Kate Winslet's nepo baby remarks spark backlash from industry insider

Scarlett Curtis, the daughter of acclaimed screenwriter Richard Curtis, has publicly challenged Kate Winslet’s recent claim that her children are not “nepo babies.”

Earlier this month, Winslet dismissed the term while speaking to the BBC, calling it “silly” and insisting her children were “not getting a leg up” in the entertainment industry.

Weeks later, Scarlett, 30 — a writer who has worked on The Summer I Turned Pretty and We Were Liars — responded on Instagram after sharing a clip of Winslet’s interview. “I love her so much, but I do hate this s***,” she wrote. 

“Doctors and lawyers have to get degrees to follow in their parent’s footsteps. We have to literally just step out the door.”

Scarlett explained that nepotism goes beyond direct handouts. “Nepotism is about so much more than handouts – it’s about growing up in a world that is notoriously hard to penetrate and learning from a young age how to navigate that world.”

She added, “It’s about not having to get five jobs to support your creative dreams… and more than anything it’s about having the confidence to go into a field of work where you’re literally just making s*** up and getting paid for it.”

In a follow-up post, she joked, “I would legit teach a class on how to talk about the nepo baby question when it comes up in interviews.”

Winslet had defended her children, including son Joe Anders, who wrote her directorial debut Goodbye June, saying, “The film would have been made with or without me, the script is so, so good.”

She also said, “There are lots and lots of people in the world whose children go into a similar family business.”

Her comments sparked backlash online, with one user writing on X: “Wow I wonder how that all happened what talent what luck.”