Chelsea Handler revealed she decided to take parenting classes — despite not having kids of her own.
“I’ll always say, like, ‘I could be a great stepfather,” Handler, 50, joked during the Tuesday, April 16, episode of Monica Lewinsky’s “Reclaiming” podcast.
The former Chelsea Lately host has spoken publicly over the years about her decision not to have children. She elaborated on those views during a frank conversation with Lewisnky, who related her own experience of not having kids despite always wanting to be a mother.
At one point in their discussion, Lewinsky praised Handler for actively engaging with the children in her life by taking parenting classes.
”I just wanted to understand the psychology of children to do a better job at whatever my role is. [The kids in my life] call me ‘father’ and ‘dad’ as a joke,” she quipped. “I’m coming in hot on the weekends, like McDonalds, Disneyland … I get interested in whatever they’re [into]. If they’re [the kids] on the floor, I’m on the floor. If they want to ski, I want to ski.”
Handler credited the lessons learned in her parenting classes as being helpful when one of the children in her life “became obstinate” and “difficult.”
Chelsea Handler is outspoken about all areas of her life — and her romantic relationships are no exception. The comedian frequently gets real about her penchant for weed and the luxury of living a child-free life. Handler has also been open about her sex life, telling Andy Cohen in June 2023 that a threesome with […]
“They had a fractious relationship with both of their parents,” she noted. “I was like, ‘Something’s not working here. Like, I want to learn how to handle them.’ What I learned, and how you deal with children who are rebellious and angry, is you’re there. You just remain there.”
She continued, “You can’t threaten [the kids], you don’t yell at them. You meet them where they are and remind them how loved they are, and that you’re not going anywhere.”
As she chatted with Lewinsky, Handler argued that experiences like theirs aren’t represented adequately in the public discourse regarding motherhood, parenting and caregiving.
“There’s a chapter in this book [her new memoir, I’ll Have What She’s Having] where I talk about my ex-boyfriend’s daughters, who I became incredibly close with and there’s a couple of other friends’ daughters, sons, too. Children in my life, aside from my eight nieces and nephews, who occupy a lot of my time,” she pointed out.
The talk show host then made a key point, saying, “I have so much bandwidth because I don’t have children — to spread the love, and the joy and the happiness … I’ve dated men who’ve had children and I’ve been able to show up for them in ways that I probably wouldn’t have been able to had I had my own family. I feel like there’s an unsung story about people who don’t have children, whether it’s by choice or by circumstance, that there are so many opportunities to have children in your life. You have to find those.”
In March, Handler shared a similar view when Jimmy Kimmel suggested she adopt children during an interview on his show Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“I have plenty of children in my life. Yeah, I do. I actually do,” Handler corrected him. “I think, you know, another misconception about not having your own children is that people think I hate kids. I don’t hate kids, I just don’t want one. It’s just, like, I don’t want spaghetti bolognese — I’m not interested, you know?”
She previously downplayed the likelihood of ever marrying, either, telling Us Weekly exclusively in February that she simply was “not the marrying kind.”
Miley Cyrus, Ashley Judd and more celebrities are adamant about not wanting to have children. “We’re getting handed a piece-of-s–t planet, and I refuse to hand that down to my child,” Cyrus told Elle in July 2019. “Until I feel like my kid would live on an earth with fish in the water, I’m not […]
“I am not looking for children, as we well know,” she added. “I’ve established that for a very long time now, and I just want to have lots of love stories. I feel like that’s kind of the most romantic way to look at love. I’m glad that I know that about myself because I think so many women are starting to be more open about this idea that this love story and prince charming nonsense that we’re sold is so silly.”
Handler was romantically linked to former E! network president Ted Harbert as well as rapper and actor 50 Cent in the past. The comedian more recently dated fellow comic Jo Koy for nearly a year before splitting in 2022.
