Aside from being regarded as one of the industry’s best performers, Cate Blanchett is also a proud mother of four children with her husband, Andrew Upton.
The two tied the knot in 1997, welcomed their first son Dashiell John in 2001, and had another two boys, Roman Robert in 2004 and Ignatius Martin in 2008. Seven years after Ignatius arrived, the couple decided to adopt a daughter named Edith Vivian Patricia.
Surprisingly, all these four kids have no clue how famous their mom is. In an interview with Page Six, when she received the Chaplin Award, the actress shared that they are disinterested in her career, but it’s in the “best possible, healthiest way.”
She and her husband also chose to keep them away from the limelight. So for the kids, their parents are most probably just normal people.
Dashiell John Upton
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Blanchett and Upton welcomed their first child on December 3, 2001, four years after they got married. The couple did a photoshoot to formally introduce him to the world but later decided to keep him out of the media’s eye.
At a young age, Dashiell had already shown interest in theater. In fact, he was only eight when he started performing his own version of Hamlet.
Although, as Blanchett told W magazine, she admittedly didn’t want to be their family’s business. However, as a son of an Oscar-winning actress mom and a playwright, screenwriter, and director dad, it wasn’t surprising at all.
The oldest Upton really followed through with the dream of his younger self. During an episode of A Podcast of One’s Own with Julia Gillard last May 2020, his mom said he would attend film school. (Of course, she didn’t reveal what school and kept her son’s life private as she always did.)
Like any mom, Blanchett felt the struggle and the challenge to let go. In an interview, she said, “It is difficult to break away, very difficult, but I am so proud of my son. It is up to us to redefine the relationship we have with our children and allow them to grow up, to become adults.”
Roman Robert Upton
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The second-born, Roman Robert, arrived on April 23, 2004.
Speaking with Jimmy Kimmel on the show Jimmy Kimmel Live, Blanchett shared that her son’s unique name was inspired by the filmmaker Roman Polanski. It unexpectedly raised more than a few eyebrows, considering that said personality had convictions as a child sex offender. That said, she also pointed out that “Roman” was also the French word for “book,” just to avoid any negative associations with the name.
Roman led a private life like his older brother, but he seemed more outgoing than Dashiell. That is because he had been sighted several times with his mom on red-carpet occasions.
According to the Daily Mail, he appeared at the Helpmann Awards in Sydney, Australia, in 2012, at the Critic’s Choice Awards in 2014, and at the IWC Schaffhausen at SIHH in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2018.
On the other hand, Dashiell was only seen once out and about with his mom in a formal event. It was in 2018 when he and his mom stepped out for the 2018 Venice Film Festival.
Ignatius Martin Upton
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Four years after Roman, Blanchett had her third child and third son, Ignatius Martin. He even came with a bang as he entered the world on New Year’s Day.
Aside from his grand entrance, he also had quite the name. Blanchett shared that Ignatius was connected to a children’s novel series titled “Captain Underpants.” Blanchett said she was eight months pregnant then and was hallucinating when she came upon a section in the book.
It was the part where Professor Pee-Pee Poopypants was so upset that everyone was teasing him because of his name that he forced everyone to change names. He started listing names, starting from A, and then when he reached I, the example was Ignatius. “It was like the Virgin Mary going Boom!” and there it was.
With the birth of Ignatius, Blanchett had herself a home full of boys. According to the actress, it was something that she definitely enjoyed. Talking with PEOPLE, she said, “Having boys is great. It’s a neat position to be in, and I love the high energy that comes along with raising boys. It’s fun.”
She also loved taking her boys with her to work, and of course, her kids loved it, too. For one, Ignatius joined her backstage in A Streetcar Named Desire in 2009 in Sydney. He got the VIP treatment, on top of having the privilege of enjoying the interesting and exciting place where people put on makeup and costumes.
Edith Vivian Patricia Upton
The Upton household met their princess on March 6, 2015. That is because Blanchett and her husband adopted their daughter, Edith Vivian Patricia.
Speaking with Women in the World, she shared that the conversation about adopting started after Dashiell was born. However, it didn’t push through immediately as it dropped off the radar after having two more kids of their own. But when it did, it happened so beautifully.
According to the actress, her three sons had welcomed their new sibling and formed an extraordinarily close bond in a short time. And she was definitely very proud of them.
Growing up, especially during the pandemic, her boys learned how to direct themselves. However, Edith, who was years younger than them, was a different topic. Blanchett revealed that she had to teach her math but quickly realized she couldn’t, and the then-seven-year-old Edith sniffed that out.
However, they found an arrangement that worked for both of them, including a full class filled with Edith’s stuffed animals. Blanchett jokingly described the setup as a weird cross between The Muppets and MasterClass, which was kind of traumatic for her.
All of Cate Blanchett’s children continue to enjoy a life of privacy. So, we won’t probably hear about them for quite some time.
