After stirring up controversy with a video featuring her and her 55-year-old boyfriend Van Hunt celebrating Mother's Day in bed, the 58-year-old X-Men actress addressed the backlash she encountered. Speaking to Jenna Bush Hager on the June 4 episode of Today With Jenna & Friends, Halle elaborated, "Some women took offense, questioning, 'Was it appropriate for her to be in bed, talking about twirling with her partner on Mother's Day?' They wondered, 'Should she have been discussing such things on Mother's Day? Shouldn't she have been with her children somewhere?'"
Halle, who is mother to 17-year-old Nahla Ariela Aubry with her ex-partner Gabriel Aubry and 11-year-old Maceo-Robert Martinez with her ex-husband Olivier Martinez, didn't mince her words in her response. "Firstly, it's not Kids' Day," she emphasized. "It's Mother's Day. Kids' Day happens every other day of the year. This is my day, and if I choose to spend it in bed twirling with my man, then that's exactly what I'll do."
In her original May 11 video posted on X, Halle, wrapped in a white bedsheet beside Van, whom she's been dating since 2020, teased her plans for the evening, saying, "I showed you all how my Mother's Day began, and now I'll tell you—though I won't show you!—how it's going to end."
Halle, who was in France for the Cannes Film Festival at the time, emphasized during her guest appearance on Today that balancing life as a working mother means sometimes being away from her children on holidays like Mother's Day. Despite the playful nature of her video, it wasn't a decision made lightly.
"As a mother, especially a working mother, you sometimes feel like you can't do it all," Halle confessed. "And there's that mom guilt when you leave your children." Adding to this, the Oscar winner said, "We need to break that stigma and make it acceptable to be working mothers. We can still be seen as good mothers, present for our children, but we also need to prioritize ourselves."
