Jenny Mollen, 46, and Jason Biggs, 48, announced their split about three weeks ago. They’d been married for 18 years and have two sons, a 12 year old named Sid and an eight year old named Lazlo. I guess Jenny wasn’t getting enough attention post-split, because she posted two photos to Instagram and Facebook with Sid in which she’s lying on a bed cuddling with him. She captioned the posts “Your eldest son will be the most toxic guy you ever date.” That’s really awful on a lot of levels. Jenny deleted the Facebook post and removed the caption from Instagram, but her post on Instagram remains up with a community note (image below).
People started pointing out how inappropriate and out-of-bounds this was. In response to all of the well-deserved criticism, Jenny then played the victim and got defensive in her Instagram stories. I’m relying on Today’s reporting here because I ignored most of this story when it broke. Here’s more of what happened, as per Today:
Mollen appeared to address the backlash in a series of Instagram Stories, suggesting that the reaction may be tied, at least in part, to her recent separation from actor Jason Biggs.
“It’s like because I’m getting separated, because I’m not protected by the institution of marriage, I’m suddenly like a different kind of target in what I’m posting. Like this is absolutely jaw-dropping. A photo of me hugging my 12-year-old child is getting ridiculed,” she said, as reported by Entertainment Weekly.
Mollen and Biggs announced their separation after 18 years of marriage In May. The former couple share two sons, Sid, 12, and Lazlo, 8, and have said they remain committed to co-parenting.
“This is absolutely disgusting,” one person wrote on Mollen’s post.
– “What the freak. I hugged my mom and dad a lot but this gave me the ick.”
– “This is a yikes from me, dawg.
– “My son is almost 12 and is very attached and snuggly but girl this is weird??? This will be on the internet forever. Think about how your son will feel about this in a few years.”
– “As a boy mom, I’m deeply appalled.”
– “For anyone defending this. Would you be okay with it if it was a “comedian” dad and his 12 year old daughter??”But not everyone viewed the photos through the same lens. Dr. Deborah Gilboa, a family physician and parenting expert, says the controversy is less about the affectionate moment itself and more about the decision to make it public.
“It’s not at all unhealthy or immoral to cuddle, hug, wrestle or be physically close to your teenage child,” Gilboa tells TODAY.com. “It’s impossible to know from almost any snapshot the before, the after or the feelings involved.”
I understand what Today’s parenting expert is saying and I agree in general. However, Jenny is a minor celebrity and she absolutely knew what she was doing here. Maybe Jenny is spiraling post-split and wanted some attention and headlines, but this is not the way. These photos could haunt this boy for years! I get what she’s saying, that 12-year-olds are hard to deal with and can run hot and cold. That is “toxic” in a way, but it’s a common developmental phase and is in no way comparable to a toxic boyfriend. Social media is not the place to share your stupid thoughts about parenting a tween. You post half-baked ideas like this to your group chat and if they’re good enough friends they’ll give you a reality check.
Whenever I think of this woman I remember her 2011 post about ordering a threesome. Her marriage lasted an improbable 15 years after that! She should know when to call it a day and move on. Instead she’s using her poor son as engagement bait.
Update: Thanks to Becks for pointing out that Mollen has a substack post that really expands on the messed up point she was making in this Instagram caption. She wrote that she wanted her sons to marry women with dead mothers, called her sons “the most emotionally high-maintenance men I’ve ever dated” and went on about a 12-year-old girl that her son Sid was texting, writing “she wasn’t even hotter than me.” We’ve heard that Jenny and Jason broke up because he lost weight, but it looks like their issues run a lot deeper than that.
Photos credit: BFA.com/Backgrid, Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Twin Images/Avalon and via Instagram
That poor kid. Can you imagine the hell is life will be at school now!
I have two sons and I was always very affectionate with them but how that takes place changes as they get older. I still hug and kiss them, rub their backs or whatever but you know, we don’t cuddle on the couch or in bed anymore. Lying on the bed, in between their legs? Ugh that’s just creepy at best.
My boys are 12 and 14 and we still cuddle but its more like I’m half asleep and the 14 year old comes in with our lab and we all kind of pile together. And its always their choice. When I first saw these pics I didnt see the caption and thought it was a romantic couple.
I also have two sons, now 15 and 18 , and I can’t imagine in my wildest dreams lying on top of my child between his legs while on a bed wrestling. It is so inappropriate. As my sons get older, I let them come to me for affection. My youngest was always a very cuddly kid, and it’s sad when that ends/changes, but it’s so important to read your kids’ signals and respect their physical (and emotional) boundaries!
