20. But let’s not play games.
Never in a billion years would she be a working model living that lifestyle without her mother.
I can’t believe she’s a model. Come on! If not for her mother…
I don’t think she’s a model like a super-model or even a catalogue model.
But I think she probably is a model based on the wide category it’s become in the age of social media. I’ve seen a lot of people who are below 5’6″ but have decent faces calling themselves models on Instagram. it’s a bit bewildering to me, because my image of a model is someone who is very lanky, thin and tall a la Gisele Bundchen, but I think she probably fits into the social media category of Insta-model. It seems like there’s more leeway in that area. I don’t find her look appealing as something I would aspire to or follow, but I’ve seen this look on Instagram.
Typical entitled but I’m really not entitled attitude but I am impressed that she went to college and graduated. Good for her and more importantly good for Madonna for making her do that. Wonder what the son by Guy Ritchie is up to? Guessing he’s a budding DJ or something along those lines…
I feel like she might be an influencer if some sort — I still don’t really get how the whole thing works. And probably never will, but influencers seem to make money.
I kind of figure she takes short term modelling gigs because she can. From her answers, I wondered if she actually likes entertainment though. That’s what she’s been exposed to and so she goes with it, but probably could have wound up an accountant with a different set of parents. She seems like she has a practical understanding of what pays well.
Oh wait…she says she hates Tik Tok people. But it’s hard for me to think of her as a model. She doesn’t look very tall. I’m still going with influencer who gets paid partnerships.
I would categorize her as an influencer at this point in her life. I think she’s a very artsy person but probably fears being dubbed Madonna 2.0 if she goes into music. (Which I can see, because her cameo in Rihanna’s Savage Fenton show just SCREAMED old school Madonna. It wasn’t intentional, but she’s got the same vibe). She’s clearly trying to figure out her direction in life. A niche/space that she can claim as her very own.
She talks about modeling. I assumed she was modeling.
She was print modeling for a campaign that was in Macy’s. I forget the name of the brand, but it was in Macys.
It was Material Girl. Her mom’s clothing line. :-/
Seems like it’s modeling, which is a shame because she sounds smart, wise, realistic and independent…IOW she has a lot more to offer than being another photo splashed on social media.
Madonna may be tight fisted with her money but she created jobs for Lourdes and ensured her daughter had the obligatory celebutante career in fashion (modeling and launching a brand with her when she was in HS)
I think it’s possible she saved the money (her “allowance”?) from the jobs she did for her mom instead of splurging on items. Madonna seems like she’d make her daughter go through some kind of money management lecture with her.
I guarantee that madonna’s money also paid for a cool apt in lower Manhattan or Brooklyn. Other than that she’s on her own!
Yes Madonna does fit the control freak persona,i have also read she is notoriously tight fisted. It must have pained to give Guy Richie that settlement.
I can barely think of a more irritating interview.
A girl who has been given everything telling me how she hates everything. Except for her committed hair routine.
She paid her own way (really, how?) and ignores how each door that is opened for her comes from the grift and graft of her mother.
Deeply unimpressed
Au contraire, I found this one of the most refreshing interviews of a celeb that ive read in recent time (& I only skim such interviews and only when I come to this site for (some) H&M threads.
She’s very self-aware, honest, has a heightened sense of her privilege and knows there are folks out there who will dismiss everything she says and does and chalk it all up to who her mother is.
She is very 25-yrs-old and i love how she owns it.
I can’t find info about Lourdes graduating from college. She started at Michigan and at some point transferred to SUNY Purchase. But no evidence of a degree, that I can see.
Yeah, that was my impression, too; Lourdes hates everything & everyone, and doesn’t particularly care about anything except keeping her hair nice. I was surprised to learn she was 25 & a college graduate; I would have expected these answers from a teenager, but not someone with her age & (admittedly, limited & privileged) experience.
Gotta admit, these were my thoughts too.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh? Everything about her reminds me of Madonna at that age.
Except for the lack of ambition
I like her more in this interview than others I’ve read. Maybe she’s growing up a little. She always struck me as pretty immature. That could be a side effect of a controlling parent, I suppose. Hope she’s able to step out on her own.
