Kristin Davis doesn't hold back when it comes to discussing her children's adoption journey [1]. On an episode of the Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk, the Sex and the City [2] actress opened up about how she adopted her 7-year-old daughter Gemma [3] and her son (whose name hasn't been released yet) in 2018.
"Because my children are African American I feel like it is my duty and my job to do as much research, as much work, build as many bridges as possible because you are their community," she said. "And that is key. And that is so important. So I work at it every day, trying to figure how I can make sure they have access to the black community, that they're part of it."
The actress told Jada Pinkett Smith [5] and Adrienne Banfield-Jones that she felt the pull towards adoption when she turned 38. "I had already thought about [adoption] . . . it had seemed like an option for me for a very long time," explained Kristin. "I felt like there was a child out there who I needed to find that was my child. I can't explain it. It was a spiritual kind of a thing . . . [Adoption] is a long road. It's not an easy road."
After sharing that she took between 50 and 60 hours of parenting courses — one which involves how to do black hair [6] — the 54-year-old mom shared that she feels that birth mothers don't get acknowledged enough. "No birth mother does this for a casual reason," she explained. "It comes from a tragedy or a situation that is negative . . . and it is a sacrifice of gargantuan level that they make."
Raising two African American children has also opened Kristin's eye to just how much white privilege exists. While she was aware of it as a concept, it was sort of abstract in a way. Now with her kids, she feels and sees it constantly.
"You absolutely do not fully understand [white privilege]," she said. "There's no doubt . . . There's no way you could. Because you could understand that you live in white privilege and that's a theory. But it's one thing to be watching it happening to other people, and it's another thing when it's your child. And you haven't personally been through it. It's a big issue. It's something I think about every day and every night."