“It ended my relationship with them”: Madonna gets brutally honest about her relationship with her children
Even global pop icons are not immune to the prevalence of mobile phones in their teenagers lives, which Madonna quickly found out.
In a new interview, Madonna, whose a mum of six after she adopted her four youngest children from Africa, has revealed that giving her older children a mobile phone ended the relationship with them.
“I’m going to stick that one out for as long as possible, because I made a mistake when I gave my older children phones when they were 13,” she explained.
“It ended my relationship with them, really. Not completely, but it became a very, very big part of their lives.
“They became too inundated with imagery and started to compare themselves to other people, and that’s really bad for self-growth.”
Despite David, her oldest son, not being her biological son, Madonna believes she has the most in common with him.
She adopted him in 2006 with ex-husband Guy Ritchie.
“What David has more than anything is focus and determination. I’m pretty sure he got it from me. He’s the one I have the most in common with,” Madonna said.
“I feel like he gets me — he has more of my DNA than any of my children so far.”
However, her oldest daughter Lourdes, who is 22, is pursuing a career in show business but Madonna is worried about nepotism allegations.
“[Lola] is insanely talented,” said Madonna, using her affectionate nickname for her daughter.
“I’m green with envy because she’s incredible at everything she does — she’s an incredible dancer, she’s a great actress, she plays the piano beautifully, she’s way better than me in the talent department.
“But she doesn’t have the same drive.”
Madonna also explained that Lourdes is impacted by what other people think of her.
“I feel social media plagues her and makes her feel like, ‘People are going to give me things because I’m her daughter.’
“I try to give her examples of other children of celebrities like Zoe Kravitz (musician Lenny Kravitz’s daughter), for instance, who have to work through that ‘Oh yeah, you’re the daughter of … ’ — then eventually you are taken seriously for what you do.”