A naturally stunning star, it doesn’t take much to make Nia Long glow. Something that automatically does it for her though, is being in the presence of her sons. ESSENCE has had the opportunity to see the actress in mommy mode, her favorite role, on a few different occasions, including in 2022, when she was celebrated at our annual Black Women in Hollywood event for her work in the industry over the years. There was also the time we got to photograph her and her sons, Massai, and then-newborn Kez, for our August 2012 issue.
“Motherhood is not easy, but it’s natural,” she told us in that issue, which she covered with her sons. “I worked hard to have the career I wanted, but I’ve also been deliberate about my personal life. None of this is a mistake.”
Over the years, she’s opened up about how parenting has changed her, including, in the simplest but most profound way, her outlook. “Baby Kez Sunday has given me a bit of a rebirth and it’s really nice because I’m able to look at life through his eyes,” she said in 2013. “You have to pay attention to the smallest thing from the birds chirping to the dog barking across the street. These are the things that make the world go around today. When you look at life in its simplest form, stress and worry isn’t the cornerstones of your life. Experiencing life through that lens is refreshing.”
Even before she had her sons, she was preparing for life with them. She talked about setting them up for financial success, including establishing a college fund that ended up securing the future she wanted for her oldest son, Massai.
“One of the things is [that] I started saving for my children before I became a mother. I took $3,000 and I just put [it] in this account. I was like, ‘I’m never touching that.’ And it allowed me to get my son through NYU without any student loans,” she said proudly.
“So in four years, anybody in here looking for a young lawyer [or] attorney, he’s going to be a good one,” she added at the time. “He needs a job to pay me back. If he’s anything like me, he has a spirit of abundance… a little bit too much because he’s still in my pocket. I just called him on my way here. I got a bill for his electric bill. I said, ‘Massai, really?’ And see, this is the thing, you can’t spoil them too much because part of what made me do what I’ve done is the hustle. You’ve got to draw the line where you don’t tamper with the hustle because in that hustle is that little bit of gangster that makes us make a difference.”
Overall, Long has said that being a parent has taught her a lot about herself, lessons that she’s grateful for.
“I have old-school ways, and I have new-school ways, and I’m still figuring it out,” she said in 2023 to The Cut. “I’ve made plenty of mistakes as a mother. I’ve learned about myself through my parenting. Do I have regrets? Of course. But they’re not regrets that were life-changing or devastating.”
Scroll down to see some sweet images of the beauty and her boys, starting with Massai and ending with Kez, over the years.
