Whether they are bilingual themselves (or just aspire to be), many celebrity parents see the value in raising kids who speak multiple languages. Because they started learning at a young age, their kids often become fluent in other languages quickly — and it’s so impressive to see!
Jimmy Fallon wrote a book to help his daughters learn Spanish alongside him; whereas, Serena Williams taught herself French and is now teaching her daughters. These kids are picking it up so fast, that many of them are teaching their non-bilingual parent the language, too (like Nick Jonas’s daughter Malti Marie, who learned Hindi from her mom Priyanka Chopra).
Of course, famous or not, raising a bilingual child doesn’t happen overnight. It requires exposing your child repeatedly to the new language, according to the Linguistic Society of America. And there are all sorts of strategies to do just that. Some parents swear by not allowing their kids to speak English at home, while others also enroll their kids in language courses or stock the family library with child-friendly books written in the other language.
The effort can be worth it, as there are plenty of benefits to being bilingual. It can help boost empathy, reading skills and the ability to multitask, to name just a few.
No matter what language their children are learning—or how they’re going about teaching it—we love seeing the way celebrity parents are broadening their kids’ horizons. Check out the famous moms and dads who are raising bilingual kids below.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas & Nick Jonas
Image Credit: Savion Washington/2026GG/Penske Media Priyanka Chopra Jonas did such a good job teaching daughter Malti, born in 2022, to speak Hindi, that now the toddler is teaching her dad! The Citadel star shared a sweet video of Malti correcting her dad Nick Jonas on the pronunciation of “ek,” or “one” in Hindu in Oct. 2024.
ADVERTISEMENT“In Hindi…” Malti begins in the video before trailing off. The Jonas Brothers singer asks, “In Hindi, what? What is it? ‘Ake’?”
“No, no, in Hindi, ek,” she corrects. Then she continues counting in Hindi with her adorable little voice.
Olivia Munn
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety Not only did Olivia Munn give her son Malcolm a bilingual name (his middle name, Hiệp, is Vietnamese), but also, she is teaching him to speak the language.
In an Oct. 2022 Instagram video with husband John Mulaney, Munn revealed, “His first word was Daddy/Dada 😍, his second word was chó (Vietnamese for dog), and his third word is car 🚘.”
Jeannie Mai
Image Credit: Jesse Grant/2026GG/Penske Media Jeannie Mai’s daughter Monaco, born in 2022, speaks Vietnamese with the sweetest raspy voice. In a 2023 appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, the proud mom explained, “I’m teaching her Vietnamese, so she speaks English and Vietnamese. I mean, she pretty much understands everything we say in Vietnamese, which is so cool because that’s how I learned to speak. I have to speak it fully at home, and then when you go to school, you’ll learn English like that [snaps].”
“Monaco is going to experience all of the cultures that the melting pot that is San Jose has,” the Raid the Cage host added. “I want Monaco to feel where I came from and to understand that my parents immigrated here, straight to the Bay from Vietnam, and there’s so much life that came from that.”
Serena Williams
Image Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety Ever since Serena Williams’ daughter Adira, born in 2023, and Olympia, born in 2017, were born, the 23-time Grand Slam champion has been teaching them French. She’s shared several videos of these casual French lessons, like when she coached Adira to pick up the “bleue” (blue) toy, then the “verte” (green) toy while playing. She makes it look so easy!
Cardi B
Image Credit: Alberto Rodriguez/Variety Cardi B has been teaching her daughter Blossom, born in 2024, Spanish. In a video obtained by Hola, her daughter asks for “agua” (water), and the proud mom encourages her to say it again.
In Aug. 2022, Cardi B shared a video of her daughter Kulture, born in 2018, speaking Spanish while visiting relatives in the Dominican Republic. It’s clear teaching her kids Spanishi is a priority!
Jimmy Fallon & Nancy Juvonen
Image Credit: John Nacion/Variety Jimmy Fallon and wife Nancy Juvonen have been introducing their daughters Winnie, born in 2013, and Frances, born in 2014, to different languages since they were born.
“As soon as they were born, we were reading to them,” Fallon told E! News in Oct. 2022, “and when you get nerdy when you have your first baby you get so into reading every book and every article about how do we make our kids geniuses.’”
He continued, “I got all these different books in different languages. I got Green Eggs and Ham in Italian, but the whole book is in Italian. I don’t know how to speak Italian.”
