Meet Rebecca Romijn And Jerry O'Connell's Twin Daughters
Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell first crossed paths at Maxim magazine's Hot 100 pool party in 2004, and evidently, the sparks flew right away. As Jerry recounted to People, "Day one, we clicked." Though they connected immediately, Romijn was still technically married to John Stamos (Romijn and Stamos separated in 2003). And so, Romijn and Jerry didn't act on their feelings right away. "I know shenanigans go on, but no shenanigans happened," "The View" co-host insisted to the outlet.
Of course, they didn't wait too long act on those aforementioned feelings. A few months later, they officially started dating, and in 2005, they were engaged. Two years later, they got hitched. And the following year, they became parents to Charlie Tamara Tulip and Dolly Rebecca Rose O'Connell.
A month before their daughters arrived, Romijn told Page Six (via People) that she couldn't wait to be a mom. "I was never a girl who dreamed about what her wedding day would be like, but I've always dreamed about decorating my baby's nursery," she said. And clearly, she wasn't the only excited new parent. In a 2009 feature for People, Jerry gushed about fatherhood. "There's something fun about it. It's like having a new car except it's two lives," he joked. "I'm proud." Whether they're posing in a Got Milk? ad or helping their mom with jewelry designs, the twins keep on making Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell proud.
One of the twins was named after a legendary country singer
After initially facing some complications with pregnancy, Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell welcomed Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell to the world on December 28, 2008. Charlie was named after Jerry's younger brother, Charlie O'Connell. While Dolly was not named after a family member, she was named after someone very special to Romijn.
On a 2009 episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," Romijn told the audience that Dolly was named after the country singer Dolly Parton. "I have incredible emotional ties to her music ... and I had an opportunity to meet her when I was six months pregnant, and I saw her perform at Dollywood," the supermodel shared. "Right before her show, I sat with her, and she asked me what I was thinking of naming my daughters, and I said, 'I'm thinking about Dolly for one of them.'"
Parton was beyond ecstatic. On a 2015 episode of "Today," Romijn revealed that Parton suggested she use her middle name, too. (It also happens to be Romijn's first name.) "I got a letter from her in my mailbox — on butterfly stationery! — that said, 'I forgot to tell you while you were here, my middle name is Rebecca. You should name her Dolly Rebecca after the two of us together,'" she recalled.
Rebecca Romijn's daughters were in a Got Milk? ad
Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn have made an effort to keep their family life relatively private over the years, but that's not to say Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell haven't had a few moments in the spotlight.
In 2010, for example, Dolly and Charlie appeared alongside their mother in a "Got Milk?" ad. For Romijn, this came 12 years after she last posed for the company. Back in 1998, she threw on a bikini, headed out to Times Square, and struck a pose in the pouring rain — and evidently, that was a breeze compared to the photoshoot she did with her 1-year-old daughters.
While Charlie gave photographers an easy time, Dolly was the opposite. "I thought that Dolly was going to be all over it," she told the publication. "I thought she was going to be loving it [but] Charlie was loving it — loving the lights, loving everyone standing around looking at her." Although the photograph eventually came out perfect, Romijn suggested that there weren't a lot of options to choose from. "I think this is one of maybe three frames where Dolly wasn't screaming her head off ... I was like, 'I'll take [the 1998] madness over this madness,'" she said. "Jerry was probably doing cartwheels behind the photographer trying to get them to calm down."
The twins have an odd interest in public restrooms
After Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell arrived, Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell took turns staying home while the other worked. Once the twins got a little older, they started traveling with their parents on a regular basis. As a result, both Dolly and Charlie developed a rather peculiar travel-related interest.
Back when Dolly and Charlie were 4 years old, Romijn told People that her twins not only enjoyed being in airports, but had a specific request for travel days. "They love visiting airport bathrooms, which we all have to do together — three people in a bathroom is no joke," she said.
In a separate chat with People, Jerry remarked on his kids' appreciation for public restrooms. "Everywhere we go, they want to know if there's a bathroom because they want to use it," he said. "They're big girls now, and they go number one and number two in bathrooms, and they want to see every bathroom that they can across this great land of ours."
Rebecca Romijn didn't want to let the twins have cell phones
Raising kids in the social media age is no joke. Like many parents, Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell weren't exactly keen on the idea of Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell getting their own cell phones.
