Taylor Lautner and his wife, Tay Lautner, are basking in newlywed bliss, but they aren’t ready to expand their family yet.
“Sometimes we get a little nervous. How do we raise kids [who] are going to be able to speak up for themselves or feel like they can talk to us about this? It scares me,” Tay, 27, exclusively told Us Weekly on Saturday, March 23, at the Change Your Brain Foundation x The Lemons Foundation pickleball tournament. “How do you raise a child now? I’m very thankful for people like Dr. [Daniel] Amen and a lot of my friends have kids or are just having kids. Getting to watch them walk through it and having the support from people like Dr. Amen to help facilitate independence or whatever it may be is great.”
The Lautners, who cohost “The Squeeze” podcast, had recently welcomed Amen for an episode to discuss raising “mentally strong children.” Both Taylor, 32, and Tay are mental health advocates, which inspired them to start their Lemons Foundation nonprofit.
While Taylor and Tay are not in a rush to welcome children, it remains one of their goals for the future. “Definitely [at] some time at some point, there will be [kids],” Tay teased.
The Twilight star and Tay, a registered nurse, met through Taylor’s sister, Makena Moore. After three years of dating, Taylor proposed. They wed one year later in November 2022.
“It’s the best. I’m so thankful. He’s a gem. He’s my golden retriever — that’s what I call him. He’s just joy on Earth,” Tay gushed to Us. “We’ve been together for seven years now, so it’s been really cool because we kind of got to go on our mental health journeys together.”
Since their nuptials, Tay has loved seeing her husband share his mental health struggles and subsequently “strive to better himself.”
“It’s really encouraging to me and makes me want to do better, too, which is awesome. To have a partner that respects it as much and is on the same mission for life is great,” she said. “He wants to help people just as much as I do so it’s really cool that we get to do it together.”
Tay further noted that her and Taylor’s “great communication” skills have helped their mental health journeys.
“That is something we’ve had to work on. We’ve been through a lot,” she said. “People always say, ‘How’s the first year of marriage?’ And we’re like, ‘You know, it’s actually great.’ We’ve been through so much life together already so we’ve learned how Taylor communicates, how I communicate and that’s just the biggest thing. When we do have a disagreement, we’re able to communicate. Like, I can’t process things right away, whereas Taylor knows what he wants so he’s able to be like, ‘OK, let’s come back to this in a little bit. I know you don’t know what’s going on so we can come back to it.’”
The Lautners had promoted their mental health advocacy and nonprofit at Saturday’s pickleball tournament in Newport Beach, California.
“We’re just hoping to spread awareness about brain health and mental health. We’re here to play some pickleball,” Tay added. “We’re here to eat some good food, have some great conversation and just have a good time.”
With reporting by Mike Vulpo