Charlize Theron marks another year round the sun, celebrating her 48th birthday today, August 7, nearly three decades after first making her film debut in 2 Days in the Valley in 1996.
The actress, while relatively active on social media, tends to keep her private life offline. Chances are she'll be celebrating her birthday with family and friends – most certainly including her two daughters, August, eight, and Jackson, 11.
Charlize adopted Jackson in March 2012 from her native South Africa and August in July 2015 from the States. She occasionally shares glimpses of their lives together and their penchant for mother-daughter bonding time.
Charlize has been candid about her role as a mother to two Black daughters. During an interview with Elle in 2018, she said: "I want them to know who they are, and I want them to be so [expletive] proud of who they are.
"Building confidence for them right now is an oath I made to myself when I brought them home. They need to know where they come from and be proud of that.
"But they're going to have to know that it's a different climate for them than it is for me, and how unfair that is. If I can do something about that, of course I'm going to."
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The Oscar winner made waves when she announced in 2019 that Jackson was a transgender girl, telling The Daily Mail of her desire to help them discover their own identities.
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"Yes, I thought she was a boy, too. Until she looked at me when she was three years old and said: 'I am not a boy!'" she told the outlet.
"So there you go! I have two beautiful daughters who, just like any parent, I want to protect and I want to see thrive. They were born who they are and exactly where in the world both of them get to find themselves as they grow up, and who they want to be, is not for me to decide.
She continued: "My job as a parent is to celebrate them and to love them and to make sure that they have everything they need in order to be what they want to be. And I will do everything in my power for my kids to have that right and to be protected within that."
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In an interview with Harper's Bazaar last year, she revealed that her work as a mom was more fulfilling than her accomplishments as an actress often are. "When my kids say, 'Mom, nobody makes pasta better than you,' nothing gets close to that. I don't ever need them to be like, 'Oh, you're in that movie.'"
Charlize explained that the most important thing she'd instilled in them was the drive to work for what they want. "I think that's more important than fame or anything like that.
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"I saw my mom work hard, and I remember just my whole life thinking, nothing is going to get handed. You have to work harder than anybody else in the room."