Jodie Turner-Smith Says Husband Joshua Jackson Helps Her Balance Career & Family Life
The actress was "secretly married" and "secretly pregnant" when she became famous.
Actor Jodie Turner-Smith knows exactly how it feels to be a busy mom. From pressure from the public to trying to work while still being a present mom, the working mom spoke to Bustle about what it was like to come onto the scene while being “secretly pregnant” and “secretly married.”
Turner-Smith — who has been married to actor Joshua Jackson of Dawson’s Creek fame since 2019 — shared her views on motherhood, Hollywood, and how she makes it all work.
Turner-Smith’s breakout role came in 2019 when she starred in the drama Queen & Slim. However, since Turner-Smith was dating such a familiar actor, she was in the tabloids before the film even premiered and her career took off. She was also already married to Jackson at the time and pregnant with their child.
“When I came onto the scene I was secretly married and I was secretly pregnant,” she says. “And that was a story for people. I think a lot of it was because I was married to a white person. And I was married to a white person who has been in the public eye for decades and you know, has been someone that the tabloids like to talk about,” she told Bustle.
The England-born actor was pregnant, newly married, and now under major scrutiny in the press. “I mean, it was like literally the most vulnerable time,” she continued.
Despite the tabloid drama, Turner-Smith knows she has a partner in Jackson, who she says does all he can to be the best support for her when she is working. “Historically, women have always been asked to choose between being great mothers and great at their careers,” she said.
“Josh has always tried to maintain that I would always have all the support that I needed so that I could do both.”
She revealed that her mother lives with the couple and their daughter as well as having a nanny on hand. “Right now my daughter still comes with me most of the time, except when I go on trips that are under a week. That has been working for us so far. Obviously it's challenging because I don't want to create a space in which my husband can't see her when he's working,” she explained.
While Turner-Smith knows how fortunate she is to be working in the industry she does, there are still some things about fame that she would change — like those who believe just because a person is in the public eye that they are entitled to know all about their lives.
She told Bustle, “I think when you create characters that people love, and you make art that people love, then it belongs to everybody. And then people sort of interpret that as you belong to everybody, and in a way, part of you kind of does, but you're also a human being. You don't belong to anybody else.”
As for her daughter, she is fiercely protective and will not accept any sort of infiltration from strangers. She revealed to Bustle that she has deactivated Twitter and disabled Instagram DMs from strangers.
“I think the bottom line is, I accept the thorns that come with the rose,” she said, speaking to the pros and cons of fame. “I accept them for me. I don't accept them for my daughter.”
