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Michelle Williams chatted with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman about balancing motherhood with her career
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The Dying for Sex actress is a mom of four children, daughter Monica with her then-boyfriend, the late Heath Ledger, and three other children with her husband Thomas Kail
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Williams says her children are “such great life checkers” and that her “best day with my children is better than my best day at work”
Michelle Williams is opening up about balancing motherhood with her busy work schedule.
During a podcast appearance on a recent episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, the Dying for Sex star, 44, shared her thoughts on being a working mom, sharing that her “best day with my children is better than my best day at work.”
“Kids are such great life checkers. They force you to put your best self in front of them,” the mom of four said. “You can’t abdicate your life and your work and your own desires, but you do have to put them in check and figure out which master you’re gonna serve.”
“Because the truth is, if work is going well, somebody else is taking care of the kids, and if you’re in a high point with your kids, the work is shoved to the side,” she added. “You can’t be equally good at them at the exact same time, and you have to allow for that give and take, but then also replenish the other things. If you have a big period of being at home, you need to go back to what you’ve left unattended and put some light over there.”
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Thomas Kail and Michelle Williams attend FX’s “Dying For Sex” New York premiere at SVA
“So, I think it’s just this constant back and forth, but making sure that you don’t leave one of them unattended for too long,” she continued. “My best day with my children is better than my best day at work. I am more thrilled with that high than I am with a work high.”
For the proud mom, it’s all a balancing act. She noted that while she wants to be there for her children’s moments, she also wants them to see her working and maintaining a household.
“I want them to see their mom working, all of my kids, so it’s not something that I want to neglect for too long, but the kids really pull at you more convincingly,” she told the hosts.
The Greatest Showman actress first became a mother in October 2005 when she welcomed daughter Matilda with her then-boyfriend, the late Heath Ledger. In 2020, Williams tied the knot with director Thomas Kail, two years after the pair met on the set of Fosse/Verdon.
Matilda reportedly played matchmaker for the couple, who have now welcomed three kids together including their son Hart, a baby born in 2022 and another baby who arrived in 2025.
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Michelle Williams attends the screening of “Showing Up” during the 75th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 27, 2022 in Cannes, France.
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In January 2023, Williams opened up to Entertainment Weekly about taking on one of her biggest roles to date in The Fablemans after welcoming her third child.
“It’s amazing because we all do it. That’s how every human gets here, is a woman giving of herself,” she said. “[Babies] have to arrive, and they have to be sustained, all of it. So I’m continuously searching because balance isn’t a stable place. Balance means that you’re always adjusting.”
Williams added, “My heart obviously belongs to my children; they tug at it the most. But I really want to be able to have both. And I think that it requires deep thought and learning and the support of other women to figure out how to get through it.”
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