Julia Roberts on Her Kids' Fame Check: 'Are You More Famous Than Taylor Swift?'

How do you explain a level of fame that defined an era to kids who weren't there for it? For Julia Roberts, the question came with a surprising modern benchmark.

In a 2018 interview with Oprah Winfrey for Harper's Bazaar, Roberts recalled the moment her children began to understand her career. "I think I told you once when they were starting to figure it out, it was like, 'You're famous?'" Roberts said. "And I said, 'I think a lot of people might have seen the movie that I'm in or might know who I am.'"

The anecdote highlights a central theme of Roberts's life for over two decades: prioritizing family. She told the Wall Street Journal in 2014, "By the time we had kids, I had accomplished things and felt secure about that part of my life." She added, "I was so joyful moving into the family phase of my life in a sincere way."

She explained to Gwyneth Paltrow on The Goop Podcast in October 2018 that after years of churning out films, she felt she "had earned that time to do whatever I want to do with it, with these new people in our house." For a long time, she noted, the kids "weren't even aware that I had a job because I was home so much."

Their awareness grew, of course, and it came with some unforgettable perks. The singer noticed the star-struck family and extended a special invitation. "She was very sweet with my children who had never been to a show before, they are all big fans," Roberts said afterward. Swift asked Roberts to come on stage and dance during a song, a request her kids enthusiastically endorsed.

Despite these moments, Roberts believes her children may never fully grasp the height of her fame during the Pretty Woman and Erin Brockovich era. "I don't think they will ever have a true sense of that," she acknowledged to Winfrey. For Roberts and her husband, cinematographer Danny Moder, the goal has been normalcy. As she once summed it up, "We're just grateful for the sense we have of being like any other family down the street."