What Is Marisa Tomei’s Net Worth and Why Doesn’t She Want to Have Kids?
Marisa Tomei, an Academy Award-winning actor with a long, successful career, has racked up over 80 film and television credits.
A demanding career gets in the way of marriage and having kids for many actors and actors, including 57-year-old Tomei. The closest she’s come to being a mom may have been playing Pete Davidson’s in King of Staten Island—but she is also a godmother to a name you’ll recognize.
Skipping a conventional family life is not as rare as some think. There’s a growing list of celebrities that have made the same decision.
Marisa Tomei’s net worth
Looking at Tomei’s accomplishments, it’s no surprise that Tomei’s net worth is $25 million, Celebrity Net Worth reports.
Clearly, her acting career was always a priority—and she probably never even had the time to give the idea of marriage and kids a second thought.
For many, her most memorable film will always be My Cousin Vinny (1992). She won her first and only Academy Award for playing the outspoken character with the charming accent, Mona Lisa Vito.
More recently, Tomei gained a whole new group of younger fans as a young Aunt May in the Spider-Man franchise, appearing in—Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).
Tomei went on to earn two more Academy Award nominations, IMDb reports, for “Best Actress in a Supporting Role.” These nominations were for In the Bedroom (2001) and the dark drama The Wrestler (2008), where she felt ‘crazy” due to a grueling production schedule.
Tomei’s other film credits include What Women Want (2000); Happy Accidents (2000); Slums of Beverly Hills (1998); Welcome to Sarajevo (1997); Untamed Heart (1993)—and many more.
Much earlier, and before her movie career took off, Tomei was Maggie Lauten on Season 1 of the Cosby spinoff sitcom, A Different World in 1986. Lisa Bonet starred as Denise Huxtable, Lauten’s roommate. Fun fact: Bonet left the show before Season 2 when she was pregnant with Zoe Kravitz—and Tomei is Zoe’s godmother.
Why Marisa Tomei hasn’t married or had kids
So what did Tomei say about why she never wanted to get married or have kids? She said she’s “not that big a fan of marriage as an institution,” and she “doesn’t know why women need to have children to be seen as complete human beings,” Yahoo reports.
One of Tomei’s close friends told Closer Weekly, “[Marriage] wasn’t something she ever truly pursued — even in her twenties. Work has really been her life force.”
Despite not making marriage and kids a goal, Tomei hasn’t avoided dating. She met Robert Downey Jr. in the early ’90s, and sources say the two briefly dated, and remain friends. It was Downey Jr. who helped Tomei land the role of Aunt May. The character made an appearance before the latest Spider-Man film, in Captain America: Civil War (2016).
Tomei’s past relationships include dating Frank Pugliese, a television writer and artistic director, for approximately three years, beginning in 2001. From 2006 to 2008, Tomei’s relationship with Nicholas Carpenter, a director, and producer, made headlines, according to The List.
Tomei’s list of beaus continues—she was often photographed with actor Josh Radnor, star of How I Met Your Mother, from 2013 to 2014, which the Daily Mail covered. Her last known relationship was with playwright Marco Calvani, from 2017 to 2019.
Tomei’s stance on marriage & kids isn’t so rare among celebrities
It’s not all that uncommon in showbiz for highly successful women to be childless. Like Tomei, many celebrities have decided to focus on their careers—and pets—instead of making marriage and kids priorities.
Celebrities who made the decision include Jennifer Anniston, Miley Cyrus, Dolly Parton, Tracee Ellis Ross, Winona Ryder, Betty White, Christopher Walken, Oprah Winfrey, and many more.
Jennifer Aniston says the pressure put on women is unfair. She told Allure:
“I don’t like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women—that you’ve failed yourself as a female because you haven’t procreated … You may not have a child come out of your vagina, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t mothering—dogs, friends, friends’ children. This continually is said about me: that I was so career-driven and focused on myself; that I don’t want to be a mother, and how selfish that is.”
And if you think that anyone who decides not to have kids will regret it, the late Betty White never did. She told CBS Sunday Morning:
“No, I’ve never regretted it. I’m so compulsive about stuff. I know that if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would’ve been my whole focus. But I didn’t choose to have children because I’m focused on my career, and I don’t think as compulsive as I am that I could manage both.”