In 2019, Romijn told Us Weekly that her daughters, who were 10 years old at the time, really wanted phones. However, she was not ready to open that door. "That's not happening for as long as I can possibly go," she said. "I've been told that grades suffer when kids get phones. So they'll be 20 before I get them a phone! My kids are nagging me about it because a lot of their friends already have them. ... [Those parents] are ruining it for the rest of us."
Alas, the girls did not have to wait until they turned 20 before they were added to their parents' cell phone plan. On March 10, 2021, Romijn took to Instagram to update her fans on her twin daughter's relationship with technology. Alongside a photo of the two girls holding iPhones, she wrote, "Held off as long as we could, fought a good fight, but they got phones. Goodbye childhood."
The twins clash from time to time
It isn't out of the ordinary for siblings to argue, but apparently, one of Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell's earliest fights was too much for dad Jerry O'Connell. In an aforementioned interview with People, Jerry shared that he was blindsided when his twins, who were 4 years old at the time, locked horns over an article of clothing. "I saw a physical altercation," he said. "I've never seen anything like it." Evidently, it all had to do with one of the daughters deciding she wanted to start wearing dresses. The actor explained, "One was always feminine, always [wearing] dresses and very girly, and then the other one only wanted to wear pants and t-shirts. But the one who wore pants and t-shirts now wants to wear dresses, and they had their first argument over a dress."
In 2018, Rebecca Romijn suggested to Us Weekly that she'd been having a tough time keeping the peace amongst her twin daughters. "They finally got their own rooms, and oddly, they're fighting more now that they have their own rooms," she told the publication. "Like, all of a sudden, they're more important than they used to be. They feel like they're all high and mighty. They're acting like teenagers already."
They tend to find their father embarrassing
Between his decades-spanning filmography and his various hosting gigs, it's clear that Jerry O'Connell's big personality has served him well in his career. As for how his own kids feel about his antics? Well, that's another story.
Early in his parenting journey, the "Stand by Me" actor noted in People that he loved making Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell laugh. "I think of myself as a funny guy but nobody thinks I'm funnier than my daughters," he said. As they entered their preteen stage, however, that all changed. In a 2018, for example, Jerry told E! News, that his attempt at the "In My Feelings" challenge fell flat for his kids. "It's crazy. I'm just starting to sense that they're not going to like me for the next few years," he quipped.
Despite this, the doting father doesn't seem to mind being the embarrassing parent for a little while. In 2019, Jerry took to X (formerly Twitter) to share a particularly "classic dad" moment that he filmed while driving around with Dolly and Charlie. In the clip, he sings along with Prince's "When Doves Cry" as Dolly and Charlie beg for him to stop. At one point, Dolly exclaims, "Dad, turn this down! We're next to the high school!"
They inspired their mom's jewelry line name
In 2020, Rebecca Romijn launched her very own jewelry line called Charlie Dolly Jewelry. The company, which was named after Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell, not only gave Romijn a chance to get into the accessories game, but connect with her kids creatively.
As Romijn told People, her twin daughters, who were 11 at the time, were heavily involved in creating designs for her jewelry line. "The sketchbook for my designs came in a pack of three, and the girls said, 'Mom, we want one,'" she recalled. "So I handed them each a sketchbook, and the three of us spent a couple weekends just laying around sketching jewelry designs." Luckily, Dolly and Charlie seem to have a knack for jewelry designs. So much so that Romijn suggested she was planning on using some of their ideas in the near future. "They have been helpful and supportive. They're a couple of sparkly little diamonds themselves," she stated.
They aren't the next Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
If Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell were to one day pursue careers in Hollywood, they certainly would not be the first children of celebrities to do so. However, Rebecca Romijn is in no hurry to send them down that path. "That [show business] world isn't a pressure I'm willing to let them experience until they're grown up," she told the Daily Telegraph in 2016 (via Daily Mail). "I think it's so important to let kids be kids."
That said, Jerry O'Connell accidentally became a "stage parent" when one of the girls auditioned for a play in grade school. As the former child star told Us Weekly in 2016, he was adamant that both kids try out for the show, even though only one showed interest. "My wife got really upset with me and said, 'You can't make them do these things if they don't want to do them.'" he recalled. "For some reason, I thought my kids were like the Olsen twins. I was like, 'You gotta get out there. You have to audition.' And my kid just didn't want to do it."
