Jennifer Flavin, Wife of Sylvester Stallone, Links Celebrity Culture to Rise in Transgender-Identifying Children

Jennifer Flavin, wife of actor Sylvester Stallone, is questioning what she views as a troubling pattern among Hollywood parents—particularly the growing number of children who identify as transgender in celebrity families.

In a recent episode of “The Katie Miller Podcast,” Flavin, a businesswoman and former model, said she believes the phenomenon reflects the entertainment industry’s culture that failed to provide children with “structure” to help them make sense of the world around them.

“I just think Hollywood is, you know, it’s all about expression,” Flavin told host Katie Miller. “So, you know, however you want to express yourself. If you feel like a cat today, you’re a cat. And it’s so loosey-goosey.”

She continued, “I don’t think that we’re really understanding that these kids are not our accessories. They’re little human beings that need structure. And structure is really important for them because it helps their brain organize everything.”

Flavin described what she sees as an absence of stability in many celebrity households, suggesting that wealth and privilege often replace direct parenting.

“Growing up in a Hollywood home, there’s really no structure because you have this thing going, and you’ve got private planes. And you’ve got all these giant homes with chefs and secretaries and assistants and, you know, housekeepers and nannies,” she said. “And there’s just too much of everything. It gets really confusing for a little person.”

While she said adults should be free to make their own choices, Flavin emphasized that children require guidance and discipline before exploring identity questions. “It’s OK what you decide to be as an adult,” she said. “But raise them just with good common sense.”

Flavin pointed to her own experience raising three daughters—Sophia, Sistine, and Scarlet—with Stallone.

“My daughters were all tomboys,” she recalled. “They preferred to wear pants than dresses, you know? And they loved sports. But I never said, ‘Oh, you’re a boy now.’ I just said, ‘You love to play sports, you love to hang out with boys, that’s awesome.’”

Her remarks come amid growing attention to Hollywood figures who are known to raise or support transgender-identifying or nonbinary children. Several actors and musicians—including Jamie Lee Curtis, Cher, Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro, Gabrielle Union, Liev Schreiber, and Dwyane Wade—have spoken openly about raising or supporting children who identify as transgender or gender nonconforming.

Flavin, 57, first rose to fame as a model in the late 1980s and later built a career as an entrepreneur, co-founding the skincare brand Serious Skincare. She married Stallone in 1997 after an on-and-off relationship that began in the late 1980s.