January Jones Says Her Son Doesn't Need a Dad Around to Teach Him Shitty Things

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Xander is still surrounded by strong women. “Maybe too much,” she smiles. Four of her closest girlfriends all had their children at the same time. She counts Rose Byrne and Amy Adams as inner circle, and follows Naomi Watts, Diane Kruger and Marion Cotillard on Instagram. She likes powerful women. “Maybe I should get a manny soon,” she says, a tad concerned. “But Xander has a lot of bro time with the neighbour dads and my dad, who is super young.”

“It’s good to have strong women around a man,” she continues. “To teach him to respect women. He doesn’t have a male person in his life saying ‘don’t cry’ or ‘you throw like a girl’. All those shitty things dads accidentally do.” Her male friends “want to be around him because he’s such a fun kid”, but she’s candid about the fact that she doesn’t have a partner.

Imagining her, night after night, watching TV and going to bed alone makes me push her on the absent man question. Her eyes roll. “The moment I see someone who I think is cute, I google him and, oh, he’s 25, and I’m thinking, what is my problem?!” She’s laughing a lot now. “My sister, too. She lives in LA and we both like tattoos, guitar, kinda dirty...” I say, what’s wrong with younger rocker men, surely the sex would be great? And she says, “Is the sex great though? Do they know what they are doing? I guess you can teach them. I guess they are mouldable. But I want a manly man in flannel, with a beard and an axe. But then there’s always something wrong with him. Like he’s a Republican.”


Joking aside, she continues. “Something else would suffer if a relationship came along. Yes, I’m willing to make that sacrifice for the right relationship – I just don’t feel I need a partner. Do I want one? Maybe. But I don’t feel unhappy or lonely. It would have to be someone so amazing that I would want to make room. Someone who would contribute to my happiness and not take away from it. I realise I have very high expectations and will probably have to compromise – but my life is so full. It’s not like, ‘Aww, I wish I had a man.’ After I had Xander, I went on a couple of dates and I was like, ‘I’d rather be at home sleeping, or watching TV or hanging out with my kid.’”

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