Leighton Meester calls being a working mother the ‘ultimate guilt’

The actor shares two kids with her husband, Adam Brody

Adam Brody and Leighton Meester in 2019 (Getty)

Leighton Meester has said being a working mother is the “ultimate guilt”.

The former Gossip Girl actor, 35, who shares two children with actor husband Adam Brody, 42, added that being away from her children while she works “doesn’t seem to get better”.

Meester is the star of the new Netflix film The Weekend Away, which dropped on the streaming platform last week.

Speaking to ET, Meester said: “I’ve been thinking maybe it would [get easier], but it doesn’t. And now I’ve really doubled up on this kid thing. So it’s kind of, it’s a double whammy of like, ‘Well, there’s a baby now and he seems like he needs me’.”

Meester and Brody share a six-year-old daughter called Arlo and a son who was born in 2020. The notoriously private pair haven’t disclosed their son’s name publicly.

Meester continued: “Working is the ultimate guilt [because] I want to be here, I’m having fun.

“Of course, I think it’s good all around, but this world, our society, everything, it doesn’t really give us a lot of space for feeling whole on either end, and feeling good about going to work, or leaving our kids, or being with them. We can’t do that either.”

The Weekend Away is set in Croatia and Meester says while her whole family were with her for the first two weeks of filming, Brody and their daughter went back to the US for the remainder of the time as Brody had a filming commitment over there.

“I was separated from both of them for a month, which was longer than I’d ever been away from them. It wasn’t OK. It was not cool,” Meester added.

The film is a thriller and sees Meester play new mother Beth, who is visiting her friend in Croatia for a weekend away. When Beth’s friend goes missing, Beth has to piece together what happened to her.

On her character, Meester said: “She’s a new mum. She’s kind of gone through a very recent and insane transformation, as all mothers typically do. Where your marriage has changed, your body’s changed, your friendships, your life, your career.

“And so she’s like, ‘I’m going to go on this nice little vacation.’ And it doesn’t exactly happen as she wants it to happen.”