Diane von Furstenberg, 79, said she believes she did a good job raising her kids as a working mom.
On Thursday’s episode of the “Aspire with Emma Grede” podcast, von Furstenberg spoke about how she managed motherhood while building her fashion empire.
“If you talk to my children, I was never there,” von Furstenberg told podcast host Emma Grede. “But if I look at the results, God bless them. They’re wonderful, and now they are fully grown-up, parents of adults, and we speak every single day.”
Von Furstenberg shares two children with her ex-husband, Prince Egon von Furstenberg, whom she divorced in 1983. He died in 2004.
The fashion designer said she has no regrets about how she raised her kids and that she is “a good mom.”
She said she was also more present for them than they gave her credit for: “I think I was more there than they think, and I would never abandon them.”
Von Fustenberg said she’s also “very proud” of her kids and the parents that they’ve become.
“For example, Alexander will say that I never went to a game,” she said, adding that she simply wasn’t interested in attending. “But, as a result, he goes to every game of every child.”
Despite juggling her career with raising two children, von Furstenberg said she has never experienced mom guilt.
“Guilt is not an option. Guilt and fear,” she said. “I did the best I could. They came with me. I mean, I went on business trips in Japan, I took them along. I did the best I could, but guilt, no.”
Von Furstenberg said she spoke openly with her children about why work sometimes took her away, and encouraged other parents to do the same.
“You go to school, I go to work, and then you have a conversation,” she said, adding that she spoke to her children like adults from the start, just as her own mother had done with her.
Von Furstenberg added she doesn’t agree with helicopter parenting because she believes a parent’s role is to teach kids to stand on their own.
“You give them love, values, and you make them independent,” she said.
The designer has previously pushed back on the idea that mothers should feel guilty about their careers. Victoria Beckham said von Furstenberg once gave her advice on balancing work and motherhood, telling her that guilt is a “pointless” — and “very aging” — emotion.
The challenge of balancing a career and family commitments has also come up for other celebrity moms.
Grede described herself as a “max three-hour mum” on weekends in an April interview with The Wall Street Journal, while Keira Knightley has said her mother’s no-nonsense attitude shaped how she navigates work while raising kids. Jennifer Garner, meanwhile, has said she doesn’t “apologize” to her children for working.
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