Julia Roberts said she and husband Daniel Moder took a relatively strict approach to raising their three children, telling 72 Magazine that the couple set fixed rules intended to create stability and security at home.
"When they were younger, certainly, Danny and I would have been considered some of the stricter parents," Roberts, 57, told the magazine, according to Us Weekly. She said she and Moder did not waver on rules: "Not like we’re laying down the law, but these are the rules, and they don’t change. Here’s the boundary of your life, and it does not shift."
Roberts said consistency between parents was central to their approach. "You don’t ask me and get an answer, and then go ask dad and get a different answer. That doesn’t happen. It will never happen," she said, adding that the steady framework helped her children "to feel secure because you know there is this fixed world of love and safety that exists unconditionally."
The actress and Moder, a cameraman, are parents to twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, born in November 2004, and son Henry, born in June 2007. Roberts and Moder have long guarded their family’s privacy; Roberts told USA Today in 2013 that they tried "to protect our kids" and keep family life out of the spotlight.
Roberts has spoken previously about limiting technology in the household. In 2023 she said she and Moder taught their children to rely less on devices, establishing a charging station where phones are left when the family returns home and banning phones at the table. "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," she told Today. In an interview with Extra, Roberts said being stuck at home "with kids and no devices" "sounds like a good time," noting that less screen time produces more family conversation.
Roberts’s comments underscore a broader, ongoing effort by the couple to maintain boundaries between the actress’s public career and her private family life. Two years after the couple married, they welcomed their twins; three years later they had Henry. The family has largely avoided media exposure of the children as they grew up, and Roberts said those boundaries were intentional and meant to foster a secure home environment.
Roberts has remained active professionally while maintaining privacy around her children. Her recent work, including her role in the Netflix drama "Leave the World Behind," and earlier acclaim for films such as "Erin Brockovich," have kept her in the public eye even as she and Moder limit their children’s exposure to celebrity culture.
Roberts framed the approach as protective rather than punitive, emphasizing that consistent rules and limited device use were part of creating a dependable household where children could feel safe and connected to family life.