The 'Till Death' actress told 'InStyle' magazine that she faces so much judgment when she's seen on a red carpet or with MGK.
Megan Fox is opening up about the judgment she faces every time she's photographed without her children. In a new interview with InStyle magazine, Fox said she faces a double-standard that dads don't face when it comes to being seen without their children in tow.
"There's so much judgment," Fox tells the magazine of being spotted without her three children, Noah, 8, Bodhi, 7 and Journey, 4, whom she shares with her ex, Brian Austin Green. "'Where are your kids?' 'Do you ask their dad when he's out?' No, because you don't expect a dad to be with the kids all the time, but I'm supposed to not be seen and be at home with my kids. They have another parent. I have to leave and sometimes I don't want them photographed and they don't come with me. This whole year I've been very surprised by how archaic some of the mindsets still are in some people."
Fox goes on to say those same mindsets have spilled over in the public perception of her relationship with rocker Machine Gun Kelly. Fox said she's been chastised for dating a "younger man," though MGK is just four years her junior.
"You want to talk about patriarchy? The fact that he's four years younger than me and people want to act like I'm dating a younger man. He's 31, and I'm 35. Granted, he's lived like he's 19 his whole life, but he isn't 19," the Till Death actress explained. "No one would blink twice if George Clooney was dating someone four years younger. Four years? Go f**k yourself. We would have been in high school together. That's so ridiculous that women are treated that way."
Fox is used to the criticism though. It's something she said she's faced most of her career, whether it be for the roles she's played or her Southern accent, but most recently, the actress said she had a breakthrough that allowed her to shed the armor she's put up against Hollywood's toughest critics -- the tabloids.
"I had to armor up so much inside myself, and I had to be so tough to have to process this really crazy heavy price for what I thought was doing the right thing," she shared. "I had this incredible breakthrough, and I realized that I had been living in a self-imposed prison for so long because I let other people tell me who I was or what I wasn't. I hid because I was hurt."
And that breakthrough has allowed her to rise up and get back to doing what she loves, a process she likened to a phoenix rising from the ashes.
"It is a little bit like being a phoenix, like being resurrected from the ashes," she shared.
While doing press for Till Death earlier this month, Fox got a surprise from her three adorable children when they crashed her Today show interview.
The actress was speaking with hosts Jenna Bush Hager and Savannah Guthrie remotely from her home. As the interview went on, all three of her young children could be seen in the background, trying to be subtle as they sneaked out of the room, waking up amid her early morning chat.
"They just woke up. It's 7 or 7:30 here. So, they woke up a few minutes ago," Fox said, stifling a laugh. "It just is what it is. We just have to make it work."
The kids continued to crawl around in the background, seemingly trying to be sneaky as they low-key crashed the interview, and Fox took it in stride.
Reflecting on being a mom to three kids, the actress said it's been tough for her to watch her boys grow up, because it's happened so quickly.
"I wish there was like a way... where you could, just every once in a while, for a day, put them all back to that like 2 or 3-year-old period," she said. "Because it's really hard to watch them grown up. I struggle with that a lot. I cry about it all the time because they grow up so fast."
"I also feel like no matter how engaged you are, or no matter how hard you were trying at the time, you always look back and you're like, 'I could have been more present,' or, 'I hope I was grateful for this while I was in that moment,'" she added.
For more on Fox, watch the video below.
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