Lily Tomlin Says She Didn't Have Kids Because of Her 'Behavior'

July 2024 · 2 minute read

While Lily Tomlin never did have kids, she recently revealed the reason she decided not to become a mother.

“I look at my behavior and I don’t think I could have done — I’m  a Virgo, I should be a very good mother,” the 80-year-old told Kevin Nealon while appearing on his YouTube series Hiking With Kevin. “I have no patience. [Jane Fonda] says I have no patience. She says, “You’ve got to develop some patience.” As for her temper, the actress doesn’t exactly hold back either.

“Well, that’s an unfortunate link,” the Grace and Frankie costar joked in the episode, which will go live on Kevin’s YouTube channel on Thursday, December 12. All this talk of a bad temper made the star recall a time where she and director David O. Russell got into a heated argument while on the set of film I Heart Huckabees — an encounter that was caught on tape.

“Did he yell at me? I yelled at him too. But he’s a good friend,” Lily said. “I lost it with good cause. and we were jammed into that old Citroen … I said a lot of vulgar stuff. I regretted when I saw someone had videotape it.” However, the comedian does wish one person could have seen it all go down.

“I wish my mother was alive so I could have played it for her,” she said. While the 9 to 5 star and David, 61, may have had rough words for one another, Lily would still be all about crossing paths with him. I would work with him again, in “a heartbeat,” Lily revealed.

Lily may not have had any children, but she did tie the knot in 2013 with her partner, Jane Wagner. The couple have had quite the successful marriage, and Lily once revealed what the key behind it all truly is. “What is the secret? We all have a secret. It’s just the secret is that you’re committed and care and you want it to work out,” the Oscar nominee told Closer Weekly and other reporters at The Paley Honors: A Special Tribute to Television’s Comedy Legends on November 21. “You don’t want to walk away from something that’s important.” So true!

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