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Norman Reedus Is a Father of 2 – What We Know About His Kids
Getty / Laurent KOFFEL
Actor Norman Reedus has been in the spotlight for nearly three decades. Reedus began his career on screen in the 1990s, landing his first major film role in Guillermo Del Toro’s 1997 film “Mimic.” Over the course of the late 1990s and 2000s, Reedus built his résumé, starring in TV shows like “Charmed” and “Law & Order: SVU” and box-office hits like “Blade II” and “American Gangster.” By 2010, the actor quickly became a household name for his role as Daryl Dixon in “The Walking Dead,” which he appeared in for the show’s 11 seasons. Most recently, Reedus is reprising his role as Daryl Dixon in the AMC spinoff series, “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” set to premiere on Sept. 10.
Reedus, known for keeping his personal life out of the spotlight, balances his career with being a father of two. The actor shares a son, model Mingus Lucien Reedus, with former girlfriend, supermodel Helena Christensen, whom he dated from 1998 to 2003. Years later, the “American Gangster” star met Diane Kruger on the set of the 2015 film “Sky,” and they began dating shortly afterward. The couple welcomed their daughter, Nova Tennessee, in November 2018.
Here’s everything we know about the actor’s two kids!
Getty / ROBYN BECK
Mingus Lucien Reedus
Reedus and Christensen welcomed their first and only child, Mingus Lucien Reedus, in 1999. Christensen explained in an interview with The Independent that the inspiration for their son’s name came from their love for jazz. “His father especially is into Charlie Mingus. I was more into Thelonious Monk, Chet Baker, Billie Holiday – but we thought ‘Mingus’ sounded cooler than ‘Monk’ for a first name,” she revealed.
Despite breaking up in 2003, Reedus and Christensen have remained close friends and take pride in coparenting Mingus. In a 2014 interview with The New York Post, “The Walking Dead” actor said, “When Mingus was smaller, it was a little harder, going from two places. Now, he has the best of both worlds. The only hard part is, ‘Where are his sweatpants? Are they at your house or at my house?'”
Mingus graduated from New York University in May 2023, and, like his mom, is also a model. In 2023, he walked the Versace Spring/Summer 2023 menswear show and appeared in a campaign for Marcell Von Berlin, per People.
Getty / JB Lacroix
Nova Reedus
Reedus’s second child, whom he shares with fiancée Kruger, was born in November 2018. The couple have mostly kept the details of their daughter private, but have revealed snippets of her life over the years. Kruger shared the inspiration behind her daughter’s name in a 2022 interview with People, telling the outlet, “‘Nova’ in Latin means new beginning, and a nova star keeps changing and is reborn. And we love Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains; we do motorcycle trips there.”
Reedus himself shared a funny story about his proposal to Kruger that involved Nova during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in October 2022. The actor told Kimmel that he originally had plans on proposing during a trip to Savannah, Georgia, but ultimately had to do it at home. With Nova’s help, Reedus proposed to Kruger, which made everyone emotional, according to the actor. “I felt bad that I didn’t do it and Nova, our daughter, was sitting on my lap, and I was like, ‘Can you go get my boot? It’s in the closet,'” Reedus explained.
“[Diane]’s like, ‘Why?’ I’m like, ‘I just want to look at the boot.’ ‘Cause I had it shoved in the boot,” he continued. “And then I proposed and she started crying, and then Nova started crying – everybody’s crying. It was like water works city. And then Nova goes, ‘Why are we crying?’ Diane’s going, ‘It’s happy tears!’ And she’s like, ‘Yes! It’s happy tears!'”
