Jennifer Connelly shares adorable birthday tribute to daughter Agnes, 13

Jennifer Connellly may keep her family life with husband Paul Bettany private, but she’s open about just how much she loves her kids.

The movie star made a rare reference to her daughter Agnes as she hit the major milestone of entering her teen years. She took to Instagram to share a heartwarming picture of herself carrying her daughter, her face obscured. The mother-daughter duo matched as they wore cream sweaters in the photo.

She captioned the photo: “Happy 13th birthday, Agnes Lark. We love you, darling girl”.

Jennifer is certainly close to Agnes, in part driven by a health scare her daughter had when she was younger.

© @jennifer.connelly

“It wound up being nothing, sort of a false alarm, but it was enough to really frighten me. As a result I struggled with separation,” the Requiem for a Dream star confessed to The Sunday Times Style magazine.

© Emma McIntyre

“I never loved flying, but it got worse the first time I traveled without her, that was the first time I had a real panic,” she said. “I always knew it was something I could out-think because I was always better when I was coming home.”

© Mike Coppola

Jennifer is also the mom to two sons, Kai Dugan, 26, from her relationship with David Dugan, and Stellan, 20, from her marriage to Paul. She told Jimmy Kimmel that her family have grown up watching her and Paul on set, so they’re not shy to give her notes and get involved when she’s working.

“She likes to sit by the monitors,” Jennifer revealed. “She likes to actually run lines with me at night, which is great. It’s very helpful. And then she’ll sit by the monitor and watch with headphones on, quite critically.”

The actress said of motherhood: “Becoming a mother has made all the difference in terms of learning to take more responsibility for myself and my life.”