I cannot get over these pics OMG. I’m not a pearl-clutcher but DANG. The caption was bad but the pics are…phew.
Ok I dont know who she is but I feel like i’ve learned way too much about her over the past 24 hours. she has some sort of substack post* talking about how she hopes her sons marry a woman who has a dead mother so she doesnt have any MIL competition, or she hopes one of them will be gay (bc gay men dont have mothers apparently??) and she made some comment about a girl her son was talking that was like “she’s not even hotter than me.”
As a mother of two boys…..it was super weird. Like hoping you son finds someone with a dead mother??? So twisted.
*guys I have to admit, I dont know what substack is. Just a website?
Ok I didn’t see that before I wrote this but I’m glad because I don’t want to unpack all this
Oh, my God, you mean this goes on? This woman gave serious thought to her sons’ future, and this is where she landed? What their possible marriage would mean to HER? Geez, get her a man STAT! This dame should never be without “the protection of marriage” (or a boyfriend) as long as her sons are still minors. Even their future marriages are all about her.
Here’s the link, although you are probably better off for not reading it: https://jennymollenbiggs.substack.com/p/please-stay-i-want-you-i-need-you
I’m seriously side eyeing Jason Biggs if he doesn’t go for full custody after this.
All this complaining about single women causing the male loneliness epidemic. Where are the NYT op eds talking about moms like this. Boy moms. Making adult women miserable for generations.
man “boy moms” are the worst (as opposed to you, becks, who just seems to be a mom with boys!). these are the moms who dress up for their kids’ proms and want to compete for their son’s affections with women they date. this woman sounds awful. substack is just a social media site where people can post their writing outside of official publications (a lot of the royal ‘reporters’ have substacks that get quoted here). you can follow writers to keep up with their content. i think there are podcasts and other audio-visual content. i think some work places use it too, to share ideas and notes? we don’t use it where i work, so i’m not sure how it works in that capacity. i don’t use it. i don’t need anything else to pay attention to!
Right??? There’s Boy Moms and then Mom of Boys.
and the funny thing is that maybe up until 6 months ago I considered myself a Boy Mom – not in a creepy way – but more to mean that I genuinely love having boys and while once in a while I feel a slight twinge about not having a daughter, overall I’m really happy having two sons. The term used to be more about just sort of embracing the fun of having boys (girls are fun too! thats why Girl Dad is a thing too!)
but now I feel that term has been co-opted and turned into something creeping and ohhh….who was Oedipus’s mother? Jocasta? like these women are all raising boys to have Oedipus complexes.
@becks1 I’m right there with you. I have a 12-year-old son and was a proud “Boy Mom” until it (inevitably) lost its original meaning and became something obnoxious. This woman here, though? WOW. That’s just another level all together. I had no idea who she was and why I was seeing this story on Facebook (and now here), and I kinda wish I still didn’t know.
That’s a bunch of yikes yikes yikes. That sounds like some really weird things that should’ve stayed inside thoughts. Also Yikes on the article about early in their marriage.
Substack is like blogging that can be paywalled, and it sends the blogs as newsletters. It also has a feature called Notes, which is similar to bluesky/twitter, only less awful and more links to articles/blog things. A lot of laid off journalists are there making a living, along with some true loonies, of course.
WITAF. I know the narrative was “Jason got a glow-up and then promptly dumped his wife” but it appears there are a multitude of other reasons why he may have ended the marriage.
This is all so bad for her boys my GOD.
NOPE. The caption was gross, the photo is worse. People would be rightly disgusted, even concerned, over a similar photo of a father and daughter, with a caption referring to her as his “girlfriend”. Jesus, boy moms are the f–king worst. FFS, develop a personality that doesn’t revolve around your kid’s gender!
Is THAT what that means? I must admit I read the caption and re-read it, but I just didn’t understand what the point of it was because obviously mothers don’t “date” their sons, and who would characterize their own child as “toxic.” It just didn’t make any sense.
Exactly! All it takes to see how wrong this is is to switch the genders. This was a male celebrity and his 12yo daughter, he would also be rightfully crucified.
This is bad. He will either forever be defending his mom or telling everyone how toxic SHE is!
Some of these boy moms are so toxic. He is going to grow up having to deal with her not respecting boundaries. She will be the one wearing white at his wedding and dance inappropriately with him.
Boy moms are so weird and gross lol. Its straight up Freudian projection at times.
Not for nothing but he looks like he wants her off of him. I wouldn’t have posted this, weird…..
