All About Julia Roberts' 3 Kids — And Everything She's Said About Being a Mom

Julia Roberts is one of the most well-known actresses in Hollywood, but she has kept her personal life — including her three kids — fairly private.

The Leave the World Behind actress welcomed her eldest children, 19-year-old twins Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus Walter, on Nov. 28, 2004, with her husband, cameraman Danny Moder. Three years later, the couple had Henry Daniel, 16, on June 18, 2007.

Julia has always prioritized her family, even as her career has earned her an Academy Award and dozens of acting credits. In October 2022, Julia told CBS Sunday Morning that while being an actress was her “dream come true,” it wasn’t her “only dream come true.”

"The life that I've built with my husband,” she told the outlet of another dream that had come true. “The life that we've built with our children. And that's the best stuff, to come home at the end of the day triumphantly to them."

From how she's raising them out of the spotlight to the sweet tradition she's passing down, here’s everything Julia Roberts has said about being a mom to her three kids, Hazel, Phinnaeus and Henry.

Hazel and Phinnaeus were born in November 2004

Two years after Julia and Danny tied the knot, the couple learned they were expecting twins. While she was pregnant, Julia was shooting Ocean’s 12 alongside George Clooney and jetted off to Italy to stay at the actor’s Lake Como house.

"I was pregnant for the first time, and you would have thought I was made of glass," the Pretty Woman actress said during a 2022 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. "They just wanted to dress me in cotton balls and usher me. It was really, really charming."

The twins were born on Nov. 28, 2004. Five years later, Julia opened up about how she and Danny chose their names.

"Hazel is an old-fashioned name, and she's a strong, perfect Hazel," she shared on The Late Show with David Letterman.

As for Phinnaeus, "My husband wanted to name him Finn, which I quite liked, but it seemed like a nickname," she later said on Live with Regis and Kelly. "So I said we had to have a proper name, and then we can call him Finn.”

She saved letters from her husband to show Hazel

When Julia was in Australia for a few months filming Ticket to Paradise, she wrote letters home to Danny and her children — a tradition she’s upheld for years. She told CBS Sunday Mornings that while emails may be easier, she was saving the sweet love letters she and Danny had once written each other to share with her daughter when she's older.

“It's something Danny and I have always done,” Julia said. “The first letter he ever wrote me, which was seven pages long, I still have it tucked away. One day I'll show it to Hazel and say, 'That's what you're looking for.' "

Julia and Danny welcomed Henry in June 2007

In December 2006, Julia’s spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE that she and Danny were expecting a baby the following summer. On June 18, 2007, Henry was born, completing the family of five.

"[Henry woke up the other morning and said], 'It's a beautiful day, Mama.' Which makes 5:30 [a.m.] a whole lot prettier," Julia told Oprah of her youngest son, who was 3 years old at the time, in 2010. "That's the thing about being new to the world, you're just so … impressed with everything. The older you get, the grumpier you get."

Julia has attempted to keep her kids’ lives private as much as possible

Julia has always been protective of her children’s privacy, rarely posting pictures of them on her social media.

“We try to protect our kids,” she told USA Today in 2013. “We just want to have our family life and not have that intruded upon.”

When the twins turned 19 in November 2023, Julia shared a rare photo of the two from when they were babies.

“It is something to be celebrated, and I know Instagram is a place where people like to share happy things,” she explained to Extra in December 2023 about why she decided to give a glimpse of her kids. “I love them so much and I really did just happen to come upon this cute picture. It allows me to share something as a proud parent of them without infringing on their privacy at all.”

She is raising them to have less reliance on technology

The star has said she works hard to have real-life connections with her family, away from phones and technology. To that end, one of the rules in her house is to put the phones away, especially during meals.

"So for us, we just had sort of simple rules where we had a charging station where everyone's phones go when you get home. There's no phones at the table, certainly," Julia shared on a December 2023 episode of Today.

During her Extra interview, she added that being stuck at home “with kids and no devices” actually “sounds like a good time” to her.

She shared that while she raised her kids to not be overly dependent on technology, she still missed the time “when you couldn’t get ahold of people, or they couldn’t get ahold of you.” 

“I think of a family coming together at the end of the day, and you actually have things to talk about at dinner because you haven’t been in contact all day long a hundred times… or a busy signal,” the Ticket to Paradise actress said.

She struggles with being away from her kids for too long

As an actress, Julia is used to frequently traveling to sets and premieres across the world — but that doesn’t make being away from her children any easier. When she was shooting Ticket to Paradise alongside Clooney, she was in Australia for a few months while her teenage kids were still at home.

"The Clooneys saved me from complete loneliness and despair. We were in a bubble, and it's the longest I've ever been away from my family," she said in a September 2022 The New York Times interview. "I don't think I've spent that much time by myself since I was 25."

The actress revealed that she hadn’t worked on a project for four years prior to her role in the 2022 romantic comedy and she focused on being a mom.

"I just take it all as it comes," Julia said. "I try to be super present and not plan, and I don't have any upcoming acting jobs. Getting back to a routine feels really good. And I love being at home, I love being a mom."

She is a proud mom of college students

Hazel and Phinnaeus are both in college and Julia couldn't be prouder.

“It's really thrilling and I wasn't lucky enough to have a college experience," she told Extra. "And so to see how it's happening for them is really fascinating. And yeah, I'm just, I'm excited for them.”

Julia later shared during a December 2023 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that after her kids started at school, she "immediately" made supporting their colleges her "entire life."

"I wear the colors,” she said. “I do the whole thing.”

When host Jimmy Fallon asked if her youngest son was sad to be the only child left in the house, Julia replied that while Henry missed his siblings, he was also "loving" being the sole kid at home.

“I think it's a good 50/50 split,” Julia said. “He's loving it. And I think he misses his people.”

She is still a hands-on mom even though her children are older now

Though her children are growing up, Julia said on Today that she’s grateful they still let her parent them.

"I parent them the same way out of the house that I parented them in the house, which is 'Are you getting enough sleep? You sound like you're sick, are you drinking enough tea? Text me when you get home. I can see that you're home safe and sound,' " the mother of three said.

She continued, "And I have immense amount of appreciation for both of my older kids because they still allow me to be the same mom to them and it's not eye-rolling. There's a huge amount of understanding."

Julia said that while she’s often away for work and both her kids are in different colleges, they still manage to stay connected by having group calls.

“Henry and Danny are home, and then I'm in another time zone, and then Phinn is somewhere and Hazel is somewhere and we were all on a FaceTime the other day — together, all of us,” she said on Today. "And it was so fun, I might’ve had a towel on my wet head. We were all so happy to be together that way that we still are so deeply in love."

She has a "deep gratitude" for her work/life balance

Being a working mom is always a balance — one that Julia is grateful could often tip in favor of her kids.

In an interview for British Vogue's February 2024 issue, the actress said that being successful early on in her career gave her the opportunity to pull back when her children were younger.

"Well, I think that the luckiest aspect of my work life/family life is that the success of my work life came earlier," she said. "So by the time I had the success of my family life and had a husband and children who wanted to stay at home, I had been working for 18 years. And so I felt that I had the luxury. I didn't have to pick one or the other."

She went on to say that she was glad she had the ability to "pause work life to nurture my home life," adding, "To be allowed the luxury of staying home and being with my family, I had a deep gratitude for that time."