What We Know About Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson's Daughter
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Ever since Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson welcomed their daughter in April 2020, the stars have kept her mostly off social media. In November 2021, Turner-Smith gave fans a rare glimpse at their baby by sharing a photo her and Jackson comparing their feet together. "I'm most thankful for you," she captioned the shot. Although she and Jackson have yet to post more photos of their daughter, the couple have opened up about parenthood in several interviews.
For example, on March 27, Turner-Smith got candid about raising a biracial daughter while speaking with her "Sex Education" costar Ncuti Gatwa for Elle UK. The actor admitted that she initially "had a lot of resistance" to becoming a mother, and if she were to ever have kids, she always "wanted to have Black, Black babies." However, her feelings began to change once she met Joshua. "To decide not to have a child with somebody you love, just because they're white, was insane to me," she said. "But, at the same time, I did have this mini pause, where I was like, 'She's going to be walking through the world not only having an experience that I did not have, but looking like people that, in a way, I'd always felt a little bit tormented by.'"
Turner-Smith's worries then melted away with the birth of her daughter. "Now that I've got this little, tiny, light-skinned boss, I feel like it's the universe teaching me lessons," she said. "I've been given a daughter who looks this way to heal my own conversations around colorism."
Jackson also wasn't sure whether he wanted to become a parent. In an April 16 interview with The Times, the actor said that falling in love with Turner-Smith made him want to get married and have kids. So when she proposed to him during a romantic vacation in Nicaragua, there was no doubt in his mind that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. "The organic and instinctive answer was yes," Jackson said, adding that Turner-Smith became pregnant six months later. "Now we have this beautiful baby who is literally the manifestation of that love. It is impossible for me to look into the face of my child without feeling love for my wife."
On Oct. 2, Turner-Smith filed for divorce from Jackson after four years of marriage. In court documents obtained by POPSUGAR, Turner-Smith cited "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for their split. She is seeking joint custody of their daughter.
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Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson's Daughter
According to People, Turner-Smith and Jackson first met at Usher's 40th birthday party in 2018. Their relationship reportedly started out as a "one-night stand," but they soon fell head over heels for each other and began dating. Then, just a year after they first connected, the Daily Mail reported in August 2019 that the couple were spotted in Beverly Hills holding what appeared to be a marriage license. That December, Us Weekly confirmed the pair had gotten married and were expecting their first child together.
In March 2020, Turner-Smith announced on Instagram that she and Jackson were having a baby girl, who was due in just a few weeks. Their daughter was born that April, and the new mom later told British Vogue in August 2020 that she delivered her baby at the couple's Los Angeles home. "Sometimes I wonder how I will explain to my daughter what it meant to be born in the year 2020," she said. "The historic events, the social unrest, and me — a new mother just trying to do her best. I think I will tell her that it was as if the world had paused for her to be born. And that, hopefully, it never quite returned to the way it was before."
Jackson opened up about being a first-time dad in a July 2021 interview with SiriusXM. "She's just a little bundle of joy every day," he said, adding that becoming a father has taught him that "all the clichés" about parenthood are true. "They're like, 'Oh, you'll never experience love like this.' That's true. And 'You think you're in love with them when they first arrive, but you have no idea how much deeper it gets all the time.' That's absolutely true."
While Turner-Smith initially didn't think becoming a mother was something she wanted, she's come to realize she "love[s]" being a parent. "It's honestly one of the greatest things I could have asked for," she told People in October 2021. "It's a lot taking [care] of someone else. But I think it's beautiful to take care of someone or something else because it really helps us be better human beings. Whether you have a dog or a fish or a baby, I think just the consciousness of looking after somebody and not just being so self-centered and self-oriented is really helpful for our world view."
She also gushed about her daughter in a March 27 interview with Elle UK. "I love this little girl so much. She's so funny," she said, before getting candid about how she'll try to raise her daughter to have as normal of a childhood as possible. "It's a big job to prepare children for the world," she said. "The best thing that we can do is let them touch the earth and be grounded and real — as real as one can be when you have the level of privilege that obviously my child has."