It’s universally known that Jodie Foster is an incredibly talented actress. She’s been acting since she was three years old, scored her first Oscar nomination aged 14, and graduated from Yale University magna cum laude.

As she’s set to star in the latest season of True Detective, the actress has experienced renewed interest in her family life. Jodie has been married to photographer Alexandra Hedison for almost 10 years.

What you might not know about the Oscar winning actress is she’s also a mother. Jodie has two sons, Charles and Christopher ‘Kit’ Foster, with her ex-partner, film producer Cydney Bernard.

The mother of two is very protective of her personal life, including her family life. While the two boys are rarely-seen in public, they have accompanied their mom to awards season parties every so often.

Here’s everything you might want to know about Jodie Foster’s kids.

© Paul Drinkwater/NBC
Jodie with Charlie and Kit in 2013

Charles and Kit’s father is not publicly known

Jodie first gave birth to her son Charles in July 1998, after 12 hours of labor while she was with ex-partner Cydney. She went on to have Kit in September 2001 with the film producer.

It’s believed that Jodie conceived them via IVF or artificial insemination, and she has never named or revealed whether Charles and Kit share the same sperm donor or father.

Randy Stone, a film producer who Jodie was a close friend of, reportedly told his mother Beverly Bates that the actress would reveal to her kids who the ‘father’ was when they were 21.

© Variety
Jodie Foster with sons Kit and Charles (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images)

Raising sons hasn’t always been easy

Jodie has been open about life parenting two sons – and she said it’s got easier over time. In a 2008 interview with People, she talked about the fact that “there are just a lot of bruises when they’re young”.

“With boys, you get a lot of accidental jabs in the eye and stepping on your feet, and those tantrums they cause when they don’t want to leave the toy store”, she said.

But as they’ve got older, apparently things have got better. She revealed about the 10-year old and eight year old that “they go to school all day, and then one wants to do T-ball and the other wants to do karate, so they’re actually gone until four-thirty. I want them to have curiosity about things they don’t know, and a desire to see places bigger than where they grew up.”

© Eric Charbonneau
Jodie takes Kit and Charlie to the Golden Globes

For years the boys didn’t know their mom was an actress

Growing up, Jodie made sure that her kids only really saw her as a mom rather than a two-time Academy Award winning actress.

“I didn’t show them my movies when they were younger,” she told The New York Times.

“I think they thought I was in construction because occasionally they would come to set and see guys with hammers and tool belts. I didn’t want them to know me that way. I wanted them to know me as their mom.”

© Monica Schipper

Her sons are all grown up now

Charles and Kit have all grown up now, as they are respectively 25 and 22. But Jodie has always been aware that one day she’ll experience empty nest syndrome.

When the boys were nine and six years old, she told More magazine that when her kids were tiny, she was “caught up in the identity of being a mom. You’re still changing diapers, and it feels like it’s going to last forever.”

As they started to grow older, she became more aware that one day they would leave home – especially as their relationship began to change.

Still, Jodie is often seen with her adult sons out and about, showing that the family remains close-knit.

© Bruce Glikas
Charlie accompanies Jodie to the theater

A family of Ivy Leaguers

Jodie’s sons have followed in her footsteps as incredibly intelligent individuals. As such they have both attended Ivy League schools.

Charles attended his mother’s alma mater, Yale University, while his brother Kit opted to study Chemistry at Princeton instead where he will graduate in 2024.

© David Livingston
Jodie with Kit in 2011

The boys are born and raised feminists

Raised by three women, Jodie recently explained that Kit and Charles don’t fit into a particular stereotype of what it means to be male.

“My two don’t like sports,” she told The Guardian. “They like to watch movies and sit at home, and they’re really into their female friends. They’re super feminist.”

She revealed there was, perhaps, a slip in high school where her older son was “trying to figure out what it was to be a boy” – and he didn’t know how to treat women. Needless to say his mom set him straight.

“I was like, no! That’s not what it is to be a man! That’s what our culture has been selling you for all this time.” While the phase went on for six months, Jodie was having none of it. “I was like, you won’t be talking to me like that.”