Billie Eilish's Mom Maggie Baird Shuts Down 'Nepo Baby' Comments: 'People Don’t Really Understand'

Some people think Billie Eilish is a “nepo baby”. Her mother, Maggie Baird, disagrees.

In a new interview with Glamour for this year’s Women of the Year edition focusing on four superstar moms, Baird responded to allegations that her Grammy-winning daughter benefited from nepotism for years as an actress in Los Angeles.

The conversation was sparked by a mention of Baird’s appearance in a 1999 episode of the show. Friendswhich recently went viral on the internet. In this episode, she played a casting director who works with Matt LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani on an audition he must secure in order to keep his health insurance.

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Tina Knowles, Maggie Baird, Mandy Teefey and Donna Kelce for ‘Glamour’.

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“I think it’s hilarious. Because it came out and it was like, ‘Oh, Billie is a non-baby,'” she told the news outlet. “And I say, ‘Did you know I got that episode Friends because I should have lost my health insurance?'”

Baird, who is also the mother of musician Finneas O’Connell, explained that she and husband Patrick O’Connell are “working class actors”.

“We were making a living and it allowed us a lot of time with our children, which was great,” she recalled. “But the industry is primarily made up of people like us or even people who aren’t like us who couldn’t do it. So when all this happened to our kids, we were never on that side.”

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Maggie Baird in March 2022. Mike Coppola/Getty

Although Baird’s film and television career was active from the 1980s to the 2010s, appearing in shows including Curb your enthusiasm, The X-Files, West wing and Enchantedamong others, most of her screen roles were non-lead characters.

“I don’t think people really understand that there’s a whole industry of people who are creative, working and struggling, living perfectly happy lives, feeling creative and fulfilled,” she told Glamour. “But it’s a very different life than on this side of the door where you’re suddenly playing in this different arena.”

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Maggie Baird, Finneas O’Connell and Billie Eilish in October 2023.

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Elsewhere in the story, Baird recalled the making of her independent film in 2013. Life from the inside outin which she starred alongside Finneas — and she talked about why that’s a special achievement.

“In 2012, I decided to make a movie. I wrote the movie with a friend and I did a Kickstarter for the money. And the reason I did it was because I wanted to show my kids that something can be done,” she said. “You don’t have to wait for someone to say yes. You can just do it.”

Baird added: “It probably had nothing to do with what happened because they all made it. But I think it’s important. I think it’s important that because you’re hoping your kids will go a lot further than you, they still you have your own life. You still can; that’s just as important.”

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Source: HIS Education