Renee Zellweger Says Kids in Her Life Helped Her Play Bridget Jones

Renée Zellweger got candid about how she related to Bridget Jones’ new chapter in Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.

“She felt familiar in so many ways. I think I’ve recognized her because I understand what she’s been through,” Zellweger, 55, exclusively told Us Weekly at the red carpet premiere in New York City earlier this month. “I think it was important because it’s an authentic representation of a person who has reached this period in life. There’s not a lot of us who do without knowing grief and loss.”

At the end of the first three Bridget Jones films, Zellweger finds love with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). In Mad About the Boy, however, the audience learns that Mark has died, leaving Bridget a widow and single mother to their two children. The film explores Bridget navigating parenthood, work and modern dating.

While Zellweger is not a parent herself, she explained that she still found a way to connect to the motherhood aspect of the movie.

“I don’t have my own children, but there are a lot of children in my life — a lot of gals and gentlemen who I love who are kind of making their way through, you know, taking care of kids and trying not to mess them up,” she shared with Us. “‘Am I making the right decision?’ And all these things.”

Zellweger previously expressed that she used to relate to the societal pressure Bridget faced to get married and have children, but she believes that times have changed.

“To choose not to have children isn’t that exceptional, is it? I think it’s quite common,” she told The Irish Times earlier this month.

Although Zellweger has no kids of her own, she does spend time with boyfriend Ant Anstead’s children. (Anstead, 45, shares daughter Amelie, 21 and son Archie, 17, with ex-wife Louise Anstead and son Hudson, 5, with ex Christina Hall.) Anstead, who has been dating Zellweger since 2021, brought Amelie and Archie to the Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy premiere in London in January.

“Midweek movie night with the kiddos….” Anstead wrote via Instagram. “The Movie was absolutely utterly brilliant and the lead actress was mesmerising and smoking HOT (I have a mega crush on her!) I’ve let the missus know she’s my hall pass….X.”

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is now available to stream on Peacock.

With reporting by Antonio Ferme