I’ve obviously never been to a Met Gala, but I relate like crazy to what she says about it! I feel that way at work functions and fundraisers. Blech! No thanks!
Me too! It surprised me just how much! 😳
I appreciate that she works and has earned her way, but let’s be real, it’s not like she was slinging burgers or working a day job while going to night school.
That might be some folks’ “normal”. But not the only “normal” that exists.
No, but Michigan is expensive, she wasn’t working hard to pay for it. She took a couple modeling jobs that she didn’t earn but got because of her name, and now she gets to say she is independent and doesn’t get handouts. Come on.
Uh that would be normal for the vast majority of people unless they took out crushing debt for school.
It is super ironic that Madonna, who was such a rebel and so untrammeled, apparently restricted her own child so much.
Michigan wasn’t cheap but she transferred to SUNY Purchase at some point and would have paid in state tuition, also may have lived at home or in one of Madonna’s properties since Purchase is commutable to NYC, so it’s feasible she did pay for her schooling on her own.
It’s also that she doesn’t have the threat of financial instability lurking over her shoulder. Not using your parents money is one thing, but to know that it will be there if you need it is a completely different existence.
When your mother is someone as controlling as Madonna, though, that can be added motivation not to go back home in need of support because it comes with all kinds of strings and power dynamics.
My grandmother is like this and her behavior made my mother determined not to depend on her. She left home early and was determined not to return or ask for money.
I enjoyed this interview because for all that Madonna probably drives Lourdes nuts with her controlling and abrasive ways, Lourdes also sounds a lot like her mother. Also, that response about her father not teaching her Spanish was hilarious. She’s not just giving pretty, pat answers and I appreciate it.
Also, the people talking about her having jobs that her mother gave her… uh, yeah- that’s how most kids get started working. Lourdes’ “take your kids to work” days were just in very different environments than most kids.
Agreed, Tiffany. Plus, pretty sure she had jobs her mom gave her, like managing the wardrobe for one of her tours; so basically, her jobs were handouts. She didn’t have to compete for any of them.
This! Born on 3rd and thinks it’s an accomplishment to hit a home run.
I mean, I’m glad she graduated and that is an accomplishment (as long as it’s not an Olivia Jade style graduation), but her mom’s name and iconic status paid for her education in the form of nepotism gigs.
“ But the worst part about L.A. is the people. Otherwise, it would be great.”
Having lived in LA for 14 years (left in 2014), I have to say I completely agree. But maybe she means the entertainment industry scene. Because that’s what I was immersed in. I felt perpetually out of step. Because I don’t drink, or smoke, or experiment with drugs. I actually had a friend once who told me I made him feel bad because I didn’t do any of the above.
That said, there is a lot of cool stuff to do around LA and California is a geographically gorgeous state. If anyone ever asked me, I would say it’s a wonderful area to visit, but not to live (unless you are extremely well off).
I thought that comment was kinda mean but also I couldn’t disagree. I lived in SoCal for a decade. I wasn’t in the entertainment industry but I felt like people were way too comfortable critiquing everyone else’s physical appearance, which of course was mostly
directed at women, and mediocre men were everywhere not being called out in their shitty behavior because women were the focus of all the scrutiny.
#NotAllCalifornians 😉
Exactly!
I lived on the east coast for 8 years and constantly had people insulting, belittling and “how can you live there” comments about California. No one in California GAF about people on the east coast. I mean they say things like wow, look at all that snow or glad Broadway is back, but no one obsesses about the people who live there. It’s bizarre and annoying. I grew up in Silverlake hills in Los Angeles and my parents were teachers and all their friends were teachers and librarians. This idea that everyone is entertainment related and superficial is ridiculous. Anyway it’s 70 degrees today in Santa Barbara and I’m all good.
You’re epitomizing everything you’re raging against. :-). I’m on the East Coast. Nobody GAF about California either. Lots of people love it. Some like it, but say they couldn’t live there. 99% of the time we don’t talk about it. Sounds like maybe you were the one bringing it up and comparing the two, which is why people were getting defensive.
