This Singer ‘Wasn’t Prepared’ for Empty Nester Feelings

Published: April 20, 2026

By Michaela Gordoni

Singer Deborah Cox, a mom of three teens, isn’t prepared to let go of her babies just yet.

“I still have a senior at home, so I know by June, she’ll be off,” Cox told Women’s World. “It’s very difficult, very challenging when they’re around you in the home. I think it’s a little easier to guide.”

When they aren’t around, it isn’t easy.

“And that part, I wasn’t prepared,” she said.

In 2024, Cox wrote, “My first baby girl just graduated from high school. I’m so proud of you. Homeschooled junior and sophomore year, had no friends, no confidence not knowing how the outcome would be…then 4 scholarships later and many choices of schools to go to… you are headed to university in NY just shy of your 18th bday.”

In 2008, Cox said she “wouldn’t recommend being a mother to anybody that doesn’t like to share…to share their self, share their time, share everything because it really is what you have to do when you become a mother.” She said she “always wanted a big family but it is a lot of work” and to “have a career and have a family, [that] it takes a lot out of you…Sometimes things have to take a back seat while we take care of the kids, putting their needs first.”

At the time, she was pregnant with her third child. She and her husband took pride in the fact that they raised their kids without a nanny.

“We’ve got an amazing support system with our family; my mother-in-law comes and spends time. We wouldn’t be able to do that and give these kids some sort of stability if we were not selfless,” Cox said.

Her children have helped inspire her music.

“I think my experience – just in understanding that I am now responsible for these two, making sure that their lives are full and everything, I think that part of it has been put into the music,” she said.

“I have this knack for coming up with these really fun melodies like the ‘brush your teeth song,’ the ‘getting ready to go to bed song,’ all these songs that I kind of come up with to get them to do something because you have to make it fun for kids,” she said.

She’s also prioritized her children having frequent physical activity.

“I absolutely believe in getting your kids involved in extracurricular activities because that’s how I grew up, in dance classes, judo and karate,” she said. “Even though we’re all girls, we did everything. I really thank my parents for exposing us to so many different activities.”

Along with parenting teens, one of Cox’s most recent accomplishments is her return to Broadway in the musical “Titanique.”

She said of the opportunity, “From singing behind the iconic Céline Dion to now channeling that same big magic on Broadway as the Unsinkable Molly Brown in Titanique is thrilling! Life truly has a way of bringing things around in the most beautiful way.”

Questions or comments? Please write to us here.