Gillian Anderson is known for acting in The X-Files and The Crown, but her most important role is being a mom of three to her children: Piper, Oscar and Felix.
The Scoop actress and her then-husband Clyde Klotz welcomed their daughter, Piper, in 1994. Twelve years later, Anderson and her then-partner Mark Griffiths added Oscar to the family. The former couple welcomed Felix in 2008.
The Emmy winner co-parents her children with their fathers and has been open about the difficulty of being a single working mom. During an appearance on Today in April 2024, Anderson revealed that she returned to work on The X-Files 10 days after giving birth to Piper.
In an interview with Grazia magazine the same month, Anderson said she took more time off after welcoming Oscar.
“[After] the second one, I didn’t work for over a year. It took over a year before I felt like I was ‘in’ my body,” she said. Now with her children growing up, the schedule has worked itself out.
“I do every other week – the cooking and the picking up from school and all of that. But when they were younger I. Had. Help. I had help and I still struggled. Women who raise children on their own are ‘superwomen,’ ” she concluded.
Here’s everything to know about Gillian Anderson’s children: Piper, Oscar and Felix.
Piper Maru Klotz, 30
Anderson and Klotz welcomed their daughter, Piper Maru Klotz, on Sept. 25, 1994. The former couple tied the knot that same year after meeting on the set of The X-Files but divorced three years later in 1997.
As a child, Piper was often on set with Anderson when she was filming the sci-fi series. The actress told Bustle in November 2020 that she was grateful to have a live-in nanny at the time and admitted that having Piper on set gave her an “unconventional childhood.”
“My daughter basically grew up in my trailer,” Anderson said. “She would play at the lot of the studio or wherever we were on location and interact with the various prosthetic limbs [on set].”
She added, “[It was a] crazy, crazy, crazy way to be a mom, but at the same time it really focused my attention on being a mom when she was in front of me, and it really got me to focus on compartmentalizing.”
Piper even had an episode of The X-Files named after her in the third season of the series.
Following in the footsteps of her father, who is an art director and production designer, Piper works as an artist and designer. She was part of the art department for the two-season revival of The X-Files in 2016 and 2018.
In June 2022, Piper launched a creative design studio called Maru Objects, which sells art, homeware and games. Though Anderson tends to keep her personal life off social media, she congratulated her daughter on Instagram for the big career move.
“Very excited and very proud to announce the launch of Piper’s creative design studio, @maruobjects! She’s been working hard on this for about a year and half and I couldn’t be more excited to see what she has in store for us through this new venture,” Anderson wrote.
As for her personal life, Piper has a French bulldog named Nelson that she often posts about on social media. She’s also been dating Ed Salisbury, a mountaineer and climate activist, since 2017.
Oscar Griffiths, 18
Anderson and Griffiths welcomed their first child together, Oscar Griffiths, on Nov. 1, 2006. He was born three weeks early and spent a few days in the NICU before getting to go home.
“He was 6 lb 8 oz, which is a decent weight. But he had a lot of fluid on his lungs and so he was quite tubed up and was in intensive care, and I couldn’t pick him up,” Anderson told Evening Standard in 2007. “But we got to take him home after a week so we actually were very lucky.”
Oscar is a downhill mountain bike rider, a passion he shares about on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. In January 2024, the teen signed with Intense Factory Racing, a professional sports team.
“2024 and beyond with @intensefactoryracing,” he wrote on Instagram. “HYPED to announce my signing with @intensefactoryracing 🙏🏼 I couldn’t be more thankful for the opportunity they’ve given me. The sickest sponsors, crew and atmosphere. Let’s avvv it!”
The athlete has long been interested in the sport. According to one of his social media posts, Oscar has been riding dirt bikes and mountain bikes since he was at least 7 years old.
Felix Griffiths, 16
Anderson and Griffiths celebrated the arrival of their second child together, Felix Griffiths, on Oct. 15, 2008. The pair split four years later when Felix was 3 and Oscar was 5.
Like his older brother, Felix is a downhill mountain bike rider. In January 2023, the teen announced on Instagram that he had joined the development race team for Madison Saracen.
“Couldn’t be more thankful for the opportunity @madisonsaracen have given me to be apart of their development team,” Felix wrote on Instagram. “A big thank you to all the sponsors that make it look so good.”
Felix has been racing for teams since 2020 and often shares his mountain bike riding videos on Instagram and YouTube.
Speaking with The Guardian in March 2024, Anderson opened up about how her sons are “professional sportsmen” and that she and Griffiths work together to facilitate their passion.
“I mean, the youngest is 15, so it’s hard to call him a man but that is their life and their focus. Which means my life and their dad’s life is filled with facilitating that dream for them,” she said. “It involves a lot of driving and us, you know, doing whatever they tell us to do, basically.”
Anderson added that while it’s “exhilarating and terrifying” to support her sons’ racing dreams, it can be emotional to “let them have their own journey, but not trying to fix things.”
Read the full article here
