Culture March 29, 2023

Jodie Turner-Smith opens up about raising a biracial daughter

WATCH: Joshua Jackson talks concerns of welcoming new child amid coronavirus

Jodie Turner-Smith recently got candid about raising her biracial daughter Janie whom she shares with husband Joshua Jackson.

Doug Peters/PA Images via Getty Images, FILE
Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson attend the Vanity Fair Oscar Party held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, March 12, 2023.

In an interview with ELLE UK published Monday, the "Queen & Slim" star opened up about her initial hesitancy to becoming a parent and how her 2-year-old mixed-race daughter is "going to have a completely different experience" than she did.

"I had a lot of resistance to becoming a mother," she shared. "And, throughout my life, I always said if I were to have children, I wanted to have Black, Black babies so that I could affirm them as children with the love that I felt I needed to have been affirmed with by the outside world."

MORE: 'Queen & Slim' actress Jodie Turner-Smith shares a powerful message on her 'glow up'

However, Turner-Smith, 36, had a change of heart after falling in love with her husband.

"We talked about having kids," she continued. "To decide not to have a child with somebody you love, just because they're white, was insane to me. But, at the same time, I did have this mini pause, where I was like, 'She's going to be walking through the world not only having an experience that I did not have, but looking like people that, in a way, I'd always felt a little bit tormented by.'"

The "Murder Mystery 2" actress explained she eventually realized the birth of her child served a bigger purpose in her life.

"Now that I've got this little, tiny, light-skinned boss, I feel like it's the universe teaching me lessons," she said. "I've been given a daughter who looks this way to heal my own conversations around colourism."

Editor's Picks

Turner-Smith and Jackson, 44, welcomed their daughter in April 2020. Shortly after the arrival of her child, Turner-Smith reflected on pregnancy and motherhood in an Instagram post.

"Moth·er /ˈməT͟Hər/ : A fantastic voyage that begins in wonder and transformation," she wrote in the caption. "I will never forget how this felt and now won't soon forget how it looked."