Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and her movie-star husband Michael Douglas really do appear to have a dream life - Hollywood acting careers, amazing houses and they share two children together, Carys, 17, Dylan, 19. From what we've seen on Catherine's Instagram page, Carys and Dylan seem to be such great teenagers, who share a close friendship and are appreciative of their parents. Catherine and Michael have clearly done a wonderful job raising their children - Dylan is studying at Brown University in Rhode Island, while Carys is making a name for herself as a top model.
Here, we reveal The Mask of Zorro star's top six parenting techniques…
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Have fun together
Catherine, Michael, Carys and Dylan are currently at home in lockdown like the rest of us, and it's great to see the family are having fun together during this difficult time. The mum-of-two shared a heartwarming clip on her Instagram page at the start of May, showing herself and Carys doing a bit of acting as they lay in bed.
Catherine wrote: "Oh…the old world ways of the Britsh aristocracy. An impromptu scene where I play the working class lady in waiting to the 'miss' @carys.douglas of the manor #crazyinquarantine." The star's followers loved the video, with one posting: "This just made me laugh... you and Carys Zeta are the most hilarious mom-daughter duo: nothing like having “crazy” fun with our loved ones."
Manners are SO important
We've all heard the Kingsman phrase 'manners maketh man' and Catherine completely agrees. Speaking to Town & Country magazine in the past, she revealed: "What I instilled in my kids, and I'm very, very proud of it, is manners. There's nothing worse than a privileged kid without manners. I drilled it into them like boot camp." The star said she never huffed and puffed at her own mother and of Carys: 'she's not doing it to me.'
Catherine and daughter Carys
Take a reality check
A key way of staying grounded and grateful is by keeping perspective. In the Town & Country interview, Carys explained that her parents did a good job of reality-checking her, suggesting she observes her life and realises how lucky she is.
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Catherine enjoys the teenage years
While most of us dread the difficult teenage phase, Entrapment star Catherine is loving it. In a previous interview on the Today show, she confessed: "I kind of pre-empted the roll-your-eyes teenager years. I love it. I just love the freshness," she said. "It's all so exciting to me… I was working when I was my son's age. I was in the theatre, and I look at him, and I go, 'Wow, I was working when I was your age.' So I'm just enjoying this time, learning a whole bunch of stuff that I didn't know."
Catherine and son Dylan
She encourages them to follow their dreams
We often hear actors say they'd prefer their children to choose a different career to theirs, but not so for Catherine, who told chat show host Jimmy Kimmel that Carys and Dylan are considering acting careers: "I'm all for it. A lot of people ask me, 'What do you think about that?' Well, yeah, I could give them statistics of who becomes successful and who doesn't… I could say, 'You know, you'll never get work' - but I'm not that kind of person. I've had a fabulous life as an actress. I'm excited for them to start on this journey, too."
Always work hard
Catherine and Michael have clearly instilled the value of hard work and dedication in their children, as instead of things coming easy due to the family's fame, Carys told Town & Country she works even harder to prove herself as a talent in her own right and doesn't want to be known simply in connection with her parents' success.
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On a recent family holiday
Spend time as a family
Despite the foursome's busy careers and studies, the family still find time to get together for new shared experiences. They love to holiday together and Catherine often shares photos of her brood on Instagram. In December, she posted this stunning photo above, writing: "Sunday lunch in Zanzibar. Happy Sunday everyone!" She also takes her children back to her home country of Wales so they can get to know their Welsh heritage.