Trolls Star And Parent Of Two Justin Timberlake Talks Never Wanting To Be 'Weirdly Private' As A Celeb With Kids

Justin Timberlake in Palmer
(Image credit: (Apple))

Justin Timberlake is a ‘90s icon, internet meme, performer in one of Saturday Night Live’s most viral original songs “Dick In A Box”, the voice of a beloved animated character and the father of two young children. That’s a lot of different things to be known for at the same time, but the 40-year-old actor has certainly adjusted to it well throughout his career with his wife, Jessica Biel, by his side. Raising kids is not an easy task on its own, but doing so in the spotlight doesn’t make it any easier.

The actor and singer have two sons together: five-year-old Silas and their newest addition Phineas, who the couple secretly welcomed in quarantine in July 2020. While speaking candidly to Dax Shepard on the podcast Armchair Expert, Timberlake said this about how he approaches having kids and being a celebrity:

I try to be conscious of making sure we can live a life where we're not weirdly private but we're conscious of making sure they can be kids for as long as possible. And not have the weight of somebody else treating them differently because of something that their parents do.

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are quite private about their family life, recently not even sharing with their fans about having their second child Phineas. Although the actor talked about not being “weirdly private” about his personal life in the public eye, he and Biel certainly do mind their own business and tend to keep their personal life separate from the world of Hollywood.

It’s understandable in terms of wanting your kids to retain as much of a normal life as possible, especially in their young years. He and Dax Shepard could relate to each other's experiences, considering the Parenthood star is married to Frozen’s Princess Anna, Kristen Bell, which just about every kid is aware of. Timberlake talked more about it with these words:

The kids at school with my five year old are like your dad is Branch from Trolls. I guess for guys like us, the hope is we just keep instilling in them that we have really fun jobs but it's not who we are. Hopefully down the road that has more weight to it.

The actors spoke openly about their fears that their kids may have ingenuine friendships growing up or struggle with their privilege because they have famous parents. It’s an odd situation that many of us may not be aware of right away when it comes to their public lives. Still, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel do seem to live a happy life, especially in the rare moments they share updates, such as this one by Biel:

A photo posted by on

So sweet! Justin Timberlake’s Trolls franchise was the talk of the town last year when it became the first movie to open in theaters and go straight to VOD at the same time, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading worldwide in March 2020. The kids movie became a big hit in homes, but reportedly caused its stars to lose out on some box office cash. Justin Timberlake’s latest film is Palmer, a drama about an ex-convict and former college football star who begins to mentor a young boy. The movie is streaming on AppleTV+ now.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.