These Celebs Dished On Balancing Fame and a Personal Life

Even with a great support system, maintaining a healthy work/life balance is often hard to achieve. Celebrities also admit that it’s not an easy task -- despite having plenty of resources at their fingertips.

It's especially true for celebs with children, who say that making sure they get enough time with their little ones can be a struggle when they have such a packed schedule. Although these stars know they don't have all the answers, it's nice to hear that most people feel similarly when it comes to their work/life balance.

Here's what these stars had to say about balancing fame with family…

1. Rihanna

Rihanna, who became a mom for the first time in 2022, recently opened up about learning how to manage her family life and her incredibly successful career. So far, she admits she hasn't quite found the right balance because she always wants to be with her son. Instead, she says she's decided to be more selective of the things she decides to take on.

"The balance is almost impossible because no matter how you look at it, work is always something that's going to rob you of time with your child. That's the currency now, that's where it goes. The magnitude of how much it weighs," Rihanna said during a press conference. "When you make decisions of what you're going to say yes to, it has to be worth it."

2. Beyoncé

Even Beyoncé admits that she can struggle to do it all. She says things are especially tough with children as she wants to make sure that she's around to do all the important things, like taking them to school in the morning.

"I think the most stressful thing for me is balancing work and life. Making sure I am present for my kids -- dropping Blue off at school, taking Rumi and Sir to their activities, making time for date nights with my husband, and being home in time to have dinner with my family -- all while running a company can be challenging," she told Elle.

3. Chris Hemsworth

Chris Hemsworth says that working in the entertainment industry can make a work/life balance pretty difficult but he tries to include his family as much as he can. He added that he's grateful that he has the luxury to sometimes take his children on set with him.

"Half the time, it’s out of my control. But when it is in my control, or I have an opinion, I just try and make sure I'm at home as much as possible and with the kids as much as possible. If I do have to go to work, I try and bring them with me," Chris told CNBC Make It.

4. Eva Mendes

Eva Mendes admits she struggles to find a work/life balance just "like every other working mother." But instead of pushing herself to her limit, Eva decided it was best for her to take a step back from the spotlight and focus on being a mom. She explained there wasn't "anything that felt worthwhile" to take her away from her daughters. "I'm just so obsessed with my kids -- I just don't want to leave them. But I realize that I need to work. They're just still so little," Eva told E! News. "I don't feel like I have it balanced at all. I kind of have been figuring it out as I'm going along and it's just important to have a support system. I have my family, I have Ryan's family and that's just like, invaluable to have family around supporting you."

5. Gwen Stefani

While Gwen Stefani loves being a mom to her three children, she says it can be exceptionally difficult. Everything from the early mornings to keeping consistent schedules to making sure their feelings are always heard, Gwen says managing it all is one of the hardest things she's ever done.

"It's super fun being a mom, but it's hard too. Finding that balance between work and family is the hardest thing I've ever done -- by far," Gwen told Harper's Bazaar.

6. Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker knows that life in the spotlight can have negative effects on her personal life, especially for her children. Although she does have to be away from home for some projects, she tries to remind herself that there are also large stretches of time that she's able to be home, unlike parents with traditional jobs.

"We've had two occasions recently where both Matthew and I were working, and it was so hard on the kids…On the other hand, there are big chunks of time when we're home a lot more than conventionally working parents. So you hope to make up for it," Sarah told Parade.

7. Hilary Duff

Early on in Hilary Duff’s parenting journey, she opened up about finding her work/life balance with children. She admitted she was having trouble doing everything she wanted because she always felt like she was missing out on something else.

“It's hard to say that you really can have it all. I think you can to a certain degree, but fully loaded, pedal-all-the-way-down is tough. You're missing out on something, either on the career or on the family. When I'm really busy with work, I feel extremely guilty,” Hilary said in an interview with Redbook.

8. Felicity Huffman

Felicity Huffman is incredibly honest with how she manages her work life with her personal life. She says she finds that there's no way to do it all -- and she sometimes feels as though she's messing up, even when she's doing her best.

"People always ask, 'How do you balance home life and work?' And I tell them, 'I don't. I just drop the ball all the time,'" she told People. "Sometimes I think, 'I'm failing as both a mother and an actress.' But I do what I can to stumble forward joyously."

9. Debra Messing

Debra Messing says the most important part of managing a work/life balance is knowing your limits. It took her time, but she now knows how much she can handle and what it takes to be the best mom she can be.

"Setting boundaries for yourself and knowing your limitations are important. It took me a long time, but now I have a pretty good idea of how many hours I can work on a TV show and still feel like I'm able to be present when I get home," she told PopSugar. “Also, make sure you have people around you that can give you support and help, whether it's best friends, family members, or a babysitter. It's incredibly hard even when you don't have a job. So, when you have a full-time job on top of that, you just have to be über organized and that was a hard lesson for me to learn."

10. Maggie Gyllenhaal

Maggie Gyllenhaal grew up with a working mom and grandmother and while they set good examples for her, she admits managing her own work/life balance can be complicated.

"I was surrounded by plenty of working moms, including my grandmother, a pediatrician, and my mother, a writer and producer," she told Working Mother. "I just thought, 'Well, that's what moms do.' They work and raise their kids. I was brought up to believe I could do anything I wanted professionally and, of course, be a mother at the same time. But I'm finding out that it's complicated. It requires a lot of thought and planning and I haven't figured it out yet."

11. Naomi Watts

When Naomi Watts became a mom, she admitted that she felt torn between her work and her family life. While she's done her best to balance both of her jobs, she says she still feels like she falls short sometimes.

"I chose to be a mom. It's something I've always wanted, but I feel torn between two worlds. I am not reaching the same depths and heights that I used to reach in movies because I'm a parent of two small children who desperately need me. It's frustrating because I feel like I’m failing a bit on both ends," she told Blackbook magazine.