Exactly!! Not all LA people…we have so many minorities living here, there are different cultures, different socio-economic backgrounds so saying she hates the people means she met one type of LA person. And those people are usually not originally from LA. Also, what’s a handout?? Your parents should pay for your college education if they can afford it, and Madonna certainly can. Annoying!!
I’ve lived here almost 20 years. I totally disagree with the comment about people in LA. I love my community that is filled with people from around the US and around the world. Even the sobriety aspect…there are lots of communities of people who live sober! One of my friends (who is “industry”) had a band with his AA group, and they’d play at Canter’s Deli regularly! Especially with the fitness enthusiasm we have out here, there are a lot of people who don’t imbibe.
People exist in bubbles, and then pretend that their bubble defines 20 million people. It’s nonsense.
Exactly. Probably one of the most diverse places on earth. Driving from one end of LA to the other is like traveling around the world. There’s a wonderful documentary called City of Gold about Jonathan Gold, the amazing now deceased restaurant critic of the LA times, and his love affair with LA and it’s delicious diverse multiethnic food culture. Madonna’s daughter probably hung out with a few rich kids and that’s her takeaway from LA.
Yes! There’s so much diversity, that I have to side-eye anyone that acts like LA has 1 “type” of person.
Jonathan Gold was such a gem. I loved listening to his show.
I love Canter’s Deli! My decade in SoCal was, er, south of LA – which is thinly veiled code for more conservative, even though technically I was in a blue congressional district, a lot of self-proclaimed “liberals” had pretty conservative social values.
But as a Bay Area native, I gotta also say there’s a whole other California than the one being discussed here. IDK if people back east ever really think about Northern California or debate living here, but it’s a super common relocation destination for east coast natives.
I lived in LA and worked in “the industry” for years, I totally agree. My friends didn’t do drugs? We were all into hiking and exercise when we had time between films. And good dinners! I had friends from around the world. Interesting, smart, great dinner companions, amazing food.
The only legit complaint about La is the traffic. I miss the food and the people. But I could never deal with that traffic again. If I had the money and my family would move, I’d live in Santa Barbara or up the coast.
Somebody told me a funny joke about the difference between New York and Los Angeles. It’s all about attitude.
LA: “Hi, how are you doing? It’s so great to see you! I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to catch up. Oh look, you poor thing, you just broke your leg. Well, I have to be going, I’m meeting someone for lunch. We must get together soon. It was great seeing you!”
NYC: “You fuckin’ asshole. Look at you, you just broke your fuckin’ leg, now I gotta carry you to the fuckin’ hospital…”
I was prepared to dislike her from the single quote, but then I shifted. Hilarious. She’s sort of like her mom in terms of understanding the merits of being financially savvy. She seems to look at things strategically. And then I felt bad for her when she said her mom has controlled every aspect of her life. I thought her mom might control her studies as most successful people do, but not everything else! She’s very blunt, but in context her quotes work for some reason.
Didn’t she used to go out with Timothee Chalamet in high school? I wonder how that went when they bumped into each other at the MET Gala!
I don’t doubt she works for what she has. She seems to have more self awareness about her position that the majority of celebrity offspring.
Yup. He definitely has a past with daughters with well connected parents (see Lily-Rose Depp).
But anyway I thought she came off pretty well in this interview. She’s full of snark.
I liked her vibe, maybe because some of her answers hit home even if I didn’t ha e a rich and famous mom. Plus she’s obviously a critical thinker, smart and aware person!!!❤❤ is she a virgo?
So Madonna is a multi millionaire who saddled her young daughter with probably $100 k in debt. U of M is an expensive school. Nice.
She dipped on University of Michigan the second she saw a MAGA hat on campus. She transferred to SUNY-Purchase and majored in dance.
Doesn’t matter. Still expensive.
@bobbie – in-state tuition at SUNY-Purchase isn’t nearly that expensive. If she graduated in 2018, it was around $20,000 a year. I have a kid applying to college this year and looking at the SUNY schools as a NY resident. SUNY Purchase for the 21-22 academic year is $23,491 (tuition, room, board, & fees). Since she graduated from a NYC public high school, she would have been entitled to in-state tuition rates.
