Academy Award-winner Charlize Theron reportedly shared that her oldest child is transgender.
Her daughter Jackson, 7, was assigned male at birth but revealed she’s a girl four years ago, Theron said, according to an interview published Thursday in the Daily Mail.
“I thought she was a boy, too,” Theron, 43, reportedly said in the interview. “Until she looked at me at 3 years old and said, ‘I am not a boy!’”
The actress has two children: Jackson and August, 4.
Theron has a legacy of LGBTQ activism, particularly when it comes to advocating for marriage equality. In 2009, she announced on “The View” that she would not marry her then-boyfriend, Stuart Townsend, until everyone had the right to marry in the United States.
“I think it would be exactly the same if we were married, but for me to go through that kind of ceremony, because I have so many friends who are gays and lesbians who would so badly want to get married, that I wouldn’t be able to sleep with myself,” she said at the time.
Theron is also known for playing a bisexual spy in “Atomic Blonde.” When Andy Cohen asked her about playing a queer character on his show, “Watch What Happens Live,” Theron responded that it shouldn’t even be a question.
“It’s just so strange when we talk so much about it. It should be normalized by now,” Theron said. “It’s something I feel is not represented enough in cinema … I feel that when you make movies, if you’re going to hold that mirror up and reflect society, then you should reflect society.”
Many are positively responding to Theron’s reported announcement in the Daily Mail.
Jamie Clayton, a transgender actress best known for starring as Nomi Marks in the Netflix series “Sense8,” wrote on Twitter: “@CharlizeAfrica Sending you so much love … Thank you beyond.”
Helen Webberly, a gender specialist at Gender GP, an online transgender medical clinic, wrote, “What a lucky little girl.”