The Saturday Night Live alum even wrote a Spanish-English children’s book, Con Pollo, with Jennifer Lopez, to encourage other parents to teach their kids a new language.
“My kids are learning Spanish in school now,” he added. “So this is perfect for their age group.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda & Vanessa Nadal
Image Credit: John Nacion/Variety When Lin-Manuel Miranda’s son Sebastian, born in 2014, was just 2, he was already bilingual. The Hamilton creator, who shares Sebastian and son Francisco, born in 2018, with wife Vanessa Nadal, told PEOPLE in Nov. 2016, “It’s adorable to see him sense who he’s talking to and translate. He’ll be like, ‘Leche?’ No, Milk?’ and that’s kind of incredible. He’s like a sponge and he’s got a smattering of German, too. My mother-in-law is Austrian, so he’s got one language up on me.”
Eva Longoria
Image Credit: Elizabeth Goodenough/Everett Collection Eva Longoria revealed in a June 2023 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show that her son Santiago, born in 2018, speaks better Spanish than she does.
“I didn’t grow up speaking Spanish,” the Desperate Housewives alum said, per PEOPLE. “We lived in Mexico City and I was just shooting in Spain. He’s super fluent and corrects me all the time and he does it with, like, attitude.”
“He’s so disappointed in my Spanish,” she added.
Alejandra Gere & Richard Gere
Image Credit: Kristin Callahan/Everett Collection Richard Gere lives in Spain with wife Alejandra Gere and their two sons Alexander, born in 2019, and James, born in 2020. He told Page Six in April 2025, “My wife is so happy there. Her family is there, her culture is there, [our] youngest kids are growing up there, their Spanish is perfect.”
Amal Clooney & George Clooney
Image Credit: Nina Westervelt for Variety George Clooney admitted in 2022 that he and his wife Amal made a “terrible mistake” by having twins Ella and Alexander learn a second language.
“We taught them Italian,” George said on an appearance on CBS Mornings. But we don’t speak Italian. So, we’ve armed them with a language that they can harm us with, and we don’t really know what they’re saying.”
Heidi Klum
Image Credit: Nina Westervelt for Variety Heidi Klum’s kids Leni, born in 2004, Henry, born in 2005, Johan, born in 2006, and Lou, born in 2009 — who she shares with ex husband Seal — all speak German. Teaching them is something she feels strongly about. “They’re bilingual. Completely,” the model told PEOPLE in April 2009. “You owe that to your children if you have the ability to speak another language.”
Zoe Saldaña
Image Credit: Alberto Rodriguez for Variety Zoe Saldaña’s three kids — twins Cy and Bowie, born in 2014, and Zen, born in 2016, who she shares with husband Marco Perego — are trilingual and confidently speak English, Italian, and Spanish.
“They understand all three languages, and they also choose who they speak the languages with,” the actress told PEOPLE in 2017. “So with their Italian grandparents they will speak in Italian, with their [Spanish-speaking] grandparents they speak in Spanish, and with Mama and Papa they will speak back in English — but they understand in any language we speak to them.”
Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt
Image Credit: Gregorio T. Binuya/Everett Collection Brangelina may be no more, but Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s combined efforts to teach their children multiple languages are still going strong. “None of my kids want to be actors, thank God,” Jolie said while hosting a BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour June 2016 segment. “They’re interested in being musicians. And they are all learning different languages.”
Jolie revealed that their six children speak seven languages among them. “All the kids are learning different languages,” she said. “I asked them what languages they wanted to learn, and Shi is learning Khmai, which is the Cambodian language, Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Z is speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic, and Knox is learning sign language.”
Chris Hemsworth & Elsa Pataky
Image Credit: Jason Mendez/Everett Collection Chris Hemsworth is supportive of his wife, Spanish actress and model Elsa Pataky, teaching their children to be fluent in Spanish. The couple share daughter India, born in 2012, and twin sons Tristan and Sasha, born in 2014. “Yeah, they’re fluent in Spanish,” Hemsworth said during an April 2018 Ellen interview. While the actor admits he can only speak “one sentence” of his wife’s native language, he says his children fluent. “When I hear the Spanish directed at me, it’s usually unfortunate, controversial, aggressive situations,” he said. “So I’m just thinking, ‘What is she saying right now?’ and, ‘What’s my comeback to this?’ When we’re fighting, basically, which is never! If she gets angry enough, she’ll drop the English façade.”
