All About Emma Roberts' Son Rhodes

Actress Emma Roberts became a mom on Dec. 27, 2020, when she welcomed her son, Rhodes Robert Hedlund, now 3, with ex Garrett Hedlund.

Shortly after they celebrated Rhodes' first birthday, PEOPLE confirmed that Roberts and Hedlund had gone their separate ways in January 2022. In July 2024, Roberts got engaged to her partner of two years, Cody John.

Roberts has no problem admitting that being a working mom can be "really hard."

"I just see it from such a different perspective now," she told PEOPLE in January 2023. "Being a mom is a full time job, so I see how for women who have full-time jobs and [are] full-time moms, it's so hard, and I have so much respect for them."

Her goal for Rhodes is to raise him to be a "respectful and intelligent" gentleman who can "ask or tell" her anything.

"What it means to be a man is being rewritten right now," she told Tatler. "I hope my contribution to the world can be raising an amazing boy who turns into an amazing man."

Read on for everything to know about Emma Roberts and Garrett Hedlund's son, Rhodes Robert Hedlund.

He was born amid the COVID-19 pandemic

After sharing their pregnancy news, a source told PEOPLE that Roberts and Hedlund were "beyond excited to be having a boy."

"At 16, I thought, 'By the time I'm 24, I'll be married with kids,' " she told Cosmopolitan at the time. "And then I was 24 and I was like, 'Remember when I said I would be married with kids by now?' ... It sounds cheesy, but the moment that I stopped thinking about it, we got pregnant."

Rhodes was born on Dec. 27, 2020. Roberts confirmed his name and shared the first photo of her son a few weeks later on Jan. 12, 2021. "Thank you 2020 for getting one thing right," she wrote on Instagram. "Our bright light Rhodes Robert Hedlund."

Roberts wasn't sure if she could become pregnant

Roberts was especially grateful for her son because she feared her endometriosis would make pregnancy impossible.

"I was told, 'You should probably freeze your eggs or look into other options,' " she told Cosmopolitan in November 2020. "When I found out about my fertility, I was kind of stunned," she said. "It felt so permanent, and oddly, I felt like I had done something wrong."

Eventually, Roberts opted to freeze her eggs — something she called "a difficult process" — and she kept her pregnancy a secret until the last few months. "Things can go wrong when you're pregnant," she said. "So I kept it to myself, my family, and my partner, not wanting to make grand plans if it wasn't going to work out."

The experience led her to connect with other mothers, and it opened up "a new world of conversation about endometriosis, infertility, miscarriages, fear of having kids."

"I was so grateful to find out I was not alone in this," she shared.

He has a famous godfather

Rhodes' godfather is country singer Tim McGraw, who became close with Hedlund after playing his dad in 2004's Friday Night Lights and costarring with him again in 2010's Country Strong.

"He's somebody that I admire and respect, not only as an amazing father and an amazing husband, amazing musician and amazing actor," he told Kelly Clarkson in February 2021. "I've known him for a long time … we've remained such close friends and, you know, I've seen his children, his daughters, from the time they were 1, 3 and 5."

Hedlund said he called up his mentor when Roberts was around 12 weeks pregnant to tell him the news, and he made up his mind instantly. "The first thing he said was, 'I'm the godfather,' " Hedlund recalled. "So, how can you argue?"

After Rhodes arrived, Hedlund turned to McGraw for advice on getting him to sleep through the night. "It's never easy and it's never going to get easy," McGraw said during a conversation for LEO Edit in February 2021. "The way to fix that is to just throw a couple other kids in there; then you don't think about it as much!"

He was a ring bearer

When Roberts' friend, set designer Charlotte Long, got married in August 2022, the Scream Queens star's son had a very important role in the wedding.

"You're never too old to be a flower girl and never too young to be a ring bearer," she wrote beside a series of photos of her in a floral Magda Butrym dress and Rhodes wearing a little white linen shirt and baby blue shorts at the ranch wedding.

Roberts is trying to keep him out of the spotlight — though her mom is making it slightly more difficult

Roberts' mother, Kelly Cunningham, has gotten herself into hot water with her daughter a couple of times for sharing information she wasn't supposed to. She was the first to unveil Roberts' pregnancy, as Roberts hilariously explained to Jimmy Kimmel.

