All About Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton's 2 Children, Billy and Nell

Helena Bonham Carter has spoken openly about parenting her children, Billy and Nell.

The English actress welcomed her children with her ex-partner Tim Burton, with whom she was in a relationship from 2001 to 2014. While Harry Potter The star is a caring mum to Billy, born in 2003, and Nell, born in 2007, and has previously spoken about the trials and tribulations of parenthood.

Three years after Nell’s birth, Bonham Carter opened Hey! News about attending parenting classes. “I’m not working right now,” she said. “I have to be a mom. It’s much harder to be a mom than an actress.”

“They teach me really interesting things, like it’s not your job to know everything,” she added. “You have to make them think for themselves. What a relief. I don’t need to know everything.”

Timeline of Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter’s relationship

Bonham Carter and Burton split “amicably” in 2014, with the couple awarded joint custody. Although it took “time to adjust,” the actress revealed that it worked out for everyone in the end.

“The kids are fine, they get a double life. At first it’s a horrible thing to get used to, not having your kids around [when you share custody]”, she said The Guardian in 2020 separation.

Bonham Carter continued: “The cruelty of divorce is unbelievable. But then you get to the point where you think, ‘Oh, I’m free this week!’ Some parts are to be recommended.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton’s children, Billy and Nell.

Billy Raymond Burton, 21

Tim Burton, with his children Billy and Nell at the European premiere of ‘Dumbo’ on March 21, 2019 in London, England.

Stuart C. Wilson/Getty

Bonham Carter and Burton’s first child, Billy Raymond, was born on October 4, 2003 in London. He was named after his grandfathers, bearing the name for both sides of the family.

Three years after Billy was born, Bonham Carter said The Guardian that her life changed completely after she welcomed her son.

“The day Billy was born, it was like I was going through a looking glass and everything was technicolor,” she said. “My life was very work-oriented, and everything in close-up. Once I had a family, it suddenly went to the big screen.”

Billy didn’t fall far from the creative tree and also loved all things mythical growing up. During the promotional series for 2010 Alice in WonderlandBonham Carter told Fearnet that she was reliving her childhood with Billy.

“Waving his wands and pretending … that’s all he does,” she said. “So I’m growing up with him again and we have a lot to talk about.”

Not only was Billy a fan of the genre, but he was excited about his mother’s work, once asking her, “‘Mom, do you have to be a queen or a witch tomorrow?’ ” To which Bonham Carter said she was “lucky” because “it’s pretty much like that – one day I’m a witch and the next day I’m a queen.”

Tim Burton with his children Billy and Nell at the European premiere of ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ on May 10, 2016 in London, England.

Dave J Hogan/Dave J Hogan/Getty

Although he didn’t get the chance to play a wizard himself, it paid off for Billy to have famous parents working in the fantasy genre. He had cameo roles in many of Burton’s films, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Dark shadows.

However, the couple tried to never give their son speaking roles.

“I want to [my kids] be lawyers or accountants,” Bonham Carter told Evening Standard 2008. “I don’t think any actor wants his children to follow him in the profession.”

Billy made a rare public appearance with his mother in 2021 when the two were spotted taking a selfie outside Westminster Abbey in London, per Metro.

The former couple’s older child made another public appearance that year when he joined his dad and sister on the red carpet at the 16th Rome Film Festival, where Burton was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Nell Burton, 16

Tim Burton with his children Billy Raymond Burton and Nell Burton and dog Levi on the red carpet of Tim Burton’s Close Encounters during the 16th Rome Film Fest on October 23, 2021.

Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty

Bonham Carter and Burton welcomed their second child, daughter Nell, on December 15, 2007 in London.

The actress found out she and Burton are expecting again in the middle of production for Sweeney Toddthe 2007 musical directed by Burton.

“I worked hard then. “For the first three months when I was pregnant while I was filming, I felt completely detached,” she recalled The Telegraph 2007. “You have to multitask with acting. You have to remember your grades, your lines, your singing, everything, and really — you have no brain!”

Bonham Carter continued: “Suddenly your own brain grows another person’s brain, so yours disappears. It wasn’t ideal, but at the time I was so happy to be pregnant.”

Speaking of his daughter Evening Standard In 2008, Bonham Carter explained that she was still trying to come up with a name five weeks after giving birth. The mother-of-two described Nell as a “very tall” and “cool” baby with a full head of hair.

“I’m completely in love. I even loved giving birth. I would do it again in a heartbeat,” she said at the time. “Since then I’ve been sitting in a chair on nursing duty trying to think of a name.”

Tim Burton and his children, Billy Raymond Burton and Nell Burton, at the European premiere of the film ‘Dumbo’.

Matt Crossick/PA Images/Getty

In the end, the couple decided on Nell, as a sign of respect for “all the Helens in the family”.

While Bonham Carter said she hopes her children will not follow in her footsteps, her daughter has inspired her in her career, particularly when she took on the role of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland.

“I thought: Well, she’s a toddler, because she has a big head,” the Oscar-nominated actress said at a press conference ahead of the film’s London premiere, per The Guardian. “She’s a tyrant…little children are tyrants. ‘No compassion for any other living creature’—that’s really our little child.”

She added, “[There’s] no empathy, only orders. It only governs us – a dictatorship. No please, no thanks. ‘Mommy come here’, ‘Mommy go’, ‘Mommy! Watch TV.’ And another characteristic of a small child — it’s all about me, it’s all about her. So the little kid thing was a big inspiration.”

Like her brother, Nell also acted in her father’s films, including Dark shadows, big eyes and Alice in Wonderland. She was with him during a rare public appearance at Rome Film Fest 2021.

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Source: HIS Education