Jerry O’Connell Calls Daughter ‘Nepo Baby’ for Reading Lines Together

Jerry O’Connell is happily imparting his wisdom about acting on to his daughters, Charlie and Dolly, even if that means they’ll be nepo babies.

“I have one daughter who’s auditioning for the school musical,” O’Connell, 50, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting the series finales of The Talk and Star Trek: Lower Decks. “They’re doing Urinetown, so we went to Mel’s last night and we went over her lines in the diner, so that was really funny.”

The actor — who has been a cohost on The Talk since 2021 — noted that he doesn’t think his twin daughters, 16, think he’s “cool,” but that doesn’t stop him from passing his career wisdom down to them. (O’Connell shares his two teenagers with wife Rebecca Romijn.)

“I’m going to have a couple nepo babies! I’m throwing it out,” O’Connell joked, teasing that he wants to “pre-call” his kids nepo babies before “anyone else” can do it.

The Stand By Me star confessed that since acting is both his and his wife’s “family business,” his children are destined to become nepo babies. (The phrase refers to nepotism stemming from a famous person who is a descendent of another famous or powerful individual and is usually negative in context.)

“I’m good at two things in this life — I’m OK at acting and I’m OK at hosting a television show and that’s it. I’m in the fantasy football playoffs, too,” he said with a laugh. “Whatever!”

O’Connell explained that because of his skillset, running lines with his girls should give them a leg-up.

“I can sit down with my daughter who’s auditioning for a high school play at a diner, and I can say, ‘This is how you should say this line. This is how you should say this line. This is how you should say this line,’” he shared. “And it’s the only thing that I can impart on my children.”

He proceeded to troll himself for lack of knowledge about other things including financial advice, crypto currency and “surviving in the wilderness.”

O’Connell’s background, however, can help his kids “increase their chances for getting a good role” in the high school play. He noted that if one of his and Romijn’s daughters “happens to be tall,” she can also assist them with notes about modeling.

“She can say, ‘These are good positions for modeling if you want to model,’” he said of his wife’s added skills. “So we might be having a couple of nepo babies.”

O’Connell recalled telling one of his daughters at the Los Angeles diner, “They’re going to call you a nepo baby. It’s coming. The nepo baby is coming.” He then told his child, “You have to work for this. There’s no shortcuts. It’s going to be even harder for you!”

While his teen is just now getting into acting, O’Connell hasn’t ruled out working with one in the future — if they allow it. “I don’t know if my children will ever want to work with me!” he teased.

He confessed that right now, he’s just glad his girls are “not vaping” and there’s “no boys” in their orbit. “Their friends are starting to hook up. Their friends are starting to ‘get with.’ That’s what they said. ‘Get with.’ I hear that a lot,” O’Connell told Us, explaining that he overhears a lot during carpooling duty. “My kids, at least so I’m told, aren’t getting with anybody.”

He added that during his kids’ pre-license time, he feels like “a government agency” while “trying to get as much information I as possibly can” during each pick-up and drop-off exchange.

O’Connell noted that his time in the car with the teens will become even more prominent now that The Talk is ending after 15 seasons.

“I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll go to the gym more, I guess. My wife works on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, so someone’s gotta watch our kids, so I’ll hang out with them,” he told Us of his immediate plans after the series wraps on Friday, December 20.

“They are at that age where I have to drive them around, but they don’t really want me around, so it’s a lot of picking them up blocks away from parties,” he teased, joking, “It’s a lot like being in a car service. You sit and wait for the client to come out.”

While O’Connell isn’t always in the loop on what’s going on with his girls, he tries to give them advice — some of which he learned on The Talk.

“This show really taught me how to be a really good talk show host and it’s funny, I learned a tremendous amount from Kelly Ripa. I learned a tremendous amount from Wendy Williams,” he recalled, calling himself a “substitute teacher” after filling in for such big TV personalities prior to cohosting the CBS series.

He confessed, “I’m kind of depressed that it’s ending, and my family can sense it, too.” O’Connell revealed that during one of his infamous carpooling slots he overheard his daughters talk about the end of this chapter.

“I heard one of my kids in the back go, ‘Yeah, my dad’s show is ending so he’s gonna be hanging around a lot more. I hope he doesn’t get really weird or anything because we’re just gonna be seeing him around,’” he continued. “And I went, ‘Oh my gosh. This is getting serious.’”

O’Connell, who also voices Commander Jack Ransom on the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, noted that he’s open to any career opportunities moving forward.

“I would like to do another talk show. I enjoy it,” he told Us, adding that he also likes the idea of being a guest on a talk show promoting his own series. “Being on The Talk for the last 4 years, I’ve watched everyone bring their TV shows to our show and I want to bring my show on to somebody’s show.”

The Talk airs all week on CBS at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT with the final episode airing on Friday, December 20. Fans can see O’Connell on the series finale of Star Trek: Lower Deck on Paramount+ Thursday, December 19.

With reporting by Lanae Brody