There was plenty of love all around this tennis outing.
For Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, attending the U.S. Open in New York Krasinskihas become something of a family tradition. But their outing with daughters Hazel, 11, and Violet, 9, on Sept. 7 was still a rare public sighting of the whole brood.
After all, Krasinski and Blunt are protective of their children’s privacy and have spoken about how they handle being approached by fans.
“If I don’t have my kids, I’m happy to take a picture or whatever,” The Office alum told People in 2024. “But I think when we’re with the kids, we usually say, ‘We’re just having family time, but it’s nice to meet you.’ Most of the time, everybody’s really good with that. Because we just don’t want the kids wondering what’s happening, why I’m taking pictures with people all the time.”
So while you might not see Hazel and Violet on the red carpet, they still have an idea of what their parents do for work. In fact, Blunt recently suggested her daughters would like to see her in action in The Devil Wears Prada 2.
“I think they would quite like to go to set, just for the fashion,” the actress told Entertainment Tonight in June. “They’re like Mary Schmoppins. This is The Devil Wears Prada. They’re all about it.”
And Blunt and Krasinski are all about working together when it comes to balancing their careers and family life.
“I don’t know if any parent thinks they’re ever juggling it well,” The Smashing Machine star told E! News in 2022. “So I just surrender to this is our life. It seems to always be in some sort of upheaval, but I guess it’s all we’ve ever know and it’s all my kids have ever known and they love an adventure.”
If you’d love to see what else Blunt and Krasinski have shared about their family’s world, keep reading.
Emily Blunt Shares Whether Her and John Krasinski’s Kids Know They’re Famous
While Emily Blunt and John Krasinski are movie stars to the rest of the world, to their daughters Hazel and Violet, they’re just Mom and Dad.
“Hazel came home the other day and we were in the kitchen and she goes, ‘Are you famous?'” the actress told The Sunday Times in 2021. “And I’d never heard her…we’ve never said that word in our house. We don’t talk about it.”
Realizing “someone at school had clearly said it,” Blunt continued, she replied, “‘Um …not really, I don’t think I am. Did someone say that to you, Haze?’ She said, ‘Yeah,’ but then she wouldn’t divulge much more, you know, but it’s weird.”
However, there’s a reason Blunt and Krasinski don’t focus on their celebrity status.
“I don’t want my kids to feel any more important or special or that there’s a glare on them any more than other kids,” she added. “If they can remain oblivious for the longest time I’d be thrilled.”
On Their Kids’ Thoughts on Their Roles
Still, the girls have seen their parents’ work.
“They’ve seen Mary Poppins and Jungle Cruise, and they’ve seen some of The Office, which they liked a lot,” Blunt told E! News in 2022. “But they don’t really want to watch us on screen. They’ve got their ownership of us as parents. They’re not running to see me in a movie, which keeps you humble.”
While Blunt told Good Morning America her “cool factor hits the sky” when she does the Mary Poppins voice, her daughters weren’t as big of a fan of her character Emily from The Devil Wears Prada. As she recalled to Page Six, “They thought I was the meanest person they’ve ever met.”
Meanwhile, Hazel thought Krasinski was an accountant after a fan brought up The Office during school dropoff.
“She said, ‘So do you work with him?'” the actor recalled of the encounter on The Late Show in 2022. “I went, ‘No.’ And she goes, ‘Why are you lying to me?’ I went, ‘I’m not lying to you.’ And she goes, ‘No, he just said he knows you from the office.'”
On How They’d Feel About Their Daughters Entering Show Business
Blunt wouldn’t be upset if Hazel and Violet decided not to follow in their parents’ famous footsteps. After all, it’s not the easiest career path.
“My toes curl when people tell me, ‘My daughter wants to be an actress,'” the Oppenheimer star told Harper’s Bazaar U.K. in 2023. “I want to say, ‘don’t do it!’ Because it’s a hard industry and it can be very disappointing. A lot of people tell you not to take things personally – but it’s completely personal, especially when you’re being judged on how you look. So you just have to endure that side of things.”
But ultimately, she and Krasinski just want their daughters to pursue their interests.
“I want them to grow up wanting something, feeling passionate about something, and being proud of who they are,” she told Porter magazine in 2022. “And I think a lot of that is just finding something you love to do… I didn’t grow up with a burning ambition to be an actress at all, it just revealed itself to me – and I think that’s wonderful when it happens like that.”
On How Their Daughters Inspired IF
Whether or not Violet and Hazel get involved in the industry, they did play a role in IF, their dad’s 2024 film about imaginary friends.
“I would watch my kids disappear every day into this magical [world] that Emily and I aren’t invited into,” Krasinski told E! News at the film’s premiere. “And it was COVID, because I saw their lights starting to dwindle. I could see they were playing fewer and fewer imaginary games, and they started asking big questions and they were letting the world in.”
“I said, ‘Emily oh my god, that’s the definition of growing up. They’re deciding whether or not they should let go of childhood,'” he added. “And I went, ‘No. You don’t have to make that decision. That magical world you created is there for you always, you can always go back.'”
In fact, Krasinski told Today some of the characters in the film were based on his daughters’ imaginary friends and that he involved the girls in other ways too.
“They saw my original drawings, I pitched them the movie, they even had notes on the trailer,” he continued. “It was great.”
On How Parenthood Has Changed Them
While Blunt and Krasinski have taken on many roles, the one that changed their lives the most was as parents.
“I went through some really serious stuff,” the Jack Ryan star told People shortly after welcoming their firstborn Hazel. “There is a mirror that is held up to me now. You have someone watching you. You have to lead by example.”
And it’s made him, he continued, want to focus on “becoming a better person every single day.”
It’s the day-to-day that Krasinski and Blunt love the most, too.
“We are both massively hands-on, and we love it,” she noted about parenthood in a 2018 interview with Harper’s Bazaar U.K. “I’m so lucky with John. But I was colossally unprepared for how life-changing it is. Like all mothers, I think, ‘What was I doing with my day before I had children?’ It’s so full-on and they need you so much; I do find myself in a perpetual state of distraction.”
On Parental Guilt
At one point, Blunt took a break from acting to spend more time at home with her children.
“I just feel there’s cornerstones to their day that are so important when they’re little,” she said on a 2024 episode of Table for Two With Bruce Bozzi, “and it’s, ‘Will you wake me up, will you take me to school, will you pick me up, will you put me to bed?’ I just need to be there for all of them for a good stretch, and I just felt that in my bones.”
For Blunt, there was an “emotional cost” that came with being away to film for long periods of time.
“I’m very prone to guilt,” she continued. “I think maybe all mothers are. We’re just prone to feeling bad for, God forbid, wanting something outside of being a mother. I’m a huge advocate for it. I’m a huge advocate for women being ambitious. I love the word ambition. It’s just dreams with purpose, that’s all it is.”
And navigating schedules is something she and Krasinski tackle as a team.
“There is no mom or dad guilt,” he said on a 2024 episode of Pop CultureMoms. “It’s us as a family. We’re all in it together. But I will say that it is difficult. We’ve had many conversations with our kids. First and foremost being that when we have to go away for work, there are some people who don’t geographically go away, but their parents’ jobs take them away ‘til 8 p.m. or 10 p.m. or you go on business trips over the weekend. So we’re all in it together just in different aspects as parents.”
On Lessons They Try to Teach Their Kids
While no parent is practically perfect in every way, there are some lessons Blunt and Krasinski try to instill in their children.
“I was a really empathetic kid and still feel that’s something I try and lead with,” the Mary Poppins Returns star told Marie Claire in 2020. “And I encourage empathy in my kids and embracing differences and not being scared of them, or teasing people for them, you know? Making mistakes, or feeling like you have something that causes you to make mistakes, is a good thing. It’s how you learn, and it’s how you grow.”
