Sophie Turner recently slammed a commenter on social media who inexplicably criticized the actor’s parenting over pictures she shared on Instagram.
The controversy began after the “Game of Thrones” star shared a slideshow of pictures and videos on Instagram earlier this month that showed her enjoying a night out with a friend. But one commenter, who evidently took issue with the post, took to the comment section to criticize Turner, who shares two daughters with ex-husband, musician Joe Jonas.
“Lmfao I think she has forgotten that she has two kids,” the Instagram user wrote.
“Ah I’m so sorry sometimes I forget some people can’t think for themselves,” Turner responded on Instagram, as recently captured by the account Comments By Celebs. “So…. Get this…. There’s this crazy thing called shared custody. Maybe, just maybe, they were with their dad that day.”
Turner and Jonas were first romantically linked in 2016, and later wed in 2019. They welcomed their first child, Willa, in 2020, and their second child, Delphine, was born in 2022.
Jonas filed for divorce in 2023. The two reached a settlement agreement in September 2024 after an acrimonious divorce and contentious custody battle. But both Jonas and Turner have since publicly shared in recent months that they have a positive co-parenting relationship.
Many people in the comment section of Turner’s post came to her defense amid the criticism, with people questioning why anyone would criticize a mom who would dare to “go out and have fun.”
“Imagine thinking a mom can’t go out and have fun,” one commenter wrote.
“Mom of two kids (still married) and do this often!” wrote another. “It’s called a babysitter/nanny/grandparent! PARENTS CAN STILL HAVE FUN.”
Other commenters have pointed out the irony of someone criticizing Turner for being without her kids, considering the fact that Jonas’ band, the Jonas Brothers, is currently on a 43-date tour for the band’s 20th anniversary, which kicked off on Sunday.
“And yet their dad is out there on a whole ass tour and nobody is saying anything to him!” one commenter wrote.
Unfortunately, moms regularly report experiencing criticism about their parenting both online and in real life, with some research suggesting that a majority of moms with young kids have reported facing some level of mom-shaming.
And Jenelle Thompson-Keene, a licensed therapist with Thriveworks, tells us that the recent comment leveled at Turner is “exactly” what mom-shaming is.
“It’s unfortunate that mom-shaming is still happening in 2025,” she told HuffPost.
Lionel Hahn via Getty Images
Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner, who share two children, settled their divorce in 2024 after five years of marriage.
Dads aren’t expected to sacrifice their sense of self the way moms are, Thompson-Keene emphasized.
Thompson-Keene said the swipe directed at Turner on Instagram — that she had “forgotten that she has two kids” — seems like an “archaic and judgmental comment about Sophie, that would certainly not be directed at her ex-husband if he were to be photographed out.”
“This is representative of fathers not being held to the same societal standards as women in that to be a good parent is to sacrifice your sense of self,” she said.
Thompson-Keene said it’s “unfortunate” that Turner had to even point out on Instagram that her kids were with their dad while she was out with a friend.
She said that this kind of bias shown toward moms is sometimes referred to as “caregiver discrimination” or “motherhood penalty,” which suggest that “women still are expected to take on most of the responsibility for caring for their children, often to the detriment of other areas of their lives like work or leisure.”
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“It does not look like anyone asked where Joe Jonas was, or why he was not with his children, which suggests that there is still a huge bias in our culture that women are primarily responsible for the children,” Thompson-Keene added.
