Jenny Mollen speaks out on backlash over intimate bed photos with son, 12

Jenny Mollen defended the intimate bed photos she posted with her 12-year-old son, Sid, after receiving a wave of backlash.

“Last week, the internet called me a child molester for posting a photo of myself holding my son,” the actress wrote in a Substack post titled, “The Love That Breaks Us,” on Monday. “The picture was taken on a Monday night after he returned from a weekend away.”

When Mollen originally shared the photo to Instagram and Facebook, she wrote the caption, “Your eldest son will be the most toxic boyfriend you ever have” — which especially weirded out social media users.

But she also defended the caption on her Substack, writing it off as a “joke.”

“The joke that offended people was: ‘Your eldest son will be the most toxic boyfriend you ever have.’
And he is,” she doubled down. “Parenthood has demanded a level of commitment and self-sacrifice from me that, in any other context, would be considered pathological.”

“I’d never accept this kind of relationship under any other circumstances,” she continued. “And yet here I am, jumping through fire, constantly striving for affection and approval, waiting by the phone for a guy who can’t even drive.”

The comedian claimed that she’s been “making some version of this joke for over a decade,” but recognized that her humor is “not for everyone.”

“When I look at that picture, I see a 12-year-old boy who still wants his mother, and a woman trying to hold on to closeness and connection at a time in her life when everything else is changing,” she continued.

Throughout the lengthy post, Mollen also shared that when she was 12, her mom told her “she didn’t know how to be a mom anymore” and was absent from her life ever since — a cycle she doesn’t want to continue with her kids.

“Children can feel like our one opportunity at redemption in this lifetime,” she explained. “They offer us the chance to become the very thing we need to save ourselves, instead of spending our lives waiting to be saved. But redemption is not the same as relief.”

“When my kids were young, I was so overwhelmed. There was so much they needed that it felt almost impossible to catch my breath. I spent the last decade begging for five minutes alone, only to get exactly what I asked for. And it has broken my heart. It will break your heart, too. Don’t let anyone shame you for holding on while you still can,” Mollen concluded.

Mollen, 47, became subject to backlash last month after she posted several photos where she is in between Sid’s legs, holding him in her arms, with her hands caressing the back of the tween’s head while lying in bed.

Despite deleting the caption, the post still got ripped to shreds by angry and concerned social media users who called the post “cringe,” “super weird” and “creepy AF.”

Mollen shares Sid as well as 8-year-old son, Lazlo, with estranged husband, Jason Biggs.

Page Six confirmed that the former couple had parted ways after 18 years of marriage in May.

However, the exes put on a united front over the weekend as they were seen linking arms while leaving a family dinner in New York City, as seen in pictures obtained by Page Six.