Penélope Cruz has lifted the lid on why she and her husband, Javier Bardem, prefer raising their two kids in Spain.
While speaking to The Perfect Magazine, the actress, 52, revealed that she and Bardem, 57, opted to bring their son Leo, 15, and daughter Luna, 12, up in Madrid because it allows them to live a more private lifestyle.
“All our families are there, and the friends from childhood and from our teenage years; it’s easier to have a normal life, you know?” Cruz told the outlet.
She added, “You have to make an effort to keep a part of your life private, but I think when you have children, it’s really important, and they deserve that, they completely deserve that.”
The Hollywood A-lister noted that when her children get older, they can decide whether they want to be in the spotlight.
“Later they can decide what they want to do in terms of their work and everything. But they need to have that freedom and not be exposed to things when they are little,” she explained.
Cruz and Bardem said “I do” in 2010. The couple tends to keep tight-lipped about their private life.
However, the star has previously opened up about their parenting style, telling Elle in 2024 that they do not allow their children to have cell phones.
“It’s so easy to be manipulated, especially if you have a brain that is still forming, and who pays the price? Not us, not our generation, who, maybe at 25, learned how a BlackBerry worked. It’s a cruel experiment on children, on teenagers,” Cruz said.
Cruz previously told People that her kids “finally” considered her a cool mom after she met Bad Bunny.
She revealed that the family attended the singer’s residency in Puerto Rico and have since been to five of his international tour shows.
“But the first one in Puerto Rico is when Benito came to me and asked me to go with him to say the ‘Acho, PR es otra cosa,’” Cruz said, referring to the opening line of the musician’s song “VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR.”
“And finally my kids came to me and said, ‘Mom, finally you we can say you are cool.’ Thank you, Benito! It took me all these years,” she teased.
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Kelsi Karruli is a senior celebrity reporter who joined Realtor.com in 2025. She writes about trends encompassing real estate and celebrity properties. She previously wrote for Daily Mail, True Urban Culture, and JMedia Corporation, where she specialized in covering celebrities, relationships, psychology, and gender issues. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Pace University, where she received the James Rose Award for excellence in journalism. When she isn’t updating readers on A-listers’ moves, she is spending time with her cat, Mary, and cheering on the Albanian soccer team.
