Courtney B. Vance Reflects on Empty Nesting with Angela Bassett
The couple’s 18-year-old son, Slater Josiah Vance, and daughter, Bronwyn Golden Vance, are twins.
Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance understood how to handle being empty nesters.
In an interview with The Talk on Tuesday, October 22, the 64-year-old actor talked candidly about how empty nesting has been for him and his wife, Angela Bassett, 66, who earlier this year sent their 18-year-old twins, son Slater Josiah and daughter Bronwyn Golden, off to college. The father of two explains that their children had a “grueling schedule” in high school, “so when they were home, they really were grinding in their rooms.”
Little did Vance know that Bassett had a plan following college drop-off day. “When we came home from dropping them off, Angela grabbed my hand,” he begins. “I said, ‘Where are we going, baby?’ She said, ‘Come on.'”
“So we went into their bedrooms and just stood there,” he continues, adding that the two stood silently and momentarily looked around each kid’s bedroom. “Then she said, ‘Ok, I’m good,’ ” he recalls of Bassett, adding, “And it is good!”
Vance shares that the twins are busy and booked, adding, “I was just texting Bronwyn, and Slater was supposed to come home for his mid-fall break.”
“No, Daddy, Mommy, I’m going to go to New York and hang out with some of my friends there,” Vance remembers after Slater surprised his parents by calling them. The delighted father then urged his son to keep his sister informed about his ambitions.
“They’re only two hours apart from each other, but there’s no excuse not to be in touch,” he says.
Vance continued by expressing his pride in his children, Bassett, and himself for raising them.
“We worked really, really hard, and you do the best you can,” he continues. “When people say to us, ‘Your kids are very well mannered and they are very polite,’ I say, ‘They better be.'”