Eva Mendes & Ryan Gosling
Image Credit: Elizabeth Goodenough/Everett Collection Eva Mendes and husband Ryan Gosling have gotten candid about the challenges that come with raising their daughters, Amada and Esmeralda, bilingual. “I’m Cuban… so yeah, we’re trying to teach the kids Spanish, and it’s harder than I thought,” Mendes said in a May 2019 interview on The Talk. “Because I speak Spanglish and that’s what they’re picking up. So it’s adorable, but it’s technically not a language. It’s Spanglish.”
Mendes has also opened up about her efforts to immerse her children in Cuban culture. “We’re constantly playing Cuban music,” Mendes said in an August 2016 Vanity Fair interview. “I speak to them in Spanish, and my mom speaks to Esmeralda in Spanish. Well, now she speaks to both of them in Spanish. Any time I have an opportunity to introduce her or them… to my culture, whether it’s through music, or through food, I do.”
Matthew McConaughey & Camila Alves
Image Credit: Priscilla Grant/Everett Collection Matthew McConaughey’s wife, Camila Alves, is from Brazil, so naturally the famous couple are raising their children to speak her native language, Portuguese. “The kids are taking Portuguese classes for the last week,” right before their family headed to Brazil to visit Alves’ relatives, McConaughey said in a December 2016 interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “They already know a lot of Portuguese, but they’re taking Portuguese classes five hours a day for the last week in preperation for going on this trip.”
Ricky Martin & Jwan Yosef
Image Credit: JA/Everett Collection Ricky Martin is very open about life with soon-to-be ex-husband Jwan Yosef and their four children: twins Valentino and Matteo (b. 2013), Lucia (b. 2018), and Renn (b. 2019). The singer credits them for helping him to come out, and one reason he says he talks about them so often is to help “normalize” families like his. One particularly unique aspect of life in their household? Multiple languages are spoken.
In a September 2013 Ellen interview, Martin said he and Yosef speak Spanish and English in the house. And Valentino and Matto go to a French school, meaning the older boys can speak Spanish, English and French. “That’s the beautiful thing about New York,” Martin said of the city where the family has a home. “It’s such a diverse city, culturally speaking, and you have the opportunity to bring your kids to this school that goes by the French system,” Martin said. “I want them to be exposed more.”
Shakira & Gerard Piqué
Image Credit: Dee Cercone/Everett Collection Shakira and her ex Gerard Piqué, share children Milan, born in 2013, and Sasha, born in 2015. The Colombian singer launched a bilingual parenting app called Grow, in partnership with Fisher-Price, back in 2016. While promoting the app, Shakira offered some insight into her own experience raising bilingual children.
“It helps if they are able to associate a person with a language at this early stage, to minimize language confusion,” Shakrai told Popsugar in March 2016. “Their father, for example, always speaks to them in Catalan. I try to speak to them in mostly English, but if I switch, I try to not mix two languages in one sentence.”
Rosamund Pike & Robie Uniake
Image Credit: Gregorio T. Binuya/Everett Collection Rosamund Pike and husband Robie Uniake share sons Solo, born in 2012, and Atom, born in 2014. In a February 2021 interview on The Graham Norton Show, Pike revealed that their children speak Mandarin — and that it was mainly her husband’s idea.
“I’ve got my kids homeschooling me,” Pike said. “Because my kids speak Mandarin, and I don’t. They grew up bilingual, really, because my partner thought he was going to have more kids, because he had had four already, and he thought it might be exciting for him to talk to them in a language that we don’t already know,” Pike said. “So he taught himself Chinese from the ground-up.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, she finally learned the language herself. “He’s basically talking to them in a language I don’t understand so I thought maybe lockdown was a good opportunity for me to catch up,” she said.
Salma Hayek & François-Henri Pinault
Image Credit: Jason Smith/Everett Collection Actress Salma Hayek and her husband, François-Henri Pinault, share an only child, Valentina, born in 2007. At just 2 years old, the famous couple’s daughter was already trilingual. “She speaks three languages,” Hayek told People Moms & Babies in April 2010. “She’s speaking fluently…English, Spanish, and French,” Pinault added. “She can have a conversation.”
At the time, Hayek was also learning multiple languages alongside her tot. “It’s amazing how fast it comes,” Pinault continued. “She’s teaching French to her mother.”
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