I wondered if maybe she was eligible for some kind of scholarship if she was in dance. It seems like the type of unusual major that could have funding available. Not sure if you have to meet some kind of aid requirement though.
I got my Masters at a SUNY college. As a NY resident, it’s much cheaper.
It doesn’t say she took out loans. I suspect she means she paid from her own trust fund. Which is a form of independence in the sense that the money was legally hers and she didn’t have to go through her mom to get it.
Does she have a trust fund?
IDK. Just a guess but she’s clearly not saddled with huge loan debt. She moved to NYC after graduation and hasn’t ever worked a traditional job, so a trust fund is a likely explanation. Or an inheritance. I don’t know anything about her family and if she had grandparents with money, but these are the common ways that a teenager suddenly has financial means.
Bettyrose: Madonna is from a working class family, no idea about Carlos Leon’s family. Family $$ would no doubt come from Madonna herself.
@Beaniebean – I know Madonna is from a working class family (I was a HUGE madonna fan in the mid-80s and studied everything there was to know about her at that time), but that doesn’t mean that 1. the grandparents haven’t come into money over the years (from or because of Madonna) and put aside some for Lourdes or that 2. The father/father’s family did that. And what’s the threshold for in-state tuition in Michigan? Would having grandparents suffice?
If you think she paid for her OWN college education I have a seaside resort to sell you in Colorado. Please!
There are a ton of stories out there about Madonna being really tight with her money. Her brother talked about it quite a bit. She is not a generous person.
I can believe Madonna’s not generous but just HOW did Lourdes pay her own way, exactly? If she took out loans I think she would mention it as it would further prove her independence from Madonna. Since she doesn’t mention it, I’m guessing either Madonna paid for it in some way (maybe she has set up some trusts for the kids) or Lourdes paid but she had more income than the average 18-22-yr-old because Madonna’s connections allowed her to get modelling gigs, etc.
The answer might be as simple as Lourdes had a college fund that maybe her father had saved up. All we know is Madonna didn’t write checks to the school. That doesn’t mean the money wasn’t available from any number of sources. Being tight also isn’t the same thing has having not planned at all for her daughter’s future. No judgement either way. If she did pay all on her own, good for her. That also doesn’t mean she didn’t get significant help paying off her loans.
Oh yeah, we keep forgetting she has a dad. He probably made sure she has some kind of fund like most parents do.
I don’t think it’s odd she’d be able to find some financial independence from her mother, if she has her wits and savvy about her. I’m more puzzled by people like Tori Spelling who can leverage every connection to hustle, make money and be successful, and still wind up bankrupt.
Didn’t she model for her mother’s fashion line in high school? Presumably she got paid. Also, she’s not just an influencer, I’ve seen her in ads for big brands. There is a whole world of niche, ultra hip magazines for very rich people. You see her is ads there. From the sound of this article, she makes sure she gets paid. Also, it’s well known that in NYC, new buildings will give famous people free or low cost fancy apartments, just to be able to tell potential tenants/buyers that X lives there. There are lots of ways she could be earning her living. I notice she isn’t opening her books to let anybody else follow in her path.
Also, normalizing parents not helping their kids with college costs is a rotten thing to do. So many parents use money to control their kids, often in very abusive ways. One of the reasons we need to deal with outrageous college costs.
Few things here she says she paid for college in this interview and then goes onto when a parent pays for it they control everything. I say that’s teenage or young adult speak for my Mom paid some at first and then really tried to control me so she left Michigan (the expensive out of state school) and went to the cheaper in-state SUNY Purchase school she could pay for. I kind of commend her for that as the school is a bit of a downgrade, but she paid for it and went. The difference is from $50k a year to $20K a year including room and board. Now with her modeling jobs she could probably afford Suny-Purchase easily.
Also, all the people clamoring about loans makes me laugh. One she couldn’t qualify for a federal loan as she would have to put in her parents income. Can you imagine Madge and company filling out a Fafsa. So she’d have to get a private loan and those rates are based on who she got it from, but could be as low as the federal loan rate. The federal student loan rates are really low and have been for a while now. My daughter’s first loan rate was at 2%. That’s hardly my 9.5% loan I got in the late 80’s. If she needed to she could have gotten a loan too.
