Liev Schreiber Spoke Out About His And Naomi Watts’ 16-Year-Old Daughter Kai Coming Out As Trans, And Explained Why It “Didn’t Feel Like That Big Of A Deal”
“Kai was always who Kai is.”
Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts — who were together for 11 years — share a 16-year-old daughter named Kai, who is transgender. Now, speaking about his daughter’s transition for the first time, Liev said Kai’s coming out was pretty simple for their family.
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In a new interview with Variety, the X-Men star revealed that Kai never actually sat down and told him and Naomi that she’s trans. “Kai was always who Kai is,” he said, recalling that “the most profound moment was her asking us to change her pronouns.” “To be honest with you, it didn’t feel like that big of a deal to me only because Kai had been so feminine for so long.”
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Liev and Naomi also share a 17-year-old son named Sasha. Since their separation in 2016, the exes appear to have maintained a strong coparenting relationship.
Kai is beginning to make a name for herself in the modeling world, having recently walked the runway for Valentino during Paris Fashion Week. Praising his daughter, Liev said, “Kai is such a fighter. It’s important that she goes, ‘Hey, I am trans,’ and, ‘Look at me.’”
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In 2025, uplifting the trans community is more important than ever, and so, Kai, Liev, and his wife, Taylor Neisen, will be among those supporting the Ali Forney Center at the A Place At The Table Gala this week in New York. For context, the Ali Forney Center is an important organization that provides stability, housing, and support to LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness.
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Talking about why their involvement with the organization is so necessary, Liev said: “This isn’t just about representing the trans community. This is actually a community of people who don’t have great resources, who don’t have access to help, who aren’t being protected and looked after by their families. These are people who are being rejected. These are people who are experiencing the harshest version of humanity that we can offer, and some of them are not surviving it.”
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“We got to bear that in mind when we go out there and glam ourselves up and get ready to be seen, you know? That what we’re doing is actually raising money for a community that desperately needs it,” he continued.
As you may have seen, Liev’s comments come shortly after Robert De Niro made headlines for his similarly brilliant comments of support towards his daughter, Airyn, who publicly came out as trans last week. Notably, when asked by Variety to offer advice to other parents of trans children, Liev was cautious of making generalizations. “I don’t know the answer for your kid,” he responded, “I don’t know what it’s like for you to be a trans dad. I don’t know how you were brought up. I don’t know what religion you encountered or what your spirituality is. And for me to tell you what I think about my kid feels like an overstep.”
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“I guess if I would say anything to someone who’s having trouble with their trans teen or their adolescent trans kid it’s, ‘Teenagers are a headache. They’re hard.’ It doesn’t matter whether they’re trans or not because you’ll come out of this,” he added. “But a trans teen is going to be a teen. They’re such a pain so much of the time, and Kai is as feisty and outspoken as they come.”
