Singer Billie Eilish and her music producer brother Finneas Eilish's mother, Maggie Baird, best known for her roles in Life Inside Out, Fat Albert, and more, disagrees with the "nepo baby" claims about her children.
In a recent interview with Glamour for this year's Woman of the Year issue, four moms of superstars are featured. The article, published on October 3, includes Travis Kelce's mother, Donna Kelce, Finneas and Billie Eilish's mother, Maggie Baird, Beyoncé's mother, Tina Knowles, and Selena Gomez's mother, Mandy Teefey.
In the interview, Maggie Baird, while responding to public claims about her children achieving success due to nepotism, said,
"I think it's hilarious. Because that came out, and it was like, 'Oh, Billie is a nepo baby' and I'm like, 'Did you know that I got that episode of Friends because I was about to lose my health insurance?"
The conversation around Billie benefiting from nepotism sparked after Baird's appearance on a 1999 episode of Friends went viral online. In the episode, Baird played the role of a casting director working with Joey Tribbiani on an audition he needed to secure to keep his health insurance.
"We eked out a meager living" says Maggie Baird on bringing up her children
While discussing the upbringing of her children, Finneas and Billie Eilish, Maggie Baird noted that she and her husband, Patrick O'Connell, known for his appearances in Life Inside Out, Cyborg, and more, are "working-class actors."
"We eked out a meager living, and it afforded us a lot of time with our kids, which was awesome. But the industry is primarily people like us or even people not even like us who couldn't even do that. So when all of this happened to our kids, we'd never been on that side of it."
Maggie Baird highlighted that there's a significant difference in the recognition her kids have and the recognition she had. Maggie insinuated that she and her husband were not very well known in Hollywood, and it's different for them now that their kids have achieved fame. Both siblings have won multiple Grammys and two Oscars for their music.
Maggie recalled a time when Billie Eilish was in a low spot due to the comments on the internet after her performance at the Brit Awards. While discussing how the family deals with scrutiny from the audience, Maggie, while referring to her kids, said that people need to remember that "They're all human."
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