SUNY-Purchase isn’t the type of school I’d associate with a celebrity kid. That choice would suggest she wanted to do some things her own way.
Her choice of school at least makes it clear to me she wasn’t pretending to be on a rowing team to get in. Or it makes clear that Madonna didn’t want her to cheat to get into a university.
I’m glad she acknowledges her extreme privilege she grew up with but it’s interesting how her privilege trickled into her professional life bc of her mom. She can be a model and pay for herself bc she’s Madonna’s daughter. She is stunning but the biggest challenge for anyone breaking into any facet of the entertainment industry is getting in the door which her name allowed her to and yes that matters. actors/entertainers on TikTok and IG are on there to get exposure (influencers are another story). If you’re in the entertainment industry and looking to break nowadays you have to do that unless you get extremely lucky and get cast on something that will be a huge hit.
I get your point, but what is she supposed to do? She didn’t choose her parents, should she change her name? Would that help? Tricky situation for her, but I think she is handling it pretty well.
She’s stunning? I mean, I get it’s subjective, but honestly, she’d never stop me dead in my tracks on the street thinking “wow, that girl could be a model”.
I really don’t see her appeal as a model, BTW. She always makes the same eyes-half-closed expression with her front teeth on display. It strikes me more as a kid playing at modelling than an actual model.
Did she model when she was in high school? She acknowledges her privilege which I assume are connections through Madonna. It’s not like she was working for minimum wage. So what did she do to earn enough to pay for tuition and apartment? And books and fees . . .?
Honestly, I think she’d just need one partnership to cover that, like a Dove conditioner promo ad on Insta or something (she has silky hair..). If she’s good at being cheap, I think it’s probably do-able with the kinds of partnerships she could make with the connections has.
I know she says she hates Instagram, but a lot of us do, and yet we’re not above using it for our individual needs. I assume the same for her.
I don’t think of her as a model in the vein of Cindy Crawford. But there are likely other opportunities for her given who she is.
she modeled and Madonna launched a fashion line with her when she was 15. She wasn’t getting co-op jobs on campus or working her way through school like the peasants do
I love this interview! To me she comes off as having a dry sense of humor. I think she understands that her life is kind of ridiculous. It’s hard to be cool when you’re born uber rich, but I think she pulls it off pretty well. I feel like having controlling parents delays adolescence. I did the opposite one, where I had a super permissive mom and just became a grown-up like immediately, trying to work backwards now. So I hope Lourdes takes some time to flail about and then finds something she’s passionate about.
She seems like a brat to me. I know these were only some sections of a bigger interview, but in it, she claims to dislike LA people, actors, and tiktok people. Very too cool for school. I guess it’s cool to not like things anymore? She’s welcome to her opinions and can say whatever she wants but I think she comes off very superior.
Shake hands. She comes off that way to me, too.
Exactly! She hates entire groups of people. And it’s hate not dislike. I think she’s a turd.
She’s a mouthy, arrogant little twat. Some of her comments on IG are horrendously rude and profane. She definitely inherited her mother’s obnoxiousness but not her drive or ambition.
I cringed when she said she hates the people in LA and how much she uses the word hate. When I was around Lourdes’ age, my Aunt pointed out to me how often I used the phrase “I hate…” and that it was very unbecoming for someone so young to “hate” so much. I really started to pay attention to my words. Instead of “I hate…”, I learned to say “It makes me uncomfortable when…” or some other more appropriate phrase. My hope when she reads the article is that she realizes the error of her words. I’m not going to begin to get started on her “I paid my own way.” Yeah, right.
I think a lot of young adults and teenagers use absolute language a lot. Nuance and middle of the road language is not the way they speak. I corner my daughter on this all the time. As I want to make sure she really doesn’t think all people are like this or that she saves the word hate for something she really means. That being said I think Lordes sounds a lot like Madonna did young. Very too cool for school, and I’m not sure I actually like that on her. At the time I liked Madonna, but not sure it works almost 40 years later.
