Blended families are a fact of life.
With close to one in two marriages now ending in divorce, it’s inevitable that later on in life new and old partners – and the kids you’ve have accumulated along the way – will have to come together, hopefully harmoniously.
And while bringing two families together can be a potential minefield of emotional baggage and unresolved tensions, there are plenty of success stories out there that prove blended families can totally get along.
Judging by these celebrity blended families below, it seems if there’s enough water under the bridge, everyone truly can get through anything, together.
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Lindy Klim and Michael Klim
Michael and Lindy Klim at the 2014 GQ Men of the Year Awards.
(Credit: Getty)If there’s a former couple who know anything about baggage, it’s Michael and Lindy Klim.
The former Olympian and his Balinese fashionsta wife were married in 2006 and they have three children – Stella, Rocco and Frankie.
But ten years later in 2016 the couple officially announced their split – and things got messy.
The pair quickly found new partners – Michael with gorgeous fashion designer Desiree Deravi and Lindy with the handsome model Adam Ellis – but Michael then accused his ex-wife of creating a fake Instagram account to troll his new girlfriend, all while Lindy was pregnant with Adam’s baby.
While Lindy says at age 40, she thought she was done having kids, she and Adam decided to start a family together.
“I was so done and dusted with three kids,” Lindy recently told Stellar magazine.
“But Adam doesn’t have children so we thought having one together would complete our family. Adam has been so amazing with the kids – we thought it’d be nice to see what a miniature Adam would look like.”
Now it seems all that drama from a few years ago is done with – and thank goodness! – with Lindy recently posting some gorgeous happy snaps of her blended family on Insta.
“Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined we’d be here now… it’s taken us a while, but I am so grateful for our #modernfamily and that my children have these two amazing men as role models in their life. 💕 @adamjossellis @michaelklim1,” she wrote, tagging both the men in her life.
So great to see everyone getting along!
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Michael Klim with Lindy’s second husband Adam, posing with Lindy and Michael’s three children, and his
(Image: Instagram)
Happy families again.
(Image: Instagram)J.Lo and Marc Anthony
JLo and Marc Anthony share twins Max and Emme.
(Image: Instagram)With Jennifer Lopez and former baseball star A-Rod flaunting their romance all over Insta lately, it’d be easy to forget that not so long ago the pop diva was married to the singer Marc Anthony for seven years.
Together they had two children – twins Emme and Max – and their divorce was finalised in 2014, with J.Lo winning primary physical custody of the kids.
In early 2017 she began dating A-Rod, who has two daughters of his own from a previous marriage, Natasha and Ella.
A-Rod and J.Lo are now engaged – he proposed with a whopping rock earlier this year – and it seems the happy couple still get along swimmingly with J.Lo’s ex Marc.
The 49-year-old recently took to Instagram to wish her ex a happy Father’s Day and shared several photos of her blended family, with one pic even showing Marc and A-Rod smiling side-by side.
“Happy Fathers Day to you Flaco!!!” she wrote, referring to Marc.
“Emme and Max love you soooo much!! Thank you for these two beautiful coconuts!!!”
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The 49 year-old singer shared this picture of her ex Marc and fiance A-Rod smiling side-by side.
(Image: Instagram)And A-Rod also shared a photo of both his and J-Lo’s kids all hanging out together as one big family.
“Perfect day in #Miami with #OurGreatestGifts #Tashi #Ella #Max #Emme #Family #Blessed @jlo,” he wrote.
Love this pic!
JLo and A-Rod with their children.
(Image: Instagram)Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin
When Gwyneth and Chris split in 2014, their public announcement described their situation as not a divorce, but a “conscious uncoupling”.
So just as there was no yelling and screaming involved in their parting, there was also none of that when both began new relationships.
Gwyneth met her now husband Brad Fulchuk on the set of Glee and Chris (up until very recently, at least) was dating Fifty Shades of Grey actress Dakota Johnson.
And far from being the jealous types who cannot deal with sitting in the same room as each other, it seems the happy foursome were more than comfortable spending time together, if their smiling social media snaps are anything to go by.
How cute is this photo Gwyneth shared of her ex Chris and new hubby Brad?
(Image: Instagram)
Gwyneth enjoying a fun night out with Chris’ partner Dakota Johnson, along with New York writer Derek Blasberg.
(Image: Instagram)This was a completely intentional decision on the part of Gwyneth and Chris.
“We were separated for a year before we announced we were separated. We kept it very quiet, and in that time I asked adult friends with divorced parents what they remembered,” she told The Evening Standard in January.
“There was this resounding theme: ‘It was really hard because for the first two years my parents didn’t speak.’ ‘It was awful for a while,’ or ‘My parents hated each other’. And I thought, ‘I would really love to skip that part.’ Those kids felt they were constantly betraying one parent by being with the other.”
Gwyneth said she doesn’t believe divorce has to be “devastating”.
“It doesn’t have to be the end of your relationship with somebody. I think Chris and I were meant to be together and have our kids. But our relationship is much better like this: friends and co-parents and family.”
WATCH BELOW: A brief history of Gwyneth and Brad’s relationship. Story continues after video.
Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski
Snezana Markoski with her hubby Sam Wood and her daughter Eve, along with the couple’s child Willow.
(Image: Instagram)When Snezana Markoski first stepped out of the limo on Sam Wood’s season of The Bachelor, there was instant chemistry between the pair.
But as their connection grew, Snez eventually had to tell Sam that she was already a Mum to daughter Eve, from a previous relationship.
Ever the gentleman, that news didn’t bother Sam at all. And now it seems crazy to think that it ever could have been an issue, with Sam and Eve now so close that Sam recently told Now To Love about the gorgeous bond the pair share.
“I never call myself Eve’s ‘step-dad’,” Sam revealed. “I am Eve’s dad. That’s how I feel. That’s how I act.” So cute!
“We met under such ridiculous circumstances. It was this crazy world which they [Snezana and Eve] uprooted everything and came to Melbourne to live with me, but now we’re this family,” he said.
And now the couple have a child of their own, little Willow, and have another baby on the way!
Snez is due to give birth to her third child in a few weeks time and we cannot wait to meet the new addition to the Wood family!
Bill and Chloe Shorten
Chloe and Bill Shorten on the campaign trail during the 2019 federal election.
(Image: AAP)Former Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his wife Chloe are each other’s second spouses and together they have formed a wonderful blended family from their previous relationships.
Chloe has two children, Georgette and Rupert, from her first marriage to Brisbane architect Roger Parkin.
While Bill was previously married to his ex-wife Deborah Beale, the couple had no children, but now Chloe and Bill have a daughter of their own, Clementine.
As anyone in a blended family knows, the dynamics can be tricky, which is why the Shortens underwent marriage counselling every two weeks at the beginning of their relationship and established clear boundaries with Chloe’s children.
Speaking to The Australian Women’s Weekly in 2017, Bill said he was acutely aware that Chloe’s kids Rupert and Georgette had a father, and Bill’s role was to help parent them, not replace their dad.
“For the older two, they call me Bill,” he said
“But the little one goes from calling you ‘Daddy’ to ‘Bill’ and she naturally started doing that,” Chloe said.
