My family was never cultural in that we never went to see plays, my mum wasn’t very into films.
My mum lives in Boston; she’s famous for teaching wushu and t’ai chi. So from when I was young, my mum and aunt were like: ‘You’re training; you’re not playing baseball or football.’ Training every day was normal. Later, when I was almost a teenager, Bruce Lee became my idol.
I think, you know, we entered the ‘The X Factor’ in the U.K., and you kind of want someone who knows what they’re talking about to tell you if you’re any good or not instead of just your mum saying that you like it when you sing.
The work my mum does, a lot of it is re-housing homeless people, that’s a real job. I play make-believe and dressing up for a living!
My mum was critical in getting me to recognise very early on that although what I was doing was pretty serious, quite selfish, and probably to most people pretty obsessive, there actually was more to life than running quickly twice round a track.
My mum made a conscious decision not to teach me any Indian languages so I wouldn’t talk with an accent.
My childhood memories are filled with hugs and kisses from both my mum and dad. My mum has a thing about kissing you an odd number of times: if she kisses you once, all good, but if she kisses you twice, then you know another one has to follow and, weirdly, she tends to go for the forehead.
I have to give credit to my mum for my music taste. She’s white and Welsh but she listens to dancehall, reggae, Reggaeton.’
My dad is a builder, and my mum’s a nurse. They’re just very normal people.
My father made sure of discipline, but my mum, she was serious business.
I won’t eat veal, and my mum won’t eat lamb, because she thinks it’s a bit harsh to eat cute things.
When I was 12, my mum put us in a summer camp meant for children from low-income families. It was in upstate New York where we had to live in tents, fetch water, cook our meals, and even dig our own toilet bowls.
My parents have always been very supportive and it hasn’t been an issue. Mum worried I might get more problems in life because of my bisexuality but I think people are more liberal now.
My mum has always said I am too hard on myself. But I have always been like that and it has always helped me. After matches I focus only on what I did wrong. Never what I did well.
My father was having an affair with a 16-year-old when Mum was pregnant with me. She found out when I was three weeks old and left, not surprisingly.
I remember I was unsure about doing ‘Shameless.’ I’d never acted in anything so commercial. I read the script in the garden with my mum, Mary. She said it’s filthy dirty, but she said these people have love and sex and nothing else. That made me take the role.
My mum is great for keeping hold of old classics – pieces of clothing that never age and never go out of fashion. She also says, ‘Make sure you always smile – it makes everything look better!’
Being a mum has made me a lot more responsible, it’s not just me anymore. But it’s also brought me the most joy ever!
The kids think we’re wacky. Mum and Dad are in showbiz – they don’t know any other way. They’ve grown up travelling all over the world and are getting a worldly education. My son is 12 and he can speak eloquently on religions and cultures.
I come from a family of working women, my mum went to work two weeks after I was born – my parents had no money, there was no choice.
I always remember smelling Chanel No. 5 at home – my mum used to literally pour it, and she rocked it.
I did a term at Cambridge University studying medicine, so I could potentially have followed in Mum and Dad’s footsteps and become a doctor.
I had this maroon ‘Lion King’ tracksuit that my mum couldn’t take off me. I wore it until the sleeves ended at my elbows and the trousers ended at my knees.
I’m going to be a strict mum. I know that love is the most important thing – you’ve got to have lots of kisses and cuddles – but you also need to mix it with discipline or you’ll be in a heap of trouble.
There’s nothing nicer than coming back to your village, where people like my mum’s friends take the mick out of me. I prefer that to the craziness of Hollywood.
I’m so thankful that Mum taught me to cook, because not every day is a takeaway day.
Like my mum, I sometimes buy things I shouldn’t and fill my house with rubbish.
Men and women have different ideas of what constitutes tidiness. I tend to think it’s about things being clean, but my mum and girlfriend are more about how things look.
My dad is a minister, and my mum is a worker with the less fortunate and the disabled. They’re Nigerian natives. Their first language is Yoruba, and their second language is English.
I had the best of both worlds when I was a kid. I’d spend a quiet week with my mum, then I’d go to my dad’s property in the Adelaide Hills, where there were all these kids and animals running around.
Modeling is a job. Even my mum doesn’t believe that I do work hard.
Mum and Dad used to do a lot of entertaining. We had quite a nice house, so everybody descended on us at Christmas – aunts and uncles, who weren’t even aunts and uncles.
