Christina Ricci’s Son, 8, Still Sleeps Next To Her But Her Infant Child Can Snooze By Herself

Mar 03, 2023 by apost team

Christina Ricci first rose to fame as a child actress, beginning her career at the age of 9, when she was discovered by a local theater group in New Jersey. She made her film debut in 1990 with a small role in the comedy “Mermaids,” which starred Cher and Winona Ryder. 

Ricci was born the youngest of four siblings on Feb. 12, 1980, in Santa Monica, California, to a real estate agent mother and lawyer and therapist father. 

Ricci’s breakthrough role came in 1991 when she was cast as the dark and brooding Wednesday Addams in the film adaptation of “The Addams Family.” The film was a critical and commercial success, and Ricci’s performance was praised for its maturity and depth. She reprised the role in the 1993 sequel, “Addams Family Values.”

Ricci’s success as Wednesday Addams led to a string of high-profile film roles in the 1990s, including in the 1995 film “Casper” and the 1997 film “The Ice Storm.” She also earned critical acclaim for her performance in the 1998 film “The Opposite of Sex,” for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Throughout the 2000s, Ricci starred in a number of independent films, including the 2003 film “Monster,” for which she earned critical acclaim and a number of award nominations. 

Ricci has also appeared in a number of television productions. She had a recurring role on the television series “Ally McBeal” in the late 1990s. In more recent years, she starred in the highly acclaimed “Yellowjackets” and Netflix’s iteration of the Addams family character she made famous in the ’90s, “Wednesday.”

Now, the 43-year-old actress is a doting mother of two and shared some insights about how she is raising them, including weighing in on the somewhat controversial matter of sleep training.

Ricci has had a tumultuous personal life. She has been married twice, first to dolly grip James Heerdegen in 2013. She shares one child with him, a son named Freddie Heerdegen born in 2014. However, her marriage to James broke down, and she filed for divorce in July 2020 alleging “severe physical and emotional abuse” by James, with “many of these acts of abuse” occurring in view of their son. Early that same year, Ricci had also obtained a domestic violence restraining order against James. According to People, Ricci told The Sunday Times in November 2022 she was now “more than okay,” and that she doesn’t “feel like a victim in any way.” 

The stalwart actress put the challenging period behind her and went on to find love again with her second husband, hairdresser Mark Hampton, whom she married in 2021. The pair celebrated their union in October with a sweet wedding snap that saw them both in matching button-down shirts as Ricci held a bouquet of flowers. “Mr. and Mrs. 💒❤️‍🔥💕,” the caption read. 

Ricci told the Unqualified podcast: “I would say – and this sounds really annoying and cloying and stupid – but I would say the first time I really fell in love in a healthy way is probably this marriage that I’m in now. … I think that a lot of my relationships in the past had a lot to do with unhealthy things that I was looking for.”

In December 2021, the couple welcomed their daughter, Cleopatra, marking her entrance with an adorable clip captioned, “we are so in love with her ♥️ also she has the most incredible dad imaginable 💕♥️.” Now the actress is embracing her role as a mom of two and has shared some tidbits about how different her two tots can be.

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As most mothers of two or more kids know, each child has their own personality and preferences. Ricci told People how her attempts at sleep training her kids led to varied levels of success. 

“(Freddie) screamed himself hoarse and started banging his head against the crib railing,” she recounted. However, when she again tried the approach with her infant daughter when she was just 9 months old, she was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

“With Cleo, when we decided to try it and see how she would react to it, she just sort of whined for about seven minutes and then laid down, clutched her little unicorn and went to sleep. It was like she was ready and she wanted to do it, and it was right for her,” Ricci told the outlet and added, “The fact that I can put her down in her crib and she just goes to sleep when my 8-year-old still sleeps with me is amazing.” 

Sleep training young children is a hotly debated topic, with criticism ranging from it purportedly stunting aspects of a child’s development such as brain function, social and emotional intelligence, and trust in self and others. However, some argue it has only gotten a bad rap due to its inference to the “cry it out” method of training and the lack of scientific research on the matter.  

However, holistic infant sleep coach Emily Whalley said mothers should always do what they feel is best for them and their children. She told HuffPost UK:

“Do you want to make changes because you want to, or because you feel you have to? If you feel you have to then ask yourself: why? If it’s a societal pressure then tune out the noise and enjoy it for what it is before it’s a memory.”

What are your thoughts on Christina Ricci’s parenting style? Do you feel like sleep training is a good or bad thing for children? Let us know, and don’t forget to pass this on to friends and family to get their opinions as well.