Sandra Bullock revealed the extreme measures she took to protect her newborn son Louis from the paparazzi after her then-husband Jesse James’ cheating scandal broke.
The Practical Magic 2 star, 62, reflected on the madness that surrounded her in 2010 while chatting with Jennifer Aniston, 57, for a new profile in Interview magazine.
Bullock recalled how she at one point put Louis — whom she secretly adopted in late 2009 — in a hockey bag to hide him from photographers.
“I was just cleaning out the closet and I found these hockey bags to put clothes in for travel,” said the star, who posed for some glamorous photos in the magazine’s September issue.
“Child Protective Services, don’t come after me,” she joked, before sharing, “When the poop hit the fan in front of me, then, we know what that is, I realized I had to get out of the house because the paparazzi were going to descend, and no one knew I had a newborn.”
“So I put him in his car carrier, put him in the hockey bag and zipped the hockey bag around him,” she said. ‘Then I carried the hockey bag to the car, as if I had just any hockey bag with me.’
Sandra Bullock, 62, revealed the extreme measures she took to protect her newborn son Louis from the paparazzi in a new profile for Interview magazine
Bullock recalled putting Louis in a hockey bag to hide him from photographers after her then-husband Jesse James’ cheating scandal broke in 2010; Seen with James in 2010
The actress – whose partner Bryan Randall died in 2023 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – noted that as a famous person you “have to operate like the CIA” before talking about how someone close to her recently “broke her heart” by selling information about her.
“If you’re surrounded by good people, you’ll be fine. But if people around you mean you are causing harm, no matter how secretive you are and how much planning you do, your privacy is information that makes them money. I experienced it recently and it broke my heart.”
Bullock’s marriage to West Coast Choppers founder James, which began in 2005, imploded following news of his 2010 infidelity with tattooed model Michelle ‘Bombshell’ McGee, leading to their divorce that same year.
In April 2010, James checked himself into an Arizona rehab center for sex addiction after apologizing profusely to Bullock, although that wasn’t enough to save the marriage – they divorced the following June.
In her latest interview, Bullock also spoke about prioritizing Louis, 16, and her daughter Laila, 12 — whom she welcomed via adoption in 2015 — over her career.
‘If the children can’t be with me, I won’t go. The older they get, the bigger their schedules. And their schedules are more important than me telling a story, period.”
‘I don’t have that same drive to be in front of the camera. I get my satisfaction from the preparation, the building of it, instead of the “Hey, I’m an actor and look what I’ve done.” That actually scares me because then the judgment will come,” she added.
“But unless the kids are with me, I’m lost, and I have to figure that out, because kids always have to go. Louis is leaving the house soon,” she continued.
“I put him in his car carrier, put him in the hockey bag and zipped the hockey bag around him. Then I carried the hockey bag to the car, like I just had a random hockey bag with me,” she said; Seen with Louis in 2011
The actress, who posed for a number of glamorous photos, noted that as a famous person you “have to operate like the CIA” before telling how someone close to her recently “broke her heart” by selling information about her.
The star also spoke about prioritizing Louis, 16, and her daughter Laila, 12, over her career, saying: ‘If the kids can’t be with me, I’m not going’
Bullock added that she had to prepare “for the fact that I won’t have a job as a mother anymore” when her children leave home
In her latest interview, the actress posed in a number of avant-garde looks, including a short Bottega Veneta fur coat
She also rocked a blue Bottega Veneta jacket and shoes in another moody photo
After Aniston asked if Bullock wanted to make another movie right away, the actress said, “No, I’m so burned.”
“And by the time we’re done with the press, the kids will be in school. The rule is that everything I do has to be here in LA. If anything needs to travel, it will happen in the summer,” she continued.
Bullock added that she had to start preparing “for not having a job as a mom anymore” when her children leave home, by rebuilding her social life and having “more fun” outside of work.
Aniston joked that these days, “kids don’t really leave.”
“I pray that will happen,” Bullock replied. “I keep saying, ‘We’ll keep this house. I’ll do the laundry. You can stay here.’
After Aniston joked that “they’ll all come back,” Bullock said that likely wouldn’t be the case for her daughter.
“Not Layla. If she could be emancipated now, she would be gone. She just needs a small apartment downtown.”
Bullock went on to say that her daughter would probably make a good “horror film director.”
“She loves the Scream movies. Four years ago she directed a small film that she wrote in the backyard. It was so good. And then she will also become a Formula 1 driver.’
Bullock also said her latest film project, Practical Magic 2, is a “love letter to Laila.”
“My daughter looks a lot like Kylie, the character that Joey King plays, and you know Laila, she is the fire,” she said, while Aniston called the teen a “Wild Child.”
‘I wanted to give her a love letter expressing my regret. If I have failed, if I don’t know how to say the right thing, I apologize. I just want to do the right thing for her, help her be as brave as she already is, and that scares the hell out of me. I’m an anxious person,” she said, adding that her daughter “isn’t.”
“She thinks nothing can happen to her because she already survived.”
Bullock’s marriage to James imploded after news of his 2010 infidelity with model Michelle ‘Bombshell’ McGee, which led to their divorce that same year; McGee seen in 2012
Bullock adopted Louis in late 2009 before welcoming Laila in 2015, also via adoption; Seen with her children in a photo on social media
Aniston agreed that Laila is “a survivor,” adding, “and that got into her neural pathways at a very young age.”
Bullock added that having a daughter has helped her learn more about who her own mother was.
“I look up and say, ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you felt lost. I didn’t know you longed for something you knew you would never have. I didn’t know you didn’t have the blessings we have as modern women.’ “I’m a very anxious person, and I try not to let my anxiety clip the wings of the kids who I know are just flying.”
Bullock jokingly added, “I told them, ‘I’m just going to follow you everywhere. It’s you for me. I have nothing else. I need to find my purpose outside of stupid kids.”
In her latest interview, the actress posed in a number of avant-garde looks, including an oversized black Loewe coat and a plaid dress on the cover.
In another portrait, her model wore an extravagant Saint Laurent coat with a fur collar. There was also a moody photo of her in a short Bontega Veneta fur coat, with painted black cats surrounding her.
Bullock’s new film, Practical Magic 2, will be released in theaters on September 10.
