Steven Spielberg Says Wife Kate Capshaw Has 'Made Such a Life for Me': 'Directing Has Taken Second Position to My Parenting'
Steven Spielberg Says Wife Kate Capshaw Has 'Made Such a Life for Me': 'Directing Has Taken Second Position to My Parenting'
Kristen O'Brien, Yamillah HurtadoTue, March 17, 2026 at 7:23 PM UTC
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Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg at the 'Hamnet' screening at the 69th BFI London Film Festival on October 11, 2025Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage -
Steven Spielberg opens up about his family life during a panel at the 2026 SXSW Conference and Festival in Austin on Friday, March 13
“That is the real stuff,” the legendary filmmaker said of the family he’s built with wife Kate Capshaw
Spielberg and Capshaw share seven kids — Jessica, Max, Theo, Sasha, Sawyer, Mikaela and Destry — and have six grandchildren
Steven Spielberg reveals that being a director isn’t his number one priority.
During a panel at the 2026 SXSW Conference and Festival in Austin on Friday, March 13, the Oscar-winning filmmaker, 79, spoke about his life off a movie set, explaining that he is first and foremost a husband and a father.
“Kate [Capshaw] has made such a life for me, and we brought seven kids into the world, two of them adopted. We now have six grandchildren,” he said. “And that is the real stuff.”
Spielberg continued, “It’s not the stuff that I fall back on when I’m not directing. Directing, actually, has, in the last 20 years, taken second position to my parenting and to all their needs. That paradigm has really changed, and it changed very quickly for me. And so that’s really my life.”
Steven Spielberg and family attend the "Young Ones" Dinner And Party in January 2014 in Park City, UtahCredit: Craig Barritt/Getty
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The legendary director first met Capshaw when she was cast in his 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. After two years of dating, the pair tied the knot in October 1991 and blended their families.
Capshaw became a mother to Spielberg’s son Max, 40, whom he shares with his ex-wife Amy Irving. The Jurassic Park director became a father to the actress’s two kids, Jessica, 49, and Theo, 37. The couple went on to have four children together — Sasha, 35, Sawyer, 32, Mikaela, 30, and Destry, 29.
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Sawyer Spielberg, Kate Capshaw, Steven Spielberg and Destry Allyn Spielberg at the 55th New York Film Festival in October 2017Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Spielberg has previously opened up about turning down projects to spend more time with his wife and children. In a conversation with director S.S. Rajamouli for Reliance Entertainment in 2023, the award-winning director revealed he turned down the offer to direct the first Harry Potter film, 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
“I sacrificed a great franchise, which, today looking back, I’m very happy to have done to be with my family,” he said.
Spielberg continues, “The choice I had to make in taking a job that would move me to another country for four or five months where I wouldn't see my family every day … that was really a rending, ripping kind of experience.”
In his SXSW panel, the Disclosure Day director noted that his best stories are preserved for his kids.
“I’ve been telling stories my whole life,” he explained. “My best stories have never been released by the way, because I had seven kids and I’d go from room to room, like a doctor making house calls. So my best stories, actually, my kids have benefited from, not the audiences. But I just can’t stop. I just love that.”
Spielberg also admitted that his kids keep him relevant, saying, “I’m not on social media, and my kids are. They tell me stuff I , so they keep me really current.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
