Katey Sagal: I’m Relieved My Kids Want to Go Into Showbiz

This story first appeared in the 2014 Women in Entertainment issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Sagal’s firstborn child was around 5 years old when she realized her mom didn’t have a “normal” job. “I took Sarah to the premiere of a Disney movie I was in — I played a mean character — and she started crying when she saw me, ‘Hey, that’s not my mom!’ ” laughs Sagal, 60, who began her showbiz career as a backup singer for such artists as Bob Dylan and Bette Midler and broke out on Fox’s Married … With Children. “But I actually tried to shield all my kids from the celebrity stuff as much as I could. I wanted them to have as normal a life as possible.”

To hear White talk about it, the Golden Globe-winning actress-singer and star of FX’s Sons of Anarchy (which rode off into the sunset Dec. 9) did much more than that. “I am studying drama now at Kenyon College in Ohio and also write and sing, because I saw how my mom put so much of herself into her music and acting,” says White, 20, whose father is Sagal’s second husband, country music drummer Jack White. (She also has a brother, Jackson, 18.)

“It’s a huge relief when your kids say, ‘I want to do what you do,’ and there’s natural talent there,” says Sagal, who has been married to Sons creator Kurt Sutter since 2004 and with whom she has a 7-year-old daughter, Esme. “The greatest thrill of my life has been making a living as an artist, and I think Sarah — and all my kids — have gotten a very realistic view. It’s very hard work, but there’s nothing I can do to stop her. She has talent in spades.”