Jessica Biel is finally breaking her silence about having a “secret COVID baby” with husband Justin Timberlake last year.
The Sinner actress and executive producer discussed on Monday’s (June 14) episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast how quarantine exposed her to changing diapers again for her 11-month-old son, Phineas, whom she and Timberlake welcomed quietly before the 40-year-old singer confirmed the good news on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in January.
“I had, like, a secret COVID baby. It wasn’t supposed to be a secret,” she told Shepard. “COVID happened, and then I went to Montana with my family and never left. … It was the weirdest thing ever.”
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Despite the pandemic upending everyone’s schedules and any sense of normalcy, Biel also opened up about how raising a newborn again reintroduced her to the schedule she purposefully “forgot” about when she first raised Silas, her and Timberlake’s first child, who’s now 6.
“It had been six years since we did all that stuff,” the 7th Heaven alum continued. “Someone said to me, ‘Two is like having 1,000,’ and that’s exactly what it feels like. The balance of everything is very different and super hard. But it’s amazing, it’s so interesting, so funny. The conversations I’m having right now with my 6-year-old is so cool, like he’s a real person! Saying the funniest stuff, and he’s so sensitive and tender … And the little one is just cute as hell.”
Biel gave birth last summer in the middle of the pandemic, and with hospital restrictions in place during COVID, she worried about the “Cry Me a River” singer’s ability to be in the room with her. But ultimately, he got the OK. “There was a moment there that there was nobody allowed at all, and I was really getting nervous about that situation,” she shared. “But yes, he was allowed. I think if I had to be there alone, that would have been horrible. I would have been really scared.”
While Timberlake could be there for both Biel during Phineas’ birth, she hopes their two young boys can see the 10-time Grammy winning superstar and one of the best-selling artists perform before he one day hangs up the mic and retires from his singing career.
“We want these little boys to see Daddy on stage,” added the Golden Globe-nominated actress. “He’s not going to do it like this forever. I mean, I’m just speaking for him and I may be way off, but I think there’s something about like, ‘I went after my dream. I’m working really hard. See this whole thing?'”
Shepard had Timberlake on the Jan. 25 episode of his podcast, where the former *NSYNC band member broke down his and Biel’s parenting philosophy when it comes to keeping their kids and their private life out of the public eye for as long as possible.
“I try to be conscious of making sure we can live a life where we’re not weirdly private, but we’re conscious of making sure they could be kids for as long as possible and not have the weight of somebody else treating them differently because of something that their parents do,” he said.
Listen to Biel and Shepard’s conversation on the latest episode of Armchair Expert below.