"I was keeping my pregnancy pretty low-key, but unfortunately my mother has Instagram. Mothers and Instagram, it's a bad combination. She spilled the beans," she said.

It all started when Cunningham began responding to fan DMs, and thanked one of them for the well wishes, noting they were "so excited" about the baby.

"My friends were sending me screengrabs, it was like unbelievable," she explained. "And then when I said to her, 'Mom you revealed my pregnancy,' she goes, 'Emma, you announced it.' And I said, 'No I didn't, that was a tabloid.' She was like, 'Oh, that wasn't clear.' "

Roberts humorously called out her mom again in February 2023 when Cunningham shared a photo of Rhodes' face on Instagram, something Roberts doesn't usually do.

"When your mom posts your son's face without asking but you love them both so whatever 💖," she said, reposting the photo on her Instagram Story. Cunningham took it in stride, writing, "the battle continues!! I love you Q!! Touche'."

Having a baby brought Roberts closer to her own mom

Despite Cunningham's missteps, becoming a mom has made Roberts and Cunningham closer than ever. Roberts has leaned heavily on her mother since welcoming Rhodes, and she's extremely grateful for everything she's learned from her.

"Happy Mother's Day to the loves of my life Roadie and mama @kellygrace1010," she wrote on Instagram on May 8, 2022. "Rhodes thank you for making me a mom and mama thank you for teaching me how to be one!! And being the best Mims we could ask for."

When telling PEOPLE about how hard it is juggling her acting career and motherhood, Roberts said, "I'm so lucky my mom helps me a lot," she added. "I would die without my mom."

Chatting with Jamie Lee Curtis for Violet Grey in March 2021, Curtis asked what Roberts wished she knew before having a baby. "It's not something you'll always feel like you're getting right, but you will get better every day," Roberts responded. "When in doubt, just love your child and yourself." Curtis followed up asking who Roberts admires most, which, of course, was her mom.

"Especially after having a baby," she added. "I kiss the ground she walks on!"

There's one way Roberts hopes he won't take after her

Rhodes is Roberts' mini-me, but she's hoping he won't inherit one trait of hers: sleepwalking.

"I hope it's not hereditary because my mom also sleepwalked," she told Kelly Clarkson on her show in January 2023. "I hope my son's not a sleepwalker. He's 2 and we're lucky he hasn't figured out he can climb out of the crib. He totally is capable, but he hasn't, which I thought was very sweet of him."

While she fully expects him to "climb out" of the crib sooner or later, she just hopes she won't find her little one toddling around aimlessly while in dreamland "on top of that."

He has already been on TV

Rhodes made his big TV debut before he was even born! Roberts told PEOPLE she was "so pregnant" when she guest judged RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars in 2021.

"I was such a fan and I was so excited when they asked me to be on it," she said of her experience. "And yeah, I was excited to take Rhodes … he got to come with me."

He and Roberts love taking walks together

Roberts and Rhodes' favorite activity to do together is going on walks. In July 2021, the Holidate star shared a throwback photo taking her little one for his "first walk" in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. One month later, she showed off her babywearing gear and captioned another photo, "we love our walks."

Even when Roberts is working, and they're on the road, they still make time for the things they enjoy.

"It's so nice that I got to bring him with me to Boston," Roberts told PEOPLE of filming on location. "It's such a walking city here that I can just wake up in the morning and put him in the stroller and go to a beautiful park, and walk around to see the city and be outside, which is so nice, because I felt like when I was in L.A., other than a couple of walks or a hike, there wasn't really a lot of nature to be in."

In October 2023, the mother-son duo participated in a fun fall tradition and took a walk through an apple orchard.

They've had plenty of adventures since then, too. In April 2024, Roberts shared a photo of her and Rhodes celebrating Easter together on Instagram. The photo features Roberts bundled up in a jacket and beanie as she smiles at the camera, while Rhodes, who is wearing a fuzzy leopard print jacket, sits in her lap and looks off into the distance.

Having him made Roberts more environmentally conscious

In July 2021, Roberts told PEOPLE all about how her views on sustainability changed when she became a mom.

"That was definitely the most eye-opening, having a child," she said. "Where before, I'm operating in the world on my own and I'm just kind of thinking about what's right for me. And when you have a kid, it's like, 'Wait, how old is he going to be in the year 2050? What's the world going to look like?' "

"For me, I definitely wanted to educate myself more on what I should be doing," she added.