Jeff Goldblum says he won’t financially support his kids when they’re older: ‘Got to row your own boat’

‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Wicked’ star says sons will have to figure out their finances without him

Jeff Goldblum has become the latest celebrity parent to declare that his children won’t be able to rely on his money when they get older.

The star of the Jurassic Park films has two sons with his wife, Emilie Livingston: Charlie, eight, and six-year-old River.

During a recent appearance on the iHeart podcast Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi, Goldblum, 71, noted that the children would have to financially fend for themselves as adults.

“‘Hey, you know, you’ve got to row your own boat,’” Goldblum said, sharing the explanation he’ll impart to his sons in the future.

“It’s an important thing to teach kids. I’m not going to do it for you. And you’re not going to want me to do it for you,” he continued.

“You’ve got to figure out how to find out what’s wanted and needed and where that intersects with your love and passion and what you can do. And even if it doesn’t, you might have to do that anyway.”

Goldblum, who also stars as the formidable Wizard of Oz in the forthcoming film adaptation of the hit musical Wicked, became a parent at 62, and has previously spoken about his choice to take his time having children.

Jeff Goldblum (Getty Images for CinemaCon)

“I never thought that I was going to do it,” he told the Radio Times in 2019. “I had never been particularly passionate [about fatherhood] or envisioned it for myself – I don’t have any nieces or nephews, had never seen a birth before.”

However, his relationship with Livingston, a Canadian former Olympic rhythmic gymnast, inspired him to expand his family in ways he hadn’t previously considered.

“We thought about it for a year, talked about it with my therapist, went in together, and after a year of that, I said, ‘Yeah, this sounds kinda good, let’s get married and have kids.’”

Jeff Goldblum, Emilie Livingston and their children in 2018 (Getty Images)

Goldblum is not the only famous parent who has insisted on letting his children fend for themselves when they come of age.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has long spoken about his hopes to not spoil his six children with his wife Tana, and plans not to leave his money to them after he is gone.

“It’s definitely not going to them, and that’s not in a mean way; it’s to not spoil them,” Ramsay told The Telegraph in 2017. “The only thing I’ve agreed with Tana is they get a 25 per cent deposit on a flat, but not the whole flat.”

Elsewhere, Ashton Kutcher has also noted that his two children with Mila Kunis will not be receiving a trust fund after they die.

“I’m not setting up a trust for them,” Kutcher told podcast host Dax Shepard on a 2018 episode of Armchair Expert. “We’ll end up giving our money away to charity and to various things.”

In 2023, Kutcher and Kunis’s combined net worth reportedly stood at around $275m (£220m).