This emotional incest. And I feel so badly for her sons because this WILL follow them all because their mother is thirsty and in need of attention. Horrible behavior on her part.
Her boy mom essay is headlined: “Please. Stay. I want you. I need you. Oh, God,” a lyric from a Benson Boone song.
And she writes about her eldest son texting with a girl, whom she just knew was toxic. “She was bossing him around and using big words, and he was utterly spun,” she wrote. “I complained to Jason that I wanted to intervene before he got hurt and that she wasn’t even hotter than me.”
SHE WASN’T EVEN HOTTER THAN ME. The 12-year-old girl.
JFC that’s even more horrifying in context. One of my daughters is 12 and I can’t imagine another mom thinking like this, then writing it down, then proofreading it, then publishing it.
The most toxic mom I’m aware of in my community decided with her daughter that a boy (in 5th grade) was annoying, and then the mom trash talked him to parents and the daughter bullied him until he had to go to a different school. It’s super disturbing.
As I said above, now we know why they’re divorcing.
And I know we’re all rightfully talking about her sons and how her bizarre and toxic behavior will affect them but also, imagine being married to someone like this? I’d be so worried and horrified to watch my partner transferring our romantic relationship/needs onto my kids. And I can’t believe I even typed that because, f*cking GROSS.
Yes, at the least it’s parentifying him, I think there’s a technical term for when it’s specifically making a child replace a romantic partner (emotionally and around the house chores). I’ve read things by multiple women who became the person who did their dad’s laundry and dishes and then a bunch of emotional labor. Poor kids.
I’m a boy mom but not a #boymom. That whole thing is toxic, disgusting, and harmful to the kid. The Ick Factor is high. We need more backlash against this so it ends.
Who took the photos? Yikes.
Not only is this a big yikes, but who was there watching this go down and thought “Awww, cute, I’ll take a few photos!”
Gross! A son is not a replacement for a boyfriend, you weirdo
I’m mom to a teenage son and there’s no effing way we would “cuddle” like this. It’s beyond inappropriate, and what she’s written makes it even worse. There’s something really wrong going on in her head, and I predict that she could actually lose custody over this. If Jason does seek full custody, none of this will look good for her. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that members of the general public have already called CPS about this. It’s THAT bad.
I think she’s trying very very hard to be edgy and funny, and it’s failing miserable.
At whose expense though, you know? Even if one gives her the benefit of every doubt, there’s just no way to make the picture come out well, then when you add in her own captions, it’s disturbing and makes me concerned about whether the kids are learning that they can say no, even if they just feel uncomfortable.
This Jenny Mollen person thinks she’s hot? Yikes. That’s some ego right there and all I need to know about her. Bye.
YIKESSSSS
Speaking of toxic moms, a friend just attended a wedding. The groom was an only child and his parents were divorced. My friend said the groom’s mom was wearing her own wedding dress and a face full of Botox. No, I don’t want to unpack any of this, but that poor bride (I mean the real one, not the groom’s mother). And who knows what the groom and his mom are like together? It sounds like a true nightmare.
Ew.
She wrote an article about her vulvar rejuvenation surgery that was published less than a month before the split with Jason Biggs was confirmed, and there is the threesome stuff mentioned in the article here. She’s of the “any attention is good attention” camp.
I have an 18 year-old son who still hugs me regularly and tells me he loves me, and I cherish that. I cannot fathom taking a picture like this with him at any point, much less sharing it with the world.
The sentiment about your kids being “toxic” and “dating” them is just…awful. And the stuff about her son’s 12-year-old crush not being as hot as her? AWFUL. Just awful. And not for nothing, but “intervening” in 12 year-old crushes is how you ensure that your kid never develops the resources to have a healthy relationship. Which sounds like what she wants. Horrible.
Oh lord, she’s going to be one of those insufferable “boy moms” who make their future daughter-in-law’s life a living hell. There’s an entire subreddit dedicated to these types and the horror stories. They act like their adult son(s) are their spouse. So toxic.
Mom of 12-year old son here:
Absolutely YUCK! And, I mean that in a way that imagines HARM coming to her son because of her words. But also, in a way that KNOWS most 12-year old boys – mine included – smell, are awkward, annoying, NOT funny (even though they’re SURE they are), dirty, NOT cool (even though they’re SURE they are) and have to STILL be reminded to BRUSH THEIR TEETH and CHANGE THEIR DIRTY CLOTHES the next day. If her’s is not that way, he should be studied in a research lab. Otherwise, maybe set some boundaries, Lady….