I can’t picture her smiling or laughing through this entire interview. It’s so dour. And she only loves her hair?? Okay.
Just by virtue of being Madonna’s daughter, she obviously has opportunities the rest of us peasants don’t have, but that’s not on her – it’s just life. But overall, she sounds like a cool kid with a good head on her shoulders and I don’t doubt that she does pay her own way. I thought she gave some interesting quotes. I loved the part about calling her boyfriend at the Met Gala – I’ve done that several times when I’ve been in situations where I felt awkward and didn’t have anyone to talk to LOL
I don’t know, I kind of like her and her approach to things.
I have an extremely controlling sister, and both her children love her and want ti stay away from her. It is difficult to grow up in that environment, I know since I watched that going on for years.
She is who she is, but she is not taking ALL the advantage she could, as she does not seem to crave fame, she is not “hungry” for fame or money. Her mother whatever her flaws is/was a disciplined hard worker, and I think she has succeeded so far as Lourdes here seems a stable person who is mostly independent, responsible and seemingly is not addicted.
Much better than other celeb spawn, being raised to continue the family business (the kar-jenners, or other nepotism spawn). She might be getting opportunities from being who she is, but is not at the outrageous level of others.
That’s the sense I got too. She’s making money to pay for herself (because it’s a necessity in life for every human being), but not seeking anything beyond that.
I mean her mom may not have outright paid for her schooling but her mom is the reason she gets any modeling gigs. She is profiting off of nepotism.
I can understand her need for her mother not to have leverage over her. So profiting off of her nepotism to retain control of her life makes a lot of sense.
She’s not in my face like the Kardashians, so I think her level of profiting off of nepotism is appropriate to her needs and making her way in life.
I mean I went to school, started in a call center and worked my way up. After 19 my parents had no control of my life bc I was an adult. She claims she doesnt get hand out from her mom but that’s why she is getting paid, bc of who her mom is. So yeah, she doesnt get to claim she made it on her own.
I don’ t think she’s really claiming she made it on her own though. She mentions her “extreme privilege.” She’s basically saying she doesn’t want her mom controlling her, since she said her mom has controlled every aspect of her life. At that level of wealth, I can imagine a parent might be more controlling than the average middle-class parent just because….they have the power to be so (such as children of wealthy CEOs who are expected to do the same thing as their parents or study a particular field or take over the family business or even marry into a particular kind of class). Maybe middle-class parents might want the same level of control, but simply don’t have that power. A wealthy person at Madonna’s level definitely has the power to set conditions.
She is definitely benefitting from connections, but I think everyone with common sense does to some extent. It’s people like Chet Haze (Tom Hanks’s son) or Tori Spelling who don’t know how to pull their lives together to be financially sound, with every connection available to them, that I don’t really get.
She sounds kind of depressing, but she grew up with Madonna as her mother. I’d rather be raised by a pack of wolves.
She has a really unique look that I love, though. Her face is her best feature, IMO.
I remember how she was bullied by comments online when she still had her unibrow as a child.
Lol! Honey the only way you paid your own way through college was because of who your mom is. It’s not like she worked at Wal Mart to pay for tuition and took out loans and went to community college. These nepotism offspring are so out of touch and up their own a**!
She looks like she’s still attempting to get the drag queen look down. The armpits and unibrow is the only thing that made her different. This is how Madonna would look like if she didn’t have plastic surgery mixed with a person of color. She wouldn’t be where she’s at without her Mom’s help cause even though the different anything is in right now. She’s not who people would choose for modeling
Within the full context of her comment, it sounded like she was trying to emphasize that she doesn’t want her mom to control her and attach strings to any receipt of money, not that she pulled herself by her own bootstraps. The quote seemed to be more about what Madonna could be like than Lourdes being a scrappy individual who knows what struggle is like.
She could take extra money from her mom (outside of her trust fund) in theory, but that extra money wouldn’t come without conditions attached (I’m not sure what would pass for strictness in her family though.)
What a trooper working in high school and college. When she does work these days it’s strictly due to her mom and honestly exactly how much modeling work does she do anyway?
Right? Let’s be honest if she was a regular girl she wouldn’t be paid the big bucks for her “modeling”.
I can appreciate a celebrity/wealthy person not throwing buckets of cash at their kid to teach them to be self sufficient, however I think I would always pay for education.
I think it’s also good Lourdes wants to be independent, but I do wish she’d also recognize that the work she does has come through her connections and nepotism. So far. She may prove herself to be very talented and forge her own way, but right now…I think any modeling she’s doing is because of her being fame adjacent. Same with media attention and interviews.
She’s not really ambitious like Madonna is.
Wouldn’t be surprised if she marries well, and then settles down into anonymity at 30. Maybe Madonna’s lifestyle gave her insight into what she doesn’t want to be, even if she doesn’t quite know what she wants to do long-term.
I don’t know about “cool” she sounds like a typical rich artsy kid who hate everything.
The picture of her are not good at all, she definitely getting the molding jobs because of her mom. Good for her for using her money to collage finding out what she wants to do.
I always knew Madonna would be that kind of parent. It’s funny. She made a living off of being provocative and taking credit for other people’s work, and then she turned out to be the strictest of the strict, and the one who insists her kids make their own way in the world.
It’s all nonsense, if true Madge forced Marc Jacobs to hire her. One campaign pays for school. So she can feel independant and Mother is working behind the scene to play the networking cards.
God bless these kids that pretend they raised themselves up by the bootstraps and did it themselves. No.
I think self-deception will always be a part of most celebrity kids’ lives. The more famous their parents are, the deeper it will go and the harder they will double down on it.
there is nothing more privileged than denying privilege lol
I have so much more respect for people who don’t make a big deal about how hard they worked and recognize that everyone has a responsibility to *USE* their unique privileges to lift others up
this self-made nonsense is just rich people pulling the ladder up behind them so they don’t have to feel indebted to anyone or their community at large
“there is nothing more privileged than denying privilege lol”
Truth!
She didn’t tell us how she made money to pay for her rent and tuition? Also, she went to a pretty expensive private school until the age of 18 didn’t she? Who paid for that lol? Come on girl, you weren’t working at Burger King.
I thought she went to LaGuardia which is public. I know it’s prestigious, but I didn’t think students had to pay if it’s listed as public (or do they? I might be out of it.)
Oh I thought it was a private school? You might be right, I really have no idea.
I believe she was actually a partner with her mother on that Material Girl line they had in Macys for probably a decade and made millions from it (it’s maybe even still in the store so even if sh’s not involved with it now she would still be earning passive income as part owner). At one point she was the model for it, but i think she had a lot of say in it (I’m sure her mother made her attend meetings and that she gained a good understanding of how that business works) — this is likely what she meant ny “no handouts”: her mother gave her the opportunity but she couldn’t just be a figurehead in the business—she made her learn what was going on and do some work on it. Then Madonna turned around and told her she had pay for college herself with the $ she had in the bank. Sounds like Madonna. Yes, Lourdes is VERY privileged. i think she understands and has acknowledged that. Sh wasn’t acting like she’s out here wondering how the rent will get paid (she says straight up that she smokes a lot of weed and doesn’t have a fixed day), but she’s using her own money to live (what her mim helped her earn a teenager + whatever she can make now; by the way, we don’t snark at child models and actors who, as adults, live off the $ they made as kids, much if the same thing here). She recognizes that she does have tremendous backup (her mother), but that she would have to have a more structured life and display more drive and ambition (no more unstructured days and unlimited weed) if Madonna was footing the bills, she sounds like a delightful, not-altogether-unusual 20-something figuring her life out (just with much more financial resources than even your average 60:6ear old). i liked her (and I’m a true ger-off-my-lawn curmudgeon).
I don’t consider a parent paying for education a “handout”…
These photos of her are the absolute worst. The worst.
For a dancer, her physicality seems to be lacking; she just sort of slumps. These are really really blah photos. That Beckham kid did better.
She probably has more opportunities at her disposal than she’s using. That makes me think she doesn’t desire much beyond just having her spending money.
She could be acting in or making films for Netflix or something, but she’s ….influencing (which is far less prestigious than what I think someone who is Madonna’s kid could do).
It would be funny if she was received far better as an actress than her mother ever was. Not sure how Madonna would take that.
I sort of am curious to know what her singing voice sounds like, since Madonna has an adequate voice, but not awesome.
Lourdes is 25? Good God I’m old.
Those are objectively awful photographs.
Her whole “over it” attitude to everything (except her hair) reminds me of the rich young sociopaths from Bret Easton Ellis novels.
Actually, she comes off as vapid which is disappointing because I get the vibe she’s trying float. Yes Instagram is fake, mostly, but nobody at Instagram is twisting arms about what to post. You can make it as real, up front, honest and in your face as you want. Content is up to you. If you can’t discern how to make it yours then that’s on you, not the Kardashian crowd.
Yep, Material Girl clothing line probably paid for her education. So much for bootstraps.
She says this in the full interview about her mother: “She’s probably the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. I didn’t inherit that, unfortunately. I inherited her control issues, but not her work ethic.”
I thought that admission showed some awareness.
I like that she has a different look. And hairy pits! Nepotism exists and it seems like she is handling it well.
She left UM and attended SUNY Purchase but doesn’t appear to have graduated from either school. Seems like she dropped out to model.
I will always love her for declining Kyle Jenner’s invite to hang out. Google it.
I dunno. She’s brash, but seems to have her head on straight. I look forward to seeing what she does with her life. Hopefully her efforts to go her own way include not f–king herself up with cosmetic procedures like her mother.
To be honest, Madonna did start her procedures when she started getting older, maybe on fear of losing relevancy and youth, and at the decline of her career, not like many do today, they get them overdone to become famous.
Girl, your mother’s name is your handout.
Rich people and trustfund babies need to learn when to shut up fr. Stop this “bootstraps” nonsense. You know you’re there because of mummy’s money and connections stfu.
Lourdes is beautiful and looks a lot like her mom. Imagine the horror of Maddona controlling your every move for your entire life. Yikes. No wonder Rocco ran away.
I love her and her attitude, I think she’s intelligent and very aware of how things work in the world. Of course she’s privileged, but being born to Madonna wasn’t her choice. We all make the most of what we are given in life, why shouldn’t she do the same? I admire that she’s honest about it, and seems pretty self-aware. She might have some emotional issues stemming from her relationship with her mom (I know I do, as I too grew up with a control freak of a mother), and I bet it was also lonely to go to school as Madonna’s daughter, I know it sounds great but it was probably horrible and alienating. So she might come off as bratty and sarcastic, but since I come from a country where irony and sarcasm are the norm, she’s one of the few American celebs I like, most of the others are fake nice and superficial in their behavior and words.
P.S. her best feature is her entire face and body, she is absolutely gorgeous, and this editorial doesn’t do her justice at all. She’s such a beautiful young woman, I think she’s better looking than Madonna was at that age.
Please. Sure she paid for her tuition herself, using her money she made from her clothing line that her mom established for her when she was in junior high. Just like any other financial aid student, lol.
Is anyone else getting Joan Crawford Mommy Dearest vibes off this? Its literally the first thing that popped into my mind
She reminds me a lot of myself when I was 25 (without the money, of course). I was arrogant and lacked any real self awareness. I loved calling bullshit on people and thought I was edgy and cool. Hated the things that were popular and “basic”. Thought that smoking weed qualified as a personality trait. I know that I must have annoyed the crap out of actual adults, as well. But man, I thought I was the SHIIIIIT, lol. Let’s hope she grows out of it without having to suffer too much.
she’s great I love how assured she is about everything especially not being controlled by Madge. I actually think this one is the only one who can stand up to Madge out of the kids. Madge has to be a nightmare as a parent and now with her being so bonkers and probably on drugs- falling on Jimmy Fallons desks with her ass sticking out. I would have been so embarassed.
I think she’s got a strong look, very striking features, and she makes a great model. She reminds me of a young Cher. She also seems pretty grounded to me.
I like her comments about Instagram