Sophie Ellis-Bextor has revealed that she talks to her children about toxic masculinity.
The singer who is renowned for her hit, Murder On The Dancefloor, is the mother to five sons, Mickey, Jesse, Ray, Kit and Sonny, whom she shares with her husband and musician, Richard Jones.
Speaking to Good Housekeeping UK, Sophie Ellis-Bextor has stated that she will "keep an eye on" her children's mobile phones, and she does not demonise things that she could "shut down communication".
Ellis-Bextor's comments come following the recent success of hit Netflix show, Adolescence over the last few months, which has inspired more conversations regarding misogyny among young boys online, as well as the radicalisation of young men. The topic has even been discussed with UK Parliament in April.
"I've always had a lot of faith in my boys. We’ve openly chatted about toxic masculinity for a long time", the singer said.
She continued: "My eldest is very articulate about these things, so none of it was new to my house. Sometimes people have an idea of what boys are like, as if they’re a different species".
"As I far as I’m concerned, I’m raising five people who happen to be boys. I keep an eye on (mobile phone screen time), because that’s parenting, but if you start demonising things, you shut down communication", she added. "Then you’re like those parents in the 1950s who made kids burn their rock 'n’ roll albums".
Speaking about her husband Richard, Sophie Ellis-Bextor said: "When we got married, we’d already had our first baby".
"My mum said: ‘Make sure you always choose each other over anything else, even the kids.’ She was right. Even though the kids might roll their eyes if they see us hugging or whatever, they’re happy that we’re happy", she added. "We have fun as a family, too. Last year, they came with us for a lot of the tour".
Elsewhere, Sophie Ellis-Bextor also discussed her forthcoming album, Perimenopop.
"There’s still this idea that only young people make pop music," she said.
"As soon as I had the new album title, I felt like, ‘Now I can literally be myself", the singer added."This album is about poking fun at this gloomy chapter and the narrative around it that women should be quietening down and becoming invisible… I don’t feel like that at all".
Sophie Ellis-Bextor had previously spoken about returning to music last year. More on this here.
