Anna Kendrick Opens Up About Choosing Not to Have Children: 'I'm the Childless Cat Lady'

Mar. 15, 2025

Anna Kendrick.Photo:Corey Nickols/Getty Images

Corey Nickols/Getty Images

Anna Kendrickis candidly discussing her position on having children.

ThePitch Perfectstar, 39, has long been open and honest about her thoughts on having kids — in her 2016 bestselling memoirScrappy Little Nobody,Kendrick shared,“Motherhood isn’t for me."

“I was thinking recently about a phrase I’ve heard men say about their desire to have children in the future, and it occurred to me: I don’t think I’ve ever heard a woman say that," theA Simple Favoractress says. “And the thing they’ll say is, ‘Yeah, maybe one day — a couple of kids running around.’”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Anna Kendrick.Kayla Oaddams/WireImage

Kayla Oaddams/WireImage

She continues, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard a woman say that! Because it paints a certain visual, yes?”

That “certain visual,” as Kendrick describes, is “That you come home at the end of your workday, and you put down your proverbial briefcase, and you’re making yourself a cocktail, and a woman in a Laura Ashley dress is out in the yard, and there’s a couple of kids — in white! — running around.”

She then rhetorically asks the men using this statement, “Um, Where are you in that, sir?”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

Anna Kendrick.Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

“I don’t know, there’s something about that phrase that really starts to rub me the wrong way,” Kendrick continues. “It’s like when I hear husbands say they want to ‘help out’ with the kids. And it’s two working parents!”

While Kendrick admits she often wants to share her opinion with her mom friends, she doesn’t feel as though she should be part of that conversation.

“And I always want to kind of say something, and then I’m just like, ‘Well, I’m the childless cat lady. I’m not gonna say s—.’”

AfterJD Vance called out childless cat ladiesearlier this year, Kendrick toldThe Guardian,“I don’t ever think about having kids, so I guess I spend just as little time thinking about weaponizing that.”

She also shared with the outlet that after getting a pet cat, she thought to herself, “Why would anyone trust me with akid?”

source: people.com