Sandra Bullock knows the most important ingredient in a family is love, not DNA.
The mother of two chatted about her advocacy for adoption in a cover story for InStyle‘s June 2018 issue, out May 11, calling for a greater understanding and treatment of women’s rights over their own bodies and an end to the phrase “my adopted child.”
“Look: I’m all for Republican, Democrat, whatever, but don’t talk to me about what I can or can’t do with my body until you’ve taken care of every child who doesn’t have a home or is neglected or abused,” she explained, getting emotional. “It makes me teary-eyed.”
Bullock, 53, continues, “Let’s all just refer to these kids as ‘our kids.’ Don’t say, ‘my adopted child.’ No one calls their kid their ‘IVF child’ or their ‘Oh, s—, I went to a bar and got knocked up child.’ Let’s just say, ‘our children.’ ”
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The Ocean’s 8 star describes her own little ones — daughter Laila, 5½, and son Louis, 8 — as having big personalities of their own already that are wildly different from each other’s.
“Lou is super sensitive. I call him my 78-year-old son. He’s like Shecky Greene, a Jewish Catskills comic. He’s wise and kind,” Bullock explains. “I saw that when they handed him to me. There was a spiritual bigness to him. I was like, ‘I hope I don’t eff that up.’ ”
As for her daughter? The actress shares, “Laila is just unafraid. She’s a fighter, and that’s the reason she’s here today. She fought to keep her spirit intact. Oh my God, what she is going to accomplish. She’s going to bring some real change.”
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Bullock admits that her kids love her photographer boyfriend, Bryan Randall. “I get it because he’s more fun and has better treats,” she jokes about him being their favorite.
Randall was even behind the adorable photo shoot Bullock did with PEOPLE in December 2015 to publicly announce Laila’s adoption. She says she decided to take the photos after paparazzi learned of the new addition to her family.
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“When you adopt a child, there’s a placement period, and if something goes sideways, they have the right to take the child away. It’s a tenuous, strenuous six months,” she explains. “We had an allergy scare that sent us to the ER and we were followed by the paparazzi, so the word was out that I had another child. And everyone wanted photos.”
The actress continues, “It was heartbreaking. Louis would hear a helicopter or drone, and he’d run to get his sister and drag her across the lawn and hide her under the trampoline.”
Adds Bullock, “So poor Laila had PTSD. But it took the bounty off once we did those official photos. Everything’s a learning experience.”
