Zoe Saldaña Teaches Sons to ‘Celebrate Their Feminine Side’

Actress Zoe Saldaña opened up about raising her three sons to embrace their femininity.

In an exclusive interview with People Magazine, Saldaña, 45, revealed she is raising her three sons — twins Cy and Bowie, 8, and Zen, 6, with husband Marco Perego-Saldaña — in a home without gender-specific roles. She is also teaching them “to honor women and to celebrate women.”

Additionally, she stated it is “very important” to teach them to “honor themselves, their femininity, to celebrate their feminine self as well.”

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“We’re very hard on our boys the same way we’re hard on women. And boys are encouraged to be strong and to suppress their emotions. And then once you learn to do that so much for so long, you become completely excommunicated from your feelings,” she said.

Saldaña added, “We definitely understood the assignments and accepted it knowing that we were raising boys during a time when women’s movements are so important.”

During the interview, Saldaña also shared how she and her husband, a producer and director, balance their busy schedules with their home life, which she said takes “constantly adjusting and readjusting” as parents and admitted they are “very honest with each other about what your bandwidth feels like it can be.”

“Certain seasons, I’m the one that may be taking over all of the domestic operations so that my husband can mentally break away and focus on his creativity. And other seasons when I go completely back into work mode, then we’re switching off,” she explained.

Saldaña continued, “I don’t think it’s ever an even share of the load, which is why I think it’s important to be absolutely transparent with your bandwidth and where you are and how you’re doing.”

“But love comes with everything, so it’s always with the understanding that, ‘Today for you, tomorrow for me,’ and we’ve been constantly in that back and forth,” she said.