The T&C Guide to Mothers and Daughters The EditorsFebruary 4, 2026 at 4:30 AM 0 Mother Dear Alamy, Simon J. Evans, Belle Burden "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." The Tie That Binds By Molly JongFast Molly JongFast with her mother, the writer Erica Jong. Getty Images For obvious reasons, I am often asked to write about mothers and daughters. I am also asked why the topic is so sticky and so important. The closest I've gotten to a theory is this: We make art about our mothers because they are so important to our survival.
- - The T&C Guide to Mothers and Daughters
The EditorsFebruary 4, 2026 at 4:30 AM
0
Mother Dear Alamy, Simon J. Evans, Belle Burden
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
The Tie That Binds
By Molly Jong-Fast
Molly Jong-Fast with her mother, the writer Erica Jong. Getty Images
For obvious reasons, I am often asked to write about mothers and daughters. I am also asked why the topic is so sticky and so important. The closest I've gotten to a theory is this: We make art about our mothers because they are so important to our survival. Our mothers are our first relationship, and often our most primal. Our mothers bring us into the world, and they impart to us more than just genes.
Joan Didion famously wrote that "we tell ourselves stories in order to live," but I might amend that to say we tell ourselves stories about our mothers in order to make sense of ourselves. I had to write about my own mother because I couldn't make sense of myself without looking at her.
How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir
$13.55 at amazon.com
It's a relationship that has fueled so much of what's in the zeitgeist today. Broadway's Liberation tells a daughter's story about her mother's political awakening; Gish Jen's latest book, Bad Bad Girl, follows a fraught parent-offspring relationship; Kristin Scott Thomas's 2025 directorial debut, My Mother's Wedding, was inspired by memories of her own mom. The recent third season of the Netflix series Ginny & Georgia, about a woman and her teenage daughter, hit the number one spot in the streamer's top 10 when it was released in June.
The women in these pages are a force; they are also the women we want our daughters to be. You can bet that the relationships they have with their mothers shaped the way they interact with the world, as well as their art. Arundhati Roy's memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me, includes this line about hers: "She was my shelter and my storm."
Someday my daughter will write about me, even if she never actually writes about me. I will seep into her stories, into her scholarship, into her grocery lists. We can't escape our mothers. They are everywhere, and perhaps most important, they are in us, in our very DNA. My memoir is called How to Lose Your Mother, and through writing it I learned, you can't.
The Twists of Belle Burden's Memoir Aren't Its Only Surprise
Burden's book, Strangers, lays bare the end of her marriage. Here, she and her mother, Amanda Burden, the daughter of the legendary Babe Paley, ponder the types of bonds that are unbreakable. By David Netto
A vintage family photo of Amanda Burden and her daughter Belle Burden, author of the new memoir Strangers. Jill Krementz, Courtesy of Belle Burden
elle Burden has made exactly two public statements in the last three years, and maybe zero before that. Her writing has twice appeared in the New York Times, each time with consequential results. The first occasion was an essay published in 2023 that has grown into a book, Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, released this January. The second was a reclamation of her grandmother Babe Paley's legacy from Ryan Murphy's portrayal of her in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. We await the book on that. Read More
Is This the Return of Mama Rose?
Rich and famous parents have long shielded their offspring from the spotlight. These days, a new breed is expertly navigating them through the glare. By Andrew Zucker
Getty Images
When Hilaria Baldwin launched a new podcast, Growing Up Together, late last year, she didn't want to do it alone. So the former yoga instructor picked a co-host she knew intimately: her 12-year-old daughter, Carmen.
The choice to tap her child as a co-host wasn't a huge surprise. The once hidden hand pushing the scions of Hollywood dynasties into the limelight has ceased being hidden and is gleefully operating in plain sight. And it is often the hand of the parents themselves. Read More
Meet the Mother of the Mitford Sisters
There are perhaps no more notorious daughters than the Mitford girls. The six aristocratic Brits—they've been called Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-Lover, Nancy the Novelist, Deborah the Duchess, and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur—scandalized England in the early 20th century with rebellious behavior, high-profile (and often disastrous) romances, and the decidedly non-U habit of making headlines. Wherever did they get that defiant spirit? Meet the Mitford mater familias By Rachel Trethewey
Alamy
Sydney Bowles's attitude to marriage and motherhood was complicated. A few days before she wed David Freeman-Mitford, the future 2nd Baron Redesdale, a married friend told her what to expect on her wedding night. Sydney was so shocked she replied, "A gentleman would never do anything like that." Nor was she maternal, dismissing most of her babies as "too ugly for words." Once it was her six daughters' turn to enter the marriage market, she tried to find them suitable husbands. However, in her somewhat autobiographical novel The Pursuit of Love, Nancy, Sydney's eldest daughter, described the standards of chaperonage of Aunt Sadie, her mother's stand-in, as positively "medieval." Her daughters were never allowed to be alone with a young man under any circumstances unless they were engaged to him. Read More
Nicky Hilton Hopes Her Kids Will Raid Her Jewelry Box
The Theo Grace founder on how her daughters have inspired her design and whether they'll follow in her footsteps—"it could definitely be in the cards." By Adam Rathe
Nicky Hilton and daughters. Simon J. Evans
My kids are my biggest inspiration," says Nicky Hilton, whose jewelry line Theo Grace is named after her daughters, Theodora and Lily-Grace. "Jewelry is such a personal thing for me. The pieces I love most are the ones that tell a story. Nearly all of the Theo Grace pieces can be personalized with engravings, charms, gemstones or by adding photos to lockets; I like to call the pieces walking love notes." Read More
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