When asked about his daughters' future acting careers in a 2020 interview with Closer Weekly, Jerry said their priorities were elsewhere. "I have twin daughters. I would love to get me some of that Olsen twin money," he quipped. "I love my daughters, they're the best. I'm just not sure they themselves express that much interest."
Dolly and Charlie O'Connell slowly became Star Trek fans
Rebecca Romijn got her start in the modeling world, but when she dove into the "X-Men" franchise in the 2000s, her acting career was off to the races. In 2019, she became a fixture of another beloved franchise when she joined the cast of "Star Trek: Discovery." She then went on to be one of the stars of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." Jerry O'Connell also lends his voice to the animated series "Star Trek: Lower Decks"
Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell have since become "Star Trek" fans, but their parents' involvement in the franchise wasn't the only draw. "They're down with it ever since they found out Paul Wesley is a part of it," Romijn told People at a 2022 "Star Trek" convention. "My girls are 13, so they were like, 'Did you say Paul Wesley? Oh, we're on board. We are 100% board.'"
The year prior, Romijn told People that she and Jerry had already begun trying to share their love of "Star Trek" with their kids. "It's been an education for them, for sure," she said. Looks like the curriculum was just missing Stefan Salvatore.
The twins couldn't believe their mom was married to Uncle Jesse
Before Jerry O'Connell, Rebecca Romijn was previously linked to "Full House" star John Stamos. The two wed in 1998, and by 2005, their marriage was officially over. For years, Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell were totally in the dark about their mom's previous relationship. But as Jerry said in a 2018 interview with Access Hollywood, that all changed when the twins said Uncle Jesse was their favorite "Full House" character. "I was like, 'Girls, I'm going to show you something on the internet and it's going to blow your mind.'" Jerry recalled. On a 2015 episode of "Watch What Happens Live," the "Joe's Apartment" actor quipped that his kids were disappointed their mom wasn't with Stamos anymore.
However, things took a turn once the girls learned that Stamos referred to Romijn as "the devil" in his 2023 memoir, "If You Would Have Told Me." On a 2023 episode of "Radio Andy," Jerry shared that they had to talk about it with their 14-year-old twins and it wasn't exactly a comfortable chat. "It's funny," he began. "When that's all happening a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I know about it. ... But it's pretty crazy when your kids come out for breakfast, and they go, 'Hey, mom, your ex has a book out and called you the devil. What are your thoughts?' You know. 'Why did he call you that?'"
Dolly and Charlie O'Connell are allowed to make mistakes
On December 28, 2024, Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell will be old enough to obtain their driver's licenses. It's an exciting milestone, but it's also a little nerve-racking for their parents, Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell.
On a 2023 episode of "The Talk," Jerry shared that he was still grappling with the idea of his two kids growing up and being out on the road on their own. "That's a little scary," he said, "but there is a part of my wife and I who are like, we let stuff go. I like co-parenting with my wife because we do allow our children to make mistakes and figure it out for themselves."
While Jerry and Romijn want them to "figure it out for themselves," that doesn't mean they won't be the doting parents they need. In another 2023 episode of "The Talk," Jerry told his co-hosts that Dolly and Charlie would always have a "get out of jail free" card with him if they ever needed it. "I have two 14-year-old daughters who are just entering that age of going to parties and maybe staying out a little bit late. ... I have one rule, and that's you can call me anytime, and just let me know where you are, and I'll come get you," he said. "I won't ask any questions."
Rebecca Romijn's twins influence her career moves
After Rebecca Romijn became a mom to Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip O'Connell, she struggled to achieve the right work-life balance. "I don't know if I can ever find that balance," she told Parade in 2012. "I had to leave the girls with their grandparents for five days this week and go to New York to do press for the movie and I experienced so much guilt." As a result, Romijn eventually became selective when it came to deciding which gigs she would take on.
In a 2016 interview with the Associated Press talking about her stint in "The Librarian," she dug into why she won't take any old job that might be thrown her way nowadays. "It's important for me now ... to choose projects that we're all able to enjoy together at the end so that they understand what it is that's taking me away from them for so long," she admitted.
As mindful as Romijn might be when it comes to picking projects, it isn't always a given that her kids will like said projects. At the 2024 Critics' Choice Awards, Romijn told Fox News that her daughters aren't exactly afraid to mince words when it comes to her acting jobs. "A lot of it has to do with the fact that they lose me to this show for some time," she said. "I have to make sure I'm doing a great job so that they can be impressed when I finally do come home."