Eddie Murphy has a strict rule when it comes to his children’s career choices.
The actor, who is set to reprise one of his most iconic roles next year when he stars in Beverly Hills Cop 4, may have a long and successful career in the entertainment industry - but when it comes to his kids he insists on one rule.
While plenty of famous parents are happy for their kids to follow in their footsteps - so much so, we regularly see stars accused of being ‘nepo babies’ - it seems that Murphy wants to ensure his brood are old enough to know what they’re getting into.
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Murphy, 62, has ten children: Eric, 34, Bria, 34, Myles, 31, Shayne, 29, Zola, 23, and Bella, 21, all of whom he shares with ex-wife Nicole Mitchell.
With former girlfriend Tamara Hood, he shares Christian, 33, and with the Spice Girls’ Mel B he has Angel, 16.
His ninth and tenth children, Izzy, seven, and Max, five, were born to Murphy and his fiancée Paige Butcher.
“I am so blessed with my kids,” he once said during an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.
“I don't have one bad seed. I don't have any like 'Oh you are the one.' I don't have any of that.
"My kids are so great, normal people — and nobody is like the Hollywood jerk kid.”
The latter may be due to the Coming to America actor’s insistence that his ten children don’t get a taste for Hollywood until they are old enough to handle it.
If Murphy’s children do ever want to follow in their father’s footsteps and into the world of film, they have to abide by one strict rule - be of a certain age.
In March 2021, daughter Bella told Yahoo Entertainment that the family are ‘not allowed to work in this industry until we’re 18’.
And back in 2020, he discussed his kids’ age ban with Vanity Fair, saying: “Getting it right, and getting it right with the director, and getting it right with the writers, and having everything work together—that takes a lot of effort, you know, and it’s strenuous.
“I had gotten to where I was just so burnt out on the process of making a movie that if I was a little boy I would start crying.”
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the Shrek star said that Bella persuaded him to lift the age ban so that she could appear alongside him in Coming 2 America.
Bella, then 17, apparently had to audition for the role the old-fashioned way as her dad was not willing to ‘muscle her into the movie’.
"I told her that she couldn't work until she was 18, but she started acting lessons, she was doing an acting school and stuff for maybe two years before that,” he said.
“The role was her age, it was somebody her age, so I was like, 'Mmkay, this is your age, you can go up for this.'”
Following his performance in Coming 2 America, Murphy starred in 2023 American romantic comedy movie You People.
Topics: Celebrity, Eddie Murphy, TV and